First Time High Ammonia!

[gardenlady]

Went on a week long vacation to Hollywood, California and during that time the bog collapsed tearing one hole in the liner. Hubs while I was gone put the fish in a 30 gallon container, plants in several others and disaseembled the entire pond to get the liner out. I came home today and tested the 30 gallon container and found everything fine except for the ammonia which for the first time wasn't zero..it was between a 1.0 and 2.0. I did a 50% water change..setup the batting to catch all the yuk and added 8 tablespoons of sea salt. Three hours later the water is almost completely clear and I can see the fish but it's just slightly better green than before. Can anyone tell me what else I should do please? My plan was to do partial water changes for a couple of days and see where it gets me. I didn't want to add chemicals because all of you who know everything advice against it.

 

[gardenlady]

BTW..found out talking to our pond place today where I got the patch kit, that the reason the bog collapsed was because the hubs has never mortared the pieces together that created the bog..just stacked them...UGH! Thirds time a charm!!

 

[sissy]

how old is your test kit and do you store it where it is dark and cool .The quilt batting will pick up a lot if you clean it often Water changes will help and solar salt is cheaper but guessing that is what you had on hand .I use peroxide and water after I hose off the quilt batting and dunk it in a bucket of a cup of peroxide to a 5 gallon bucket of water .
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[gardenlady]

I do believe you are the one who taught me the quilt batting idea and the test kit is it more than a few months old. It's been reading ammonia at zero until this happened. I just figured the hubs was feeding too much in such a tiny enclosure and nothing bit a small pump with the hose splattering water into the container. The fish look and act fine but I'm trying to get te ammonia back to zero where its always been. If it rains they could be there for awhile.

 

[gardenlady]

Oh...it is stored in a closet so its nice and cool and I bought it a couple of months ago

 

[sissy]

you are doing it right then .I use PDZ horse stall refresher to bring down ammonia also .It is fine but if you can buy tulle like the brides use for vails you can put it in that and tie it tight .
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[gardenlady]

What?? PDZ ..never heard if it and tulle? Put both or one in WITH the batti=
ng? You have such interesting options for dealing with problems. I've seen d=
iscussions on adding oyster shells but I think that was the correct ph level=
s the opposite of my problem. So I shouldn't be "freaked" out by the photo=
level of ammonia

 

[sissy]

I hang it in my filters or where water can spill over it .I only feed my fish 3 or 4 times a week .They will not starve there is plenty to eat in the pond .Hope you enjoyed your vacation
[sharedmedia=core:attachments:52759]reason I know about pdz

 

[gardenlady]

Maybe I've been awake too long from driving all day..yes I have but what is PDZ?

 

[sissy]

The veils for brides is made of it .Oyster shells are to stabilize ph .peroxide kills algae .I would test the ammonia level a couple of times and hold back on feeding and do small water changes .Do you have well water and is it hard or soft .

 

[sissy]

horse stall refresher it cuts ammonia .It is fine though and you can buy it at farm stores like tractor supply

 

[sissy]

zeolite cuts ammonia .I use it in both filters and hanging a bag near the waterfall .Zeolite in pet store can be expensive but you can get it there already in bags as fish tank owners use it in there filters .

 

[gardenlady]

We have hard water here btw..forgot to answer. The ammonia looked to be slightly higher this morning so I did another partial water change..maybe 20%. I am planning on hitting a feed store today and picking up the PDZ. Thanks as usual and I will lyk how it goes!

 

[gardenlady]

Sissy...here's the PDZ in the tulle hanging under the basket with the batting. The water is running through the batting and is hitting the PDZ..does that look correct? I didn't know how much to use but this seemed okay. Do you use this continually and how soon should I see results? The color looks to be about a 1 prior to putting it there. Thanks!

 

[sissy]

yep should work great and you should see ammonia drop in 24 hours ,at least that's how long my neighbors took .Her grandchildren stay for the summer and she did not know they were feeding the fish 4 or 5 times a day as her hubby was supposed to be watching them ,Still did water changes in her pond because there was a lot of food that was old we had to scoop out .They used up a 3 lb bag of food in a week.Lucky fish are alive .Never saw anything like it in my life .