Calvin it can wait til you go out next time lol 
UPDATE on Pond cycle
- Thread starter Calvin
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Gonna hit the gym! Home Depot is a couple streets down!Calvin it can wait til you go out next time lol
JohnHuff
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is there a way to measure the pond at variable depths with that or does it measure the top or the bottom or what?I use one of these to measure water temp. It's an IR laser gun, about $20.
I'll try to explain all this to you in laymans terms Cavin my friend ,the way the Cycle works is Calvin is in the pond you get fish waste uneaten food if you have dead plants or algae is decomposed by that which we call the Nitrogen Cycle .
This involves the breaking down of your fishes waste into Ammonia or Amommoniun Nitrite each stage of this has to be broken down by bacteria in the precence of oxygen ok.
Next the first stage of this whole process is the formation of toxic Ammonia .
Ammonia and Ammonium are each easily converted into the other with the relative ammounts of each are dependent on Ph , the higher the Ph that which is greater than a Ph of 8.5 the water will contain large amounts of Ammonia at a lower Ph it will be mainly Ammonium but a concentration of 0.01to 0.02 ppm could be harmful to your koi but if your pond Ph is less say at 8.0 this level wont be reached still with me on this
.Next Ammonia is converted into Nitrite by Nitrosomonas bacteria now Nitrites are less toxic than that of Ammonia but if possible your pond should be kept at bellow that of 0,2 mg of water per litre of water if above this level it should indicate to you that there is a breakdown in you biofilter .
Nitrite is finally converted to Ntitrate by Nitrobacter bacteria and the nitrate is broken down by algae and plants in the water .
Once the Ammonia has spiked you will see a then gradual decrease
.Look out for the Nitrite spike a gradual decrease and keep an eye on the Nitrate and then when all is finished your pond is cycled.
Your going to also have to keep an eye on the Gh and Kh of your pond so your future readings will be Ammonia, Nitrite ,Nitrate, Ph, Gh, Kh . Gh is general hardness of your pond and Kh is Carbonate hardness .
Important this isnt the end of the story pond and filter maintenance are an absolute must, as are regular water changes .
take weekly water perameter readings ammonia, nirite, nitrrate, Ph Gh and Kh
As Maggie says or if you want to keep a permanent eye on things like we do then buy a swimming pool thermometer and remote readout we have the readout sat on our mantle where we can keep a weather eye on the temperature especially when our koi are tucked up and under policarbonate sheeting durng the winter months .
We also have a weather station giving us both air and barametric pressure readings which are important as air temperature is relative to water temperature , we can also see if we are in for sun wind rain hail or snow .
We are acctaully thinking of getting a weather station that takes that does all of the above plus wind speed and direction amount of rainfall etc .
This is a throwback to my Royal Naval days when we did weather watching everyday.
Dave
I see... Thanks for the facts! I needed to know better haha I sure did read every single post and page on it . But doesn't hurt to know more! A lot of my fish seem to be flashing. Not excessively but once and awhile.. Ammonia still kicking in.I'll try to explain all this to you in laymans terms Cavin my friend ,the way the Cycle works is Calvin is in the pond you get fish waste uneaten food if you have dead plants or algae is decomposed by that which we call the Nitrogen Cycle .
This involves the breaking down of your fishes waste into Ammonia or Amommoniun Nitrite each stage of this has to be broken down by bacteria in the precence of oxygen ok.
Next the first stage of this whole process is the formation of toxic Ammonia .
Ammonia and Ammonium are each easily converted into the other with the relative ammounts of each are dependent on Ph , the higher the Ph that which is greater than a Ph of 8.5 the water will contain large amounts of Ammonia at a lower Ph it will be mainly Ammonium but a concentration of 0.01to 0.02 ppm could be harmful to your koi but if your pond Ph is less say at 8.0 this level wont be reached still with me on this
Next Ammonia is converted into Nitrite by Nitrosomonas bacteria now Nitrites are less toxic than that of Ammonia but if possible your pond should be kept at bellow that of 0,2 mg of water per litre of water if above this level it should indicate to you that there is a breakdown in you biofilter .
Nitrite is finally converted to Ntitrate by Nitrobacter bacteria and the nitrate is broken down by algae and plants in the water .
Once the Ammonia has spiked you will see a then gradual decrease
Look out for the Nitrite spike a gradual decrease and keep an eye on the Nitrate and then when all is finished your pond is cycled.
Your going to also have to keep an eye on the Gh and Kh of your pond so your future readings will be Ammonia, Nitrite ,Nitrate, Ph, Gh, Kh . Gh is general hardness of your pond and Kh is Carbonate hardness .
