low ph on cycle

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Just got my 1500gal pond up and running. Its been about 2 weeks and the waters getting murky (which i expected). When i test the water every things at 0 except the ph is at the very low point of my test kit so its around mid to high 6's i assume. Is this normal or should i do a water change or something to fix this? I have 55gal doc filter, lot of plants, 5 - 6" koi and 5 - 4" koi. thanks
 

addy1

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What is the ph of your fill water? Well or city? my well is around 5.5 keeps my pond down if I need to add water.

Do you have any concrete in the pond?

What is your hardness level? gh kh, my water is soft also, still trying to make it harder to get the ph up higher.
 

fishin4cars

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Concrete would make it go high, I would check the GH and KH as suggested, If there isn't enough of either this can cause PH to crash. First off, test you water you use to fill the pond and see what it reads. If the GH or KH is low the addition of baking soda and Crushed oyster shell or Crushed coral will help raise the GH, KH and PH. But raise them slowly once you figure out why it is so low.
 

addy1

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darn another blonde moment, good thing you are around to straighten out these brain farts we have!
 
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ok I was way off. I didnt test it the first time so when I went and tested it, it was acually high. It tested around 9.0 and its a liner pond. ammonia was .25 and nitrite was 0. Fill water tested right at 7.0
 
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I called a pond store by my house and they told me since I have a lot of rock in my pond it will cause the ph to go up just like concrete so he told me to drain 1/4 to 1/2 the pond and then refill it with city water. Does this sound right? Will it mess up my bio filter or the cycle process that I'm trying to do right now? thanks
 

DrDave

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What they should have said is: The rocks may cause a higher PH.
I would measure what it is, then measure city water then decide from there whether to lower the PH with acid or by water changes or both. My city water is 7.8 PH.
What I would not do is react to an uniformed, minimum wage worker on a pond they know nothing about.
If you ever use acid, get some advice before using it for your saftey and the inhabitants of your pond.
 

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