Built my pond--Now I need help with start up.

[Pullnit]

Hi
I just built/moved a 3000 plus gallon pond. Set-up with a 6000 gallon aqua ultraviolet filter pushing a waterfall. I started it today and added a chlorine remover with heavy metal. Whats next????? Should I add fish?? When?? How many?? The system I took down 4 weeks ago with 14 12 inch koi that had been their for 5 years. Is good bacteria still living in filter and around?

 

[Waterbug]

There are several ways.

1. You can add household ammonia until say 3 or 5 ppm and then wait until you measure nitrite, a signal the ammonia converters are working. Then you wait until nitrites are zero and you know nitrite converters are working (and you can measure nitrate too). At that point you know you have some amount of working bacteria. Whether it's enough for all your and the amount of food you're going to fed is another matter and it a complex calculation.

2. Another method is to add one or two fish and let them produce the ammonia. At some point you add the remaining fish.

3. Another method is to add all the fish at once.

Methods 2 & 3 are basically the same, at least you can end up in the same boat. It takes time for fish to produce enough ammonia for the bacteria to reproduce. That means that you'll have to have fish in water with high ammonia. People sometimes use cull fish for this so none of their "good" fish are hurt. The other issue is sometimes you won't actually measure any ammonia or nitrite which is a problem because then you have no idea what the bacteria are doing or not doing. Ammonia disappears by means other than bacteria and a few fish just might not be producing enough.

So even using sacrificial fish can tell you nothing. When you add all your fish you could have a pond full of fish, growing ammonia and maybe nitrite to follow. Then you're left with water changes, ammonia bonding, salt to deal with nitrite, etc. This is generally called "new pond syndrome".

I like method 1. With good temps, pH, KH and water flow you can cycle a filter in less than a week, depending on the type of filter. A Bakki Shower probably cycles the fastest but requires more ammonia to be add in order to grow nitrite converters. Trickle Towers are probably next fastest. Moving Bed about the same as TT. Static submerged media filters like Skippy would be the slowest and can take several weeks depending on how the filter is placed.

Because nitrite converters can't live (or do well) in 0.1 ppm free ammonia (different from total ammonia) you do want to limit ammonia at some point. Use these charts to determine proper total ammonia levels for your pond on the days you're cycling.

 

[Craig58]

I think I'd go with option 2 and add a couple of fish a week. The reason I suggest that is that being in New York your temperatures are already dropping and normally you would be shutting down the filter anyway in a few weeks. I know that mine in PA will be probably shutdown no later than Nov 1. As cool as the water is now and given that you'll be stopping the feeding anyway, and should already be on lower feeding volumes probably, the amount of viable filtration you'll achieve before shutting down is minimal. I'd run an air pump near the surface to keep the water moving some and you'll need that for keeping a hole in ice.

Unless of course you are planning to run all winter long which most folks don't. Even if you do, I imagine you'll only run the waterfall and bypass the filter right?

Also, after 4wks your filter probably has limited viable bacteria as 48-72 hrs is about the limit on a filter shutdown. I'm not sure I'd even bother bringing the filter back up now this late in the season.

Craig