Pond water & Tap water

[Merlin]

As explained to Jackie I have never tested my tap water . Today I have tested both the Pond and the tap water .

Pond
Amonia 0.1 ( just cant seem to get it to zero)
PH 7.8 t0 8.5 ( somewhere in the middle)
Nitrite 0.1 ( once again where I normaly find it )
Nitrate 75mg/l ( this has shot up again despite a 20% water change 4 days ago)

Tap

Amonia 0
PH 7.0 ( I would have thought this would have been a lot higher ) ?
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 25mg/l ( now this I did not expect to find, is this normal ?)

[Terri]

Tap water: Merlin how long did you let the tap water sit before testing for pH?
NitrAte... this again doesn't surprise me, the UK is known for having trace nitrate levels, + or - depending on where you live. It does have to be with in acceptable human consumption levels as with anything else. Problem as you've found is that when you do a water change you "are" removing some nA but you are also putting some back...

Pond: Ammonia and NitrIte, the only acceptable level is "0". Merlin if you please, recap your pond info - mainly looking at stocking rate(how many and what size) and total gallons(including filter), what filter and what turnover rate per hour. How much you feed per day. And please post your base line readings from before you started finding ammonia(generally when the pond/fish seemed "normal" ) Because you have seem to indicate that you have an ongoing nI level other than "0" do you keep salt in your pond?

[Jackie Ramo]

Well I am glad to see nitrates!!! not in the tap water butin the pond. Does show the filter is working. I'd say you may need to look at a TT for the pond. It will get rid of the last of the ammonia and nitrites and gas off the nitrates as well. This mostly because the ammonia is not getting to 0 and the tap water has nitrates in it.

I have a strawberry pot TT that works quite nicely and looks pretty in the pond but there are all kinds of them. They don't have to be ugly to be functional.

[Merlin]

Thanks Jackie I will look in to it at the weekend. I have decided that I need to thin out the ponds so have purchased a 586ltr bathing pool as a temporary holding area. I am going to have to drain both ponds to make it easier to catch the blighters. The smaller fish will go in to some large containers I have managed to obtain, while the larger guys will go in to the pool. Then a quick clean of both ponds and re-fill, hopefuly all done in a day. :)

I have someone that wants the two 22" Ghosts that I rescued and the three 8" Shubbies plus poss a couple of others, so thats a good start. They have a 4000 gallon pond but no fish . ( went over last night to check it out, had to make sure my babies were going to somewhere nice :) ).

I will photograph all of the fish before they go back in to the ponds, and the ones that are going and post them at a later date, it is gonna be a busy weekend.

[Jackie Ramo]

Lightening the fish load is good. 22 inches of fish is a large load!!!

Be sure to make all holding tanks secure and well areated..... in the shade etc. No old water goes back into the pond as it will have a high ammonia level from the fish.

Pics, we want lots of pics!!