Question about adding Zyme

[ZEROPILOT]

The Fritz-zyme liquid is one of the few true products that contains the live Nitrifying bacteria. As the nab said: "It do work!"/

I just "fished" the bottle out of the garbage.
Sure enough....it's Fritz.
Thanks!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

use koi clay it is safer and regular kitty litter is similar but not as pure .I also use zeolite to control ammonia and crushed oyster shells to hold ph stable

I have crushed coral sachet bags in my cichlid aquariums and I'm going to ad one to my waterfall box.
Crushed coral is very cheap and easy to find here. My house is built on reclaimed Everglades swamp land.
My pond had gone slightly acidic for a few days. I don't know if it is due to rainwater, or something else. I added some baking soda and swapped out some water.

 

[sissy]

Baking soda makes it more acidic at least I think it does and can raise ph .I have seen it on here several times

 

[IPA]

Baking soda is alkaline, pH above 7, maybe as high as 9. I think it is used to buffer the water. @ZEROPILOT , did you test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate? I don't think it should be swinging for the size and be careful not to have a pH crash.

 

[MoonShadows]

I use FritzZyme® 7 when I started my pond and was able to add fish right away. I also add some whenever I clean the filter.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Baking soda is alkaline, pH above 7, maybe as high as 9. I think it is used to buffer the water. @ZEROPILOT , did you test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate? I don't think it should be swinging for the size and be careful not to have a pH crash.

My PH DID go off for a while.
What might have caused that?
Baking soda is super alkaline and I use it periodically in my fish tanks if the ph gets low before a water change.
It doesn't buffer too well, but it will raise alkalinity very quickly and lower acidity. Even too quickly if not careful.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Baking soda is alkaline, pH above 7, maybe as high as 9. I think it is used to buffer the water. @ZEROPILOT , did you test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate? I don't think it should be swinging for the size and be careful not to have a pH crash.

Yes.
I test every two days.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Baking soda makes it more acidic at least I think it does and can raise ph .I have seen it on here several times

It also gets rid of acid in the stomach if you wake up with heartburn.

 

[IPA]

My PH DID go off for a while.
What might have caused that?
Baking soda is super alkaline and I use it periodically in my fish tanks if the ph gets low before a water change.
It doesn't buffer too well, but it will raise alkalinity very quickly and lower acidity. Even too quickly if not careful.

First I should say water chemistry for me
Is still a lot of guess work. Do you use city water? Maybe it doesn't have much buffer in it? Maybe get a GH KH API test kit, cheep on amazon, dr foster smith and chewy. I read a lot of good things about using baking soda, but not necessarily by experts, to stabilize. I heard you could use plaster of Paris back in the day but that it isn't made the same and many brands on the market have harmful or undisclosed chemicals. I started using Tetra pond water balance, I don't know if it's good bad or useless but it is supposed to stabilize pH and KH. The primary ingredients are fruit acids and iron salts. I only add it when a do a good filter cleaning and water change. Probably something better out there.
I'm guessing all that concrete silt was keeping the water buffered and pH high so maybe why you are seeing it drop.

 

[MitchM]

use koi clay it is safer and regular kitty litter is similar but not as pure .I also use zeolite to control ammonia and crushed oyster shells to hold ph stable

Koi clay will help adsorb phosphate, which will help with hair/string algae issues.

Baking soda makes it more acidic at least I think it does and can raise ph .I have seen it on here several times

Baking soda makes it more alkaline, actually.

use koi clay it is safer and regular kitty litter is similar but not as pure .I also use zeolite to control ammonia and crushed oyster shells to hold ph stable

Crushed oyster shells are only effective once the PH drops below 7. Otherwise they remain in tact and ready to buffer the water chemistry.

Bottomline - baking soda, zeolite and crushed oyster shells are helpful additions to a freshwater pond.



Zeolite will eventually become useless and clog up with detritus, so don't leave it in if your ammonia levels are healthy.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I had not considered that by removing that layer of cement mortar silt with my pond vacuum that it would make my water more acidic.
The timing makes me think that that's what happened now.
I've raised the ph with baking soda and buffered it with crushed coral sachets in my waterfall box. I'd like to see it at 7.8 to 8.2.
Same as my fish tanks.
Alkaline.

 

[sissy]

But zeolite can be rinsed off and reused .I rinse mine in salt water like it says and then reuse it

 

[ZEROPILOT]

My wife bought me 8 more small koi and released them into the pond while I was away as a surprise.
I don't have the heart to tell her I wasn't ready yet.
So I went out and got the Jumbo, $75 bottle of Fritz zyme and poured it into my filter pump intake.
Fingers crossed.
And NO MORE FISH!
These will grow and fill out the pond nicely if I can manage to not kill them.

 

[IPA]

I am sold on oyster shells used to buffer the water. I found many post here promoting them searching for KH and water hardness. From what I have read, I believe if GH is a good bit higher the KH use baking soda or similar to equalize KH and GH.
From there it appears those using oyster shells don't have a large imbalance between KH and GH and do not need to continue to add baking soda and maintain a decent level of KH and more stable pH. I didn't do any research into zeolite which seems like a good buffer too.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

use koi clay it is safer and regular kitty litter is similar but not as pure .I also use zeolite to control ammonia and crushed oyster shells to hold ph stable

Although Koi Clay is well know for its efficacy as a prebiotic. it plays no real part in establishing the Nitrogen cycle. It is also neither more or less safe than Nitrifying bacteria.