Important this isnt the end of the story pond and filter maintenance are an absolute must, as are regular water changes .
take weekly water perameter readings ammonia, nirite, nitrrate, Ph Gh and Kh
As Maggie says or if you want to keep a permanent eye on things like we do then buy a swimming pool thermometer and remote readout we have the readout sat on our mantle where we can keep a weather eye on the temperature especially when our koi are tucked up and under policarbonate sheeting durng the winter months .
We also have a weather station giving us both air and barametric pressure readings which are important as air temperature is relative to water temperature , we can also see if we are in for sun wind rain hail or snow .
We are acctaully thinking of getting a weather station that takes that does all of the above plus wind speed and direction amount of rainfall etc .
This is a throwback to my Royal Naval days when we did weather watching everyday.
Dave
Temperature is I believe around the 80's. Not sure how long it should sit in there.
I'll try to explain all this to you in laymans terms Cavin my friend ,the way the Cycle works is Calvin is in the pond you get fish waste uneaten food if you have dead plants or algae is decomposed by that which we call the Nitrogen Cycle .
This involves the breaking down of your fishes waste into Ammonia or Amommoniun Nitrite each stage of this has to be broken down by bacteria in the precence of oxygen ok.
Next the first stage of this whole process is the formation of toxic Ammonia .
Ammonia and Ammonium are each easily converted into the other with the relative ammounts of each are dependent on Ph , the higher the Ph that which is greater than a Ph of 8.5 the water will contain large amounts of Ammonia at a lower Ph it will be mainly Ammonium but a concentration of 0.01to 0.02 ppm could be harmful to your koi but if your pond Ph is less say at 8.0 this level wont be reached still with me on this
Next Ammonia is converted into Nitrite by Nitrosomonas bacteria now Nitrites are less toxic than that of Ammonia but if possible your pond should be kept at bellow that of 0,2 mg of water per litre of water if above this level it should indicate to you that there is a breakdown in you biofilter .
Nitrite is finally converted to Ntitrate by Nitrobacter bacteria and the nitrate is broken down by algae and plants in the water .
Once the Ammonia has spiked you will see a then gradual decrease
Look out for the Nitrite spike a gradual decrease and keep an eye on the Nitrate and then when all is finished your pond is cycled.
Your going to also have to keep an eye on the Gh and Kh of your pond so your future readings will be Ammonia, Nitrite ,Nitrate, Ph, Gh, Kh . Gh is general hardness of your pond and Kh is Carbonate hardness .
Important this isnt the end of the story pond and filter maintenance are an absolute must, as are regular water changes .
take weekly water perameter readings ammonia, nirite, nitrrate, Ph Gh and Kh
As Maggie says or if you want to keep a permanent eye on things like we do then buy a swimming pool thermometer and remote readout we have the readout sat on our mantle where we can keep a weather eye on the temperature especially when our koi are tucked up and under policarbonate sheeting durng the winter months .
We also have a weather station giving us both air and barametric pressure readings which are important as air temperature is relative to water temperature , we can also see if we are in for sun wind rain hail or snow .
We are acctaully thinking of getting a weather station that takes that does all of the above plus wind speed and direction amount of rainfall etc .
This is a throwback to my Royal Naval days when we did weather watching everyday.
Dave
UPDATE..
Ammonia dropped close to 0.. I'd say .10 or .05 it's close to 0.. Two days ago it was .50 follow day .25 this morning .25 now close to 0.. I need to check on nitrite..
I'm wondering was it possible that the spike was the 0 to .50? Because that's the highest it's been and it's dropping drastically.
If you have a low fish load it is possible the ammonia level may never have gotten high.
Haha no.... I have 17 KOI 1 goldfish and 1 pleco...
OH gosh Calvin I did not realize you had that many fish LOL! Hopefully most of them are still small! Seems like your tank is progressing. It does seem like your ammonia is staying low and even being processed since you have nitrite now so I think your fish will be fine.
Yes.. Majority small. A couple I'll say almost Adult size. How come my ammonia staying low? Was is possible for it to only spike to .50?
Some still seem irritated by the cycle.
Well you do have 1500 gallons of water right? That will dilute a good amount of ammonia. If they are small fish, they aren't producing much ammonia.
Okay this is the sizing. 2 10in Koi, about 6 7-8 inch, 9 3-5 inch.
One goldfish I can't catch out. And a 3-4 inch pleco.
sissy
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I have 13 fish for almost 4000 gallons but 2 of my koi are around 2 ft and I have 2 filters on each end of the pond .Koi really produce a lot of waste and I only feed mine 3 or 4 times a week