Relined due to leak & now ammonia is spiking & fish look affected by it

[Meyer Jordan]

It's good that your nitrite is zero, but it still needs to be monitored daily, along with ammonia.

This is very important. In the normal cycling of a new pond Ammonia will spike first. As the Ammonia level drops, the Nitrite level will begin increasing until it spikes and abates, at which time the Nitrate level will increase. Nitrite is, at least, as toxic as Ammonia so this level should also be closely monitored.
Below is a generalized chart of this process, time and levels will vary with individual ponds.

 

[Mattie]

Thanks for all the help, everyone. For max aeration, should I get a second aerator for more aeration and/or I have a back up pump, usually just use it for water changes. I could put it in the pond and put the hose so its flowing back into the pond and creating splash BUT it tends to warm up if I use it for a long time as I did when the leak first started and got below the skimmer level and I don't want to raise the water temp.

 

[Mattie]

Meyer, I'm really hoping to see those nitrites and then nitrates. I will keep monitoring and posting with the hopes that you all will help guide me through this. I've been reading all I can for weeks now (no knowing I'd need to know this all so soon), but it's really confusing to reconcile all the different info out there. So thanks again all.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

I would say that between the waterfall and the current aerator you have sufficient aeration. Keep monitoring and testing and posting the results. We will do our best to guide you through this dilemma..

 

[MitchM]

Agreed, sometimes all you can do is wait.

 

[Mattie]

Ok, going off to wait out the night. Will check back in in the morning. Thanks all.

 

[Mattie]

Good morning all. Here are this morning's levels (below). Once again, grateful for any help. All three fish are moving slowly, hovering a lot, and two of them are also occasionally flashing. They are still aware of their surroundings though; they rush to the bottom when I come. I'm planning on building a DIY fish sock today for the event that I have to move them. Predicted temps next 3 days are also listed below. Can my filter even establish itself at these temps and time of year when usually bacteria start to die off with the cooler temps? And how do I get my fish through the temp spike coming Sunday-Tuesday since it will make the ammonia worse?:

-59 day/42 night & sunny today
-69/48 partly cloudy
-76/53 sunny
-with temps moving from mid-70s to high 50s over following week

7 a.m. readings with API drop kit:
Temp 60 F
ph 7.8
ammonia 1 ppm
nitrite 0 ppm
nitrate 0 ppm

7:30 a.m. readings with API test strip:
ph between 6.5 and 7
Kh ~40
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

 

[MitchM]

Good morning Mattie.
I would add some more Prime, enough to bring the dosage up to the recommended amount for your pond volume.

The biofilm in your pond will develop appropriately for this time of year.
The biofilm is your most important filter right now, and it covers all submerged surfaces, including the filter media.

 

[MitchM]

Mattie, have you taken any phosphate readings?
The reason I ask is that a higher phosphate reading would encourage algae growth which would be healthy for your pond at this point.

 

[Mattie]

Mitch, When you say appropriate level for you pond do you mean the per gallon amount to condition it in normal conditions or the emergency dose for ammonia binding. Here are the directions. As noted, I believe the pond is 900 gallons, though the previous owners told me it was 450. No idea if it's cause or correlation, but the flashing didn't start until about 6 hours after I added a half cup of Prime.

SEACHEM POND PRIME DIRECTIONS: Use 1/8 cup (2 tablespoons) for each 600 - 700 gallons for removing chlorine or chloramine. To detoxify high concentrations of ammonia or nitrite, use 1/4 to 1/2 cup for each 600 gallons. Sulfur odor is normal.

For exceptionally high chloramine concentrations, a double application may be used safely. To detoxify nitrite in an emergency, up to 5 times the normal treatment may be used. If temperature is > 86°F (30°C) and chlorine or ammonia levels are low, use a half treatment.

 

[Mattie]

I will go to the pet store and see if I can find a Phosphate kit. If phosphate is low, is there something I can safely add to increase the phosphate level?

 

[MitchM]

No, the food that you have fed the fish will have already added phosphorous to the pond.
Plus any leaves that fall in the pond will add phosphorous.
The algae will serve as food for the fish, and will feed off the ammonia.
If you had the API master test kit, it would have come with a phosphate test kit.
Because your pond is so new, monitoring the chemical levels provides pretty valuable information.
Once the biofilm develops and an algae population takes hold, the pond will look after itself for the most part.

 

[MitchM]

Mitch, When you say appropriate level for you pond do you mean the per gallon amount to condition it in normal conditions or the emergency dose for ammonia binding. Here are the directions. As noted, I believe the pond is 900 gallons, though the previous owners told me it was 450. No idea if it's cause or correlation, but the flashing didn't start until about 6 hours after I added a half cup of Prime.

SEACHEM POND PRIME DIRECTIONS: Use 1/8 cup (2 tablespoons) for each 600 - 700 gallons for removing chlorine or chloramine. To detoxify high concentrations of ammonia or nitrite, use 1/4 to 1/2 cup for each 600 gallons. Sulfur odor is normal.

For exceptionally high chloramine concentrations, a double application may be used safely. To detoxify nitrite in an emergency, up to 5 times the normal treatment may be used. If temperature is > 86°F (30°C) and chlorine or ammonia levels are low, use a half treatment.

Prime can't be reasonably overdosed, so make your best estimate for the pond volume, normal conditions, and dose for that.
PH, water temperature and KH values are important right now. Your KH value is a bit on the low side, so your pond does not have a lot of buffering capacity at this point. Low buffering capacity can lead to PH swings which are stressful for your fish.
The cool temperatures and lower PH value is a good thing. Cooler water contains more oxygen. As the bacteria population and activity increases, they require oxygen, that's why maximum aeration and water movement are important.

 

[Mattie]

Editing my last post since our posts crossed. Ok, will dose for 600 g in normal conditions. I'm treating the pond as roughly 600 to 650 to split the difference between my calculations (900g) and what previous owners said (450g). It's kidney bean shaped with a range of depth, so it's tough to be sure. I'll do a bunch of measurements today tough to try to get the most accurate volume. I was slowly trying to raise KH with small additions of baking soda every 48 hours prior to the relining as the pond was 0 Kh when I got it and there was a ph crash after a big rain storm. But I'm afraid to try to raise Kh right now because Ph will follow and make the ammonia more toxic. Does that make sense?

 

[MitchM]

Yes, that makes sense.
We're kind of starting to split hairs at this point and the test kits only show an approximate value . The actual number is not all that important. Any trend in the test numbers is what we're looking for.
I wondered why your PH had not moved all that much from yesterday, so if you have been adding baking soda, that makes sense.
Like I said before, your fish need water stability, lets aim for that at this point.