New Pond Cycle - nitrite drop, but no nitrates?

[netvine]

Hello, cycling new 300 gallon goldfish pond with bog filter. I started around First week of may, added Shubunkin’s on may 11. I hit kind of a stall maybe, as I don’t have much of any detectable nitrates after a big nitrite drop.

I’d feed once a day with Hikari baby pellet, about a half tsp. By around May 15, api freshwater test kit registered:
Ammonia .5ppm
Nitrite 0.00
Nitrate 0.00
Ph 6.2

By may 18, the numbers had been registering on liquid api freshwater test kit.
Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrites at least 5.00 ppm (they looked fine but I realized I messed up and was gonna kill these fish)
Nitrates 0
Ph 8-8.2

This freaked me out and I discontinued feeding, did a cpl of 15% water changes, spaced out a few days apart(spring water, no chlorine).
Dropped nitrites down a bit but Still easily 2.0ppm, and didn’t lower ph below 8.

But Today may 27,
0.00 ammonia (maybe Bit over but definitely not 0.25 ppm test color)
0.25 nitrite (it’s less than that actually it’s just barely tinted from 0.00!)
0.00- less than 5.0 Nitrate… api test is maybe a deeper shade of yellow, just a bit. Yellow being 0.00ppm and orange 5.0ppm I had been waiting for a big nitrate spike, could it have been used up by the aquatic and marginal plants already? How big of a nitrate spike would have been normal and for how long? It’s only been a Few weeks, did I some how stall

Aquatic plants growing well, some of my marginals stunted from cold spring weather, golden money wort, parrot feather doing spectacularly as you all suggested, thank you! the water hyacinth kinda dying, it circulates around and gets rained on by the returns constantly . Fish happy as can be, very little hiding, zooming around, eating algae off the sides, schooling up sometimes and riding the currents, love these guys. also have some brown foam for the first time that coincided with these new readings, I tested twice to be certain. Will pick up kh/gh and a thermometer soon.

 

[netvine]

Correction ph today is around 7.4-5ish

 

[Mmathis]

You may not have a big enough fish load for the nitrates to show an increase, and/or the bog filter is doing its job. This is not a bad thing. Not an expert, but been there, done that.

 

[Mgessert]

I agree that your plants are probably using up the nitrate as fast as it’s being produced.

 

[netvine]

Thank You, your experience and reassurance is very much appreciated!

 

[GBBUDD]

i wouldn't worry so much about where the levels are, once you know there's no major issues just watch your fish they will let you know when there's a problem

 

[GBBUDD]

i just tested kh gh for the second time in 5 years gh 7 kh 9 right in the sweet spot so i'm told

 

[CometKeith]

Hi! It takes about 4-6 weeks for a new pond to fully cycle. I would limit feeding to a few times a week to keep the ammonia and nitrites down. Your fish will do fine eating whatever they find in the pond. It would have been better holding off on adding that many fish until it was cycled but that is done already so you will need to monitor water quality on a continual basis until the pond has cycled. I wouldn’t worry about PH or KH unless you are using well water. Good luck!

 

[netvine]

I tend to test water a lot, I have added new food as these guys are getting big… to blackwater gold n and also bloodworms occasionally.

Twice now i tested water in the am undetectable levels of ammonia nitrite and nitrate. But, within an hour post feeding ammonia is 0.25 and nitrites were very high like 5.0 ppm. Than when i retest an hour or so later they are undetectable. Nitrate and ammonia undetectable. Is this normal to have such big nitrite spikes after feeding? Pond system is currently 400 gallon or so among 2 tanks and a bog.

 

[netvine]

Well this happened and everything turned brown. Took about two months. FInally some nitrate… ammonia back close to zero after re test a few hours after this test

 

[Jhn]

Yes this is normal your pond is still maturing and stabilizing, will take a year at least. Even after the initial cycle your pond isn’t done maturing, it can be easily thrown out of whack by over feeding, adding too many new fish too quickly, etc. Nothing to be worried about.