900 gallon koi pond nitrite help!

[Ynott116]

I have this above ground pond in my garage it has been up and running for 4 months now. It's inner dimensions are 8' by 5' and 3' tall, I only have it filled 2' tall right now putting it at around 600 gallons, I added fish 2 months ago thinking the pond was cycled but once it started warming up and I started feed more nitrites came out of no where staying at .5ppm and the nitrates are are at 0 so I'm assuming the cycle didn't happen or it only happened with out fish in the pond. I stopped feeding as much I only feed once a week. And I been doing 25% water changes every other day. But the nitrites will no go down! Any tips? Fish are fine they want to eat but I need to nip this in the butt. I also have added beneficial bacteria liquid form and in gel ball form about two weeks ago.

 

[j.w]

@Ynott116
Not sure what is going on but can you tell us more and maybe add photo's of your set up? How many fish, filter, plants etc.? Lighting?

 

[JRS]

Welcome to the forum! In addition to the aforementioned questions, what type and brand of test kit? For example, test strips are considered less accurate than liquid kits. Have you tried your kit on known clean water to make sure it is reading true? Sometimes you can clean filters too good and disrupt the bacteria, especially if cleaned with tap water.

 

[Ynott116]

I have 12 koi in there all under 8" I'm running a 2400 ghp pump at 1/3 the full turnover rate. Its plumed up to a 30 gallon radial filter then over to a 30 gallon moving bed filter. I have two hydra 32 LEDs over the pond on a 12 hour timer. I also have a 300gph pump running to 2 55 gallon drums I cut in half to grow vegetables outside. I just added a few bean plants today actually. It very well could be the test strips but I also am testing with API liquid test that keeps coming up purple. I have tested the water coming out of the tap with the API kit and the strips they come to 0 nitrites. I know in the picture of me trying to show the aquaponics it's kind of hard to see but that's the only picture I have to give you guys an idea.

 

[Lisak1]

I’m confused - you thought the pond was cycled without any fish in it?

8 koi - 600 gallons. There’s your problem. If this is meant to be an aqua phonics system, why koi?

 

[Ynott116]

I’m confused - you thought the pond was cycled without any fish in it?

8 koi - 600 gallons. There’s your problem. If this is meant to be an aqua phonics system, why koi?

I cycled the tank so I thought with beneficial bacteria and I ghost fed the tank. All my nitrite test came up zero so I thought I was in the clear. Clearly the tank wasn't cycle so I thought. Also they're not large koi they are all under 8 inches in length so in my head 600 gallons for 12 fish is more than enough water volume for them. And to add to that I traits have never been a problem ...... Yet. And hopefully they won't. But yes you can use Koi It comes to aquaponics. My question is does anybody have any suggestions the speed up the nitrite cycle, so I can start seeing nitrates in the water

 

[WaterGardener]

If you didn't add any ammonia to the water when there were no fish, your pond never cycled.

If you did add ammonia, there is not enough beneficial bacteria yet for the fish load that you have.

At this point there isn't much to do except wait until the bacteria catches up, assuming you have enough media for it to grow on.

In the meantime I would use Prime to bind the nitrite so it won't be available to harm your fish. For that purpose, Prime will last 48 hours, no more. So it would need to be dosed again after that amount of time. Keep doing that until the nitrite is gone.

Prime will not affect the water test results, so nitrite will still show up on the tests. But as long as it is used, the nitrite will be bound so the fish would be safe.

 

[Ynott116]

If you didn't add any ammonia to the water when there were no fish, your pond never cycled.

If you did add ammonia, there is not enough beneficial bacteria yet for the fish load that you have.

At this point there isn't much to do except wait until the bacteria catches up, assuming you have enough media for it to grow on.

In the meantime I would use Prime to bind the nitrite so it won't be available to harm your fish. For that purpose, Prime will last 48 hours, no more. So it would need to be dosed again after that amount of time. Keep doing that until the nitrite is gone.

Prime will not affect the water test results, so nitrite will still show up on the tests. But as long as it is used, the nitrite will be bound so the fish would be safe.

Thanks would you suggest water changes still?

 

[WaterGardener]

I don't know that they are necessary if you have the nitrite bound. Not sure about that. But if you want to do them, I think it would be fine. I would probably do them every other day and then dose again with Prime.

 

[Mgessert]

I would continue water changes. The bacteria should take off as the water warms up.

From the FAO handbook “Small-scale aquaponic food production
2.3.3 Water temperature
Water temperature is an important parameter for bacteria, and for aquaponics in general. The ideal temperature range for bacteria growth and productivity is 17–34 °C. If the water temperature drops below 17 °C, bacteria productivity will decrease. Below 10 °C, productivity can be reduced by 50 percent or more. Low temperatures have major impacts on unit management during winter (see Chapter 8).”

 

[Ynott116]

I would continue water changes. The bacteria should take off as the water warms up.

From the FAO handbook “Small-scale aquaponic food production
2.3.3 Water temperature
Water temperature is an important parameter for bacteria, and for aquaponics in general. The ideal temperature range for bacteria growth and productivity is 17–34 °C. If the water temperature drops below 17 °C, bacteria productivity will decrease. Below 10 °C, productivity can be reduced by 50 percent or more. Low temperatures have major impacts on unit management during winter (see Chapter 8).”

Thank you very much!

 

[Lisak1]

So what's the plan when your 8 inch koi are suddenly 12 inch koi... or 16 inch koi... or 24 inch koi. At that point you won't have enough water volume for a single fish, let alone 8. That was why I asked the question - I'm aware you can use any type of fish, but why use a fish that will very rapidly outgrow the space and you can't harvest?

EDIT - never mind! Just read your pond post!