tank to small!!!!!

[powerspec3]

Just finished koi pond. Been 3 days. My grandma just brought us 21 6"-8" kois. They are in an aquarium for now. 55 gallons. The tank had contained 20 goldfishes. they are currently in the pond. the tank is currently spiking of ammonia and nitrates and nitries. Did a 25% water change and added Prime. What else should i do to reduce them? I would like the pond to cycle before I add the kois. Other than seeding my pond, is there anything I can do to speed the pond's cycling up? Thanks for any asistance I can get.

BTW Is there any good sites about building ponds and raising kois? Can i use a u.v. light from a water purification system in the pond ?

[dick benbow]

welcome to the stressful world of water keeping. Your learning curve is well underway!

it usually takes 6 weeks to build up a filter to a starting point.

I would rather you had kept your goldfish in the aquarium and put the koi into the pond. You'd probably had more gallons to work with and less stress for your koi.

try and feed minimally with a wheatgerm product. you just want to sustain them
as you buy time for the filter to start.

by adding pieces of an existing filter to the new one or using a commercial starter in small doses daily, this will help. Continue to use a binder to control
your nitrate/nitrite.

stay away from the UV filter for now. You want all the good bugs to live happily in their new environment. Most newbees put on a UV and then declare how crystal their water is...( all the better to see the gaping holes in the side of their koi) because the water quality albeit clear is not up to par. Algea in the water simply tells you there is food there for it to eat, which by the way
is helping the situation of amonnia by consuming it and letting you know your filter is not doing it's job. To me to run a UV 24/7 is to put a bandaid on an infected wound to cover it up so you can't see the damage till it's too late.The situation needs treatment, not a cover up.....

I don't know if your pond has plants in it, but it wouldn't hurt to add one pound of non iodized rock salt ( no other additives) per 100 gallons.

If you feel you can't move the koi over to the pond continue to do water changes on a daily basis. Be sure the water added has no chlorine in it and try and pump in as much air as as you can...

this will probably be a very stressful period for both you and your koi. Try and learn as much as you can from it but don't get discouraged.

If a had a wish for you it would have been that you could have started your hobby in a less demanding situation..break you in slow. Keep your wits about you and good luck!

[butterfly]

Quote: Originally Posted by powerspec3 Just finished koi pond. Been 3 days. My grandma just brought us 21 6"-8" kois. They are in an aquarium for now. 55 gallons. The tank had contained 20 goldfishes. they are currently in the pond. the tank is currently spiking of ammonia and nitrates and nitries. Did a 25% water change and added Prime. What else should i do to reduce them? I would like the pond to cycle before I add the kois. Other than seeding my pond, is there anything I can do to speed the pond's cycling up? Thanks for any asistance I can get. BTW Is there any good sites about building ponds and raising kois? Can i use a u.v. light from a water purification system in the pond ?

In my pond, I use straight city water (perhaps good water in Voorhees, NJ) and I never had any problem with chlorine. I never lost a fish either. Essentially, I do not like to use any chemicals like chloramine etc. However, I use a small quantity (one lb per 1000 gallons) of iodide free salt. I also add pond-zyme plus made by PONDCARE. I last bought 8 oz for $12.00 from Petsmart. I only use approximate 2 oz every few weeks. I do have a Laguna UV sterilizer 24/7, Laguna skimmer/bio-filter and a half a dozen plants. I also have a backup sand filter. I have a 6000 gallon pond for about five years with approximately 20 large fishes: koi, comet, and two very large albino catfish. I do not have any floating algae.

My suggestion is to use some kind of biofilter and pond-zyme plus. Let the biofilter establish for a couple of weeks also the bacteria in pond-zyme, then add an UV for pond. Laguna system is cheap and worked quite well for my pond. Of course there are a lot of high tech systems(Bakke, bead-flter etc.) and chemicals. But in this board I read about lots of problem with water gardening. I wonder whether that is partly due to overuse of chemicals. I must admit that my five-years of water gardening experience is certainly not long enough. There are more experienced people here, they could give you alternative opinions. Good luck!!

[db reddragonfly]

Even a daily water change may not do the trick.If you can move even a few koi to the pond It will lighten the fish load in the aquarium. Yes alot of air and as much filteraton as you can set up.After my big pond was built (this was a few years back)I waited about a week to add my koi.Thats because I had to. 15 of them were living in a 1500 gal tank while the pond was rebuilt. They all did fine even though the new filters were not all cycled.I did watch the water quality very close. I currently have one koi in a 100 gl tank for QT reasons.Even with one koi ( about 8-10 inches) in a 100 gl still did a large water change once a week until it cycled due to high readings.

[Steve Nguyen]

Quote: Originally Posted by powerspec3 Just finished koi pond. Been 3 days. My grandma just brought us 21 6"-8" kois. They are in an aquarium for now. 55 gallons. The tank had contained 20 goldfishes. they are currently in the pond. the tank is currently spiking of ammonia and nitrates and nitries. Did a 25% water change and added Prime. What else should i do to reduce them? I would like the pond to cycle before I add the kois. Other than seeding my pond, is there anything I can do to speed the pond's cycling up? Thanks for any asistance I can get. BTW Is there any good sites about building ponds and raising kois? Can i use a u.v. light from a water purification system in the pond ?

why don't I get a grandma like that.

if you are feeding the koi, then stop feeding them and I meant stop completely. koi can go for days with no feeding.

you can add Microbe-Lift to the pond. it should help speed up the water condition. imo, if you add Microbe-Lift today, you can start to move some koi into the pond next day. I did that with my koi and they all live fine.

good luck!

[aquitori]

With winter slowly coming down the pike it will be hard to seed your filter naturally without helping it out. Like some have mentioned on this thread Microlift will be your best bet for a faster seeding process. I would cut back on the feeding for now so the fish produce less waste and add more air to the pond to maintain a healthier environment of the bacteria.

Quote: Originally Posted by powerspec3 Just finished koi pond. Been 3 days. My grandma just brought us 21 6"-8" kois. They are in an aquarium for now. 55 gallons. The tank had contained 20 goldfishes. they are currently in the pond. the tank is currently spiking of ammonia and nitrates and nitries. Did a 25% water change and added Prime. What else should i do to reduce them? I would like the pond to cycle before I add the kois. Other than seeding my pond, is there anything I can do to speed the pond's cycling up? Thanks for any asistance I can get. BTW Is there any good sites about building ponds and raising kois? Can i use a u.v. light from a water purification system in the pond ?