Newbie To Koi Keeping advice needed

[dplovin]

Good evening.

I've had a small pond keeping goldfish for quite some time now and decided to build a raised sleeper pond for koi in the summer last year.

I have had the pond up and running around 4/5 months now with 6 Koi.

I've been doing weekly water changes but lately I'm finding I'm having to do it more regularly to keep the ammonia down as I've been having troubles ammonia wise.

have i been going over the top on the water changes early on instead of letting my bio/bacteria build up to combat this ?

as my ammonia was high I've been doing a 10% water change everyday and it has come down each time to the following results now, not perfect but better.
shall i keep doing the water changes to rid of Ammonia and add beneficial bacteria each time ?

PH - 8.0
Ammonia - 0.25
Nitrite - 0.0
Nitrate - 5.0
Phosphate - 5.0

tested using API 500 pond master kit

Any advice/tips moving forward would be much appreciated.

Pond details as follows, raised sleeper pond 4600 litres.

evolution aqua vari pump
evolution aqua eazypod
30 wat UV
Waterfall with mountain tree Lotus root and spiral filter matting inside

Picture attached

 

[Lisak1]

You have too many fish.

 

[j.w]

@dplovin
Your problems are due to a small pond w/koi that are gonna grow, grow, grow and make a mess! Now if the koi are still very small then that would not be the problem now but will be later for sure! One koi needs like 500 gals!

 

[mrsclem]

I don't know how large your 6 koi are but they produce a huge amount of waste. Your pond could handle 1-2 koi. Also, don't know how much you are feeding them but I would cut back.

 

[Tula]

There are some serious koi keepers who over stock their ponds but they are " over filtered" as well . If the ammonia levels continue to be an issue, you'll need to think about more filtration, both mechanical and biological, or reduce the number of fish in your pond.

 

[GBBUDD]

I was never sold on the nexus and when I saw the owner pull one out to place a nano bead filter. That spoke volumes in my opinion. If I was going to have a uv I would definitely not place it on the feed line coming into the filter before any filtering was done. When the bulbs get dirty they do less and less. If it was filtered first and then when to the uv it would run at full capacity. The floating beds are pretty good as they churn they get o2 and help the bacteria to thrive. But a filter that costs right around a grand can only do 2000g I spent 3k on my nano bead and it's good to 23000g.

Looking at your feature it looks like you could place a bakki shower above your waterfall as it already looks like one. Without the multiple levels.

Your ammonia and nitrates are high. That does indicate your mechanicle isn't pulling enough waste out, or your in need of more biological.