How long water should cycle before fish?

[Calvin]

Calvin, I doubt that is going to do much good. What is loose and free floating is waste that hasn't broken down fully yet. Live fish would be better than Gunk in a bag. Really you need to add a filter media that has bacteria on it to really do anything. A bag of dirty pond water is exactly that, a bag of dirty water. Very little benefit to starting a good culture.

I'm worried about my fish dying. No chlorine my ammonia is 0 everything is good. What are the things that could possibly kill my fish at this point? An ammonia spike? Is all I should be concerned about?

 

[fishin4cars]

ammonia and nitrite are your two biggest worries right now. usually they start really showing about week two or three but they can come up quick and high all of a sudden so keep an eye on them. Ammonia will come up first followed by the nitrite 3-10 days later. Once they both start to fall nitrate should start showing up. As mentioned earlier this is what should happen, but I have seen cases that the nitrate didn't come up high enough to read on some test kits. As long as the ammonia and Nitrite fall back to zero then this tells you that a fully functional bacteria colony has established itself. Also keep in mind the colony has now grown to accept the waste produced by the fish that are already in the pond so from then on, add fish slowly. Also would like to mention once the pond is cycled it's a really good practice to QT all fish for 6-10 weeks in a separate pond or tub and monitor to make sure you don't add any unwanted parasites or viruses. It can get extremely expensive trying to treat a whole show pond if something comes in, far easier to treat when you first get them in a smaller tank/pond/tub/ etc.

 

[fishin4cars]

Calvin, I have to ask. What are your readings for the following.
Kh
Gh
PH
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
Each has it's importance and knowing what the readings are starting out can tell you a lot later on if problems start. KH IMO is one of the most important parameters to know. If the KH is below 60-80ppm then you can get substantial PH swings which could easily stress the fish in a newly set-up pond. Keeping the KH in the 80-120 range pretty much assures your PH will be far more stable which is more important than having a PH where you think it should be. Koi can handle a PH or 7-9 but even a swing of .2-.4 in a 24 hour period can be extremely stressful and could cause illness, disease, or even death.

 

[Lisaebetten]

As John stated, if temperatures are somewhat close, Within 10 degrees, I would say most certainly yes. I would put them in the skimmer if you have one. that way they start forming directly in the filter fall box. All you need to use is one filter pad, your only trying to get a starter culture going. No matter how mch additional bacteria is added it will still have to form the culture on all the surfaces in the pond before the bacteria will start doing much as far as removing and breaking down ammonia and nitrites.

I will give that a try.
What if I put my media in a friends very healthy falls box for a couple weeks? I'm just wondering about the "What If's" out there and if they would work for bacteria start up.
I never put start up bacteria into my 2- 40 gallon indoor tanks and 1 was an emergency rescue, fish lived in a tote with a bubbler for 2 days then into the cleaned out tank they went. All is well, in fact so well that I will need to get a larger tank as they are reaching their size limit for the 40 gal.
I don't think my brain is going to stop.

 

[JohnHuff]

What if I put my media in a friends very healthy falls box for a couple weeks?

For the bacteria to develop you actually need a very "unhealthy" environment. The fishless method of cycling is to pour ammonia into the water so the bacteria has something to grow on. It's their food.

 

[Lisaebetten]

For the bacteria to develop you actually need a very "unhealthy" environment. The fishless method of cycling is to pour ammonia into the water so the bacteria has something to grow on. It's their food.

Ammonia, like from the grocery store cleaning isle?

 

[JohnHuff]

Ammonia, like from the grocery store cleaning isle?

From the grocery store but it's got to be ammonia with nothing else in it.

 

[Lisaebetten]

From the grocery store but it's got to be ammonia with nothing else in it.

sounds scary, like hugging a bobcat!

 

[Calvin]

I decided to transfer my dirty established filter and pump on over to the bigger pond and stuck my pump from the new filter into the dirty pond and drained it out into the newer pond so that it could get alittle more dirty.. The old pond was not big enough for my adults so then I saw one of my kohaku beni get ripped off from it running into something.. I couldn't see it to happen again..

 

[Lisaebetten]

For the bacteria to develop you actually need a very "unhealthy" environment. The fishless method of cycling is to pour ammonia into the water so the bacteria has something to grow on. It's their food.

One more question/idea/thought.... I have my lily pads in a tote waiting for the pond finish and today I noticed some nice dark green algae growing on the sides. Would putting that water in the pond be o.k. or not?

 

[Calvin]

One more question/idea/thought.... I have my lily pads in a tote waiting for the pond finish and today I noticed some nice dark green algae growing on the sides. Would putting that water in the pond be o.k. or not?

I'm not an expert compared to them. But I'd let it go in.. I would do it if I was in your shoes.

 

[Lisaebetten]

I'm not an expert compared to them. But I'd let it go in.. I would do it if I was in your shoes.

Thanks, I didn't know if the green stuff would be bad to put in or not. I don't wear shoes in the summer! Flip Flops mostly!!!

 

[Calvin]

Thanks, I didn't know if the green stuff would be bad to put in or not. I don't wear shoes in the summer! Flip Flops mostly!!!

A koi farm lady I know gave me a huge bag of her water for my pond. It had a lot of algae and said it will be fine. Either way koi will eat it and it helps eat ammonia or nitrites not sure which..

 

[JohnHuff]

One more question/idea/thought.... I have my lily pads in a tote waiting for the pond finish and today I noticed some nice dark green algae growing on the sides. Would putting that water in the pond be o.k. or not?

Yes, algae is everywhere. Remember that algae is not toxic. It removes substances that are toxic to fish from the water. People only don't like it if it overwhelms the pond.