Hello from the Valley of the sun!! Newbie checking in and needs a little help!

[Nakish66]

Hi,
I'm new to ponds and Koi. My husband just built us a pond in April. I'm loving this new hobby, but it is more complicated than I expected. My pond is 12X5 and over 4 1/2 feet deep. I put 3 koi in and the pond cycled and everything went back to 0. It took almost 5 weeks. So I added the last 3 koi and they have been in there a week and the pond is now showing 0.25 of Nitrite and maybe 0.25 of ammonia, the nitrate went back up to 5.0. Was this supposed to happen? Will the pond cycle everytime you add a fish? I don't plan on adding anymore, I'm just confused. I have a aqua uv bio filter a performance pro pump, and after being obsessed with this site the last few weeks or so I had my husband build a 100 gal skippy filter with a rubbermaid stock tank. I don't know if adding the stock tank with the 100 gal of water made everything go up again because of the new media or what. Also at the top of the skippy filter I went out there today and saw a BUNCH of baby snails, I have no idea where all of these things came from, but will it be okay? Do I need to attempt to scoop them out? I know i'm rambling just so excited to be able to ask somebody for some help!! So Hello and I hope I don't bug you all with too many questions!

 

[DrCase]

Welcome to the forum !!
The skippy will come around in a few weeks
Go easy on the feeding for a while

 

[Nakish66]

Thank you! Can you help with all the new little snails I see on the top of the skippy? Can I just leave them alone?

 

[addy1]

Welcome! I still have a pond in the valley of the sun, if you mean phoenix, lol

I ignore snails, but others attempt to remove them. Wait and see what others say when they chime in.

 

[Nakish66]

Welcome! I still have a pond in the valley of the sun, if you mean phoenix, lol

I ignore snails, but others attempt to remove them. Wait and see what others say when they chime in.

Yes, that's what I mean:lol:
Thank you!

 

[DrCase]

If you dont like the snails pick them out .

 

[j.w]

Nakish66
I've had snails in my pond. They come w/ plants or on birds toes. I've never had any problem w/ them overpopulating or anything. I think my fish eat the small ones and the eggs that they lay. If I were you I'd just leave them be cuz you are never gonna get them all outta there. Just my 2 cents worth tho

 

[fishin4cars]

Welcome aboard, Snails, I leave and if i start seeing to many and knock them off in the pond and the koi eat them.
now for your question, does it cycle everytime you add fish, yes and no. Once you have a functioning bacteria bed it's functioning, but when you add more fish that adds more waste, more waste more bacteria needed to catch up. so yea kind of, the newer the pond the easier it is for this to happen, the more mature the pond is the less you will notice it. I would watch the levels, if they start climbing you may want to do a small water change, watch your fish closely, watch for clamped fins, blood streaks, gasping for air. That kind of thing, all those means that a level is getting to far off a extreme and the fish are stressing, so be on your toes, If it goes down and the fish look fine I think it's the filter catching up. This is a time when the pond is tricky. I don't see anything way out of line but elevated enough to be some concern. Feed lightly and make sure it all gets eaten and none gets stuck in the filters plants pumps etc. This is natural and your doing good asking. Good time to learn how to manage water quality.

 

[CometKeith]

Hi Nakish66. Welcome. there are different kind of snails. I have apple snails which lay eggs which keep my rocks clean in my waterfall and also trap door snails which scrub my liner of excess algae. The trap door kind give birth to about two live baby snails every season and don't overpopulate your pond. They also live through cold weather. Neither of those eat plants. If you are planing on trying to keep plants with your koi you may want to get rid of the snails and not take a chance that they munch holes through the leaves. If your not planing to add many plants the snails can't hurt much and will provide a nice snack for your fish or a wandering bird that can pick one off a rock! Some people are against all snails because they can carry disease, but I have never had that problem.

 

[addy1]

I let the snails, bugs, tads, fish, plants coexist.

 

[CometKeith]

yes, I agree addy1 but they don't co-exist with the raccoons! I found one of my trapdoor snails on the rocks outside my pond yesterday with a partially broken shell. I don't think he did it to himself!

 

[DrDave]

Welcome to the Forum!