New Pond in Winter & Ammonia

[Rich L]

Lots of good input here. most of the posters have been around for a long time. This is a good post for you to learn that, in many cases, we alll have differing opinions. But the posts you see are, in truth mostly, all acceptable.

I would make the switch now. The fish are so small they won't load up anything, particulally the unseeded filters. When they do srart up the output, due to low stocking, will be so slow the bugs should actually stay up with the ammonia buildup.

He will be treating for chlorine or chloramines so the minute left over treatment will handle the pond created ammonia with no problem. I agree with JR's post that he won't see a nitrite spike for a long time or not at all. The buildup due to the very small stocking will give even that cycle to grow.

As long as you still have the old tank in operation, drain the waste from the filters and add it to the new filters. That's even better than using another hobbyists bio for seeding.

Keep with the low stocking until the pond actually does start up then add small amounts of koi at a time so the bacterial colony won't be challenged as it develops to meet the load. We don't often see new ponds where the owner doesn't start adding expensive koi too soon. It's a good ides to buy cheap in the beginning so your learning curve doesn't break the bank.

What pond test kit are you using now?

[ootyboy]

Thanks everyone for the advice. The one common thread that I hear from all the comments here is that the bio seeding is not an issue until the water temp raises to about 60-70F. At this point I can keep a low fish load and try to be aware of Ammonia/Nitrate spike once feeding starts again, and the water temp rises.

What I don't find logical in all this dicussion is the need to wait for water temp to raise to 70F before adding fish? If the fish are currently generating small amounts of Ammonia is it not better that they do so in a much slower pace (no feeding) giving the bio filter a chance to catch up? If I start adding fish when the water is 70+ then I am going to shock the system, and cause more problems that if I add the fish in cold water and allow the bio filter to slowly ramp up.

My one other question here is that since my new pond does not have any algae buildup for the fish to eat, will this cause any problems for them? Should I try to feed them anything even in the cold to replace the missing algae?

As for the pond test kit that I use it is the one from Pondcare that has PH/Nitrate/Ammonia and Salt test included with a few small bottles for testing the water.

[B.Scott]

Ooty,
At lower temperatures, ammonia is LESS of a problem but not something you can ignore completely. It is a sliding scale and as the water warms the problem increases. This especially true if you have a high pH. As temperatures warm the amount of ammonia and nitrite toxicity will increase and stress the fish to death but the temperatures will still be too low for the filtration to come on line. This is why it is better to wait with adding fish until the water is a high enough temperature to allow the filter bacteria to propagate and do their job without the constraints of a temperature that impedes their growth.

The amount of fish you now have is fortunately quite low and thus a large amount of any ammonia they create will be utilized by by algae and the like but this will change dramatically if you increase the load when the water temperature is not yet up to scratch.

B.Scott