Question about cycling

[Loree]

I've had my 1200gal pond up and running almost a month now. I put the green scrubbies from my old filter into my new filter to jumpstart the cycling. I've added plants and added my fish slowly over the past 3wk. I check water parameters DAILY. And been getting the same results daily.
Ammonia 0.25
Ni & Ni 0...zero!
PH 8.2 consistent.
I have a total of 9 goldfish of varying sizes, totalling about 45 inches of fish.
I keep waiting for a jump in my water parameters but it isn't happening. I was thinking my test kit was bad so I bought a new one with the same results.

I'm netting out leaves daily, but I'm definitely not getting them all. I cleaned out my filter box today and there was so much disgusting muck in the bottom of that thing. I just can't believe that there's nothing wrong with my water except the 0.25 ammonia. I never saw a spike in anything to indicate cycling.

Thoughts???

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

It can take 10-12 weeks or longer for a pond to cycle. Your ammonia reading may camp out there at .25 for another month before you see any spike in anything else.

Having cleaned out your filter box, may have actually set back that time frame tho.

Patience.

 

[JRS]

The other side of the coin may be with the filter media and other items transferred, the bacteria may be handling most of the load. .25 ammonia is fairly minor. Cycles can do some different things. Give it some more time as SF said and let us know what happens.

 

[poconojoe]

Patience is a big thing with ponds. Things don't happen overnight. Let it be and stop worrying. A month is not very long, so sit back and enjoy your new hobby.
Make sure you have good oxygenation. Either brisk movement of water or an aerator with an air stone.
You can rinse out you filter pads, but if you have bio balls or something like that, leave that alone. You don't want to remove the beneficial bacteria.