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I want to second JasPR's "outrageous ammonia assault technique" and indicate that is what I use and have recommended to others.
When fish are not present in the pond you can chemically introduce a measured amount of ammonia using 10% concentrated pure commercial liquid ammonia that is usually readily available at Ace hardware. Add just enough pure ammonia to drive the water to register at 1.0 mg/l and then wait for you bio filter to mature to a level that will take it back to near zero. Test for nitritites to see if you get some spike. Then add double the original ammount of ammonia and wait for it to go back to near zero. Test for nitrites and then wait for it to go back to near zero and technically you can be sure the pond loading capacity is ready to add fish with little or no expected bio stress.
Once you have determined your ammonia loading volume you can ratio and calculate what it takes to drive a smale spike of 0.25mg/L in your pond volume. A moderate to good functioning biofilter system can eliminate a 0.25mg/L spike in under 8 hours even when fish are present.
Salt at approximately 2ppt is still a good idea when adding quantities of new fish to a pond even when NH3/NH4 and NO2 are already confirmed to be in check. Somewhere in this forum there is a fairly good summary thread on "Salt . . ." that reemphasizes these points.
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