What water to use in new pond.

[slyman]

Hello,

I just had a small pond constructed (450 GAL) and I have the option of using Well or city water. The well is deep so there is no iron and that is what was used for the first fill. When I got home and was told that well water was used I wasn't comfortable with it because I had a pond at my last house and only had and used city water and dechlorinator. Basically that was my comfort zone. We'll needless to say by the second day the water was clearing up but I still wasn't comfortable so I pumped it out and filled it with city water and at the same time got more construction dirt out. The water was even more cloudy even on the second day, so I spoke to a few people and was told it was perfectly fine to use the well water and wouldn't have to dechlorinate it. So what do I do I pump it out again and fill it back up with well water. It was clearing up again until a major down pour this morning and afternoon. Having said all that here is my dilemma, I tested water straight from the tap and well and here were the results:

Ammonia Nitrite Nitrate PH KH GH
TAP (city) 0 0 0 8.2 90 54

Well .50 PPM 0 0 8.2 234 72

Pond with well water after 2 days only using a sliver of lab organic pond tablet (beneficial bacteria type additive)

.25 PPM 0 0 8.2 215 72

Should I go back to city water? Are these parameters ok with out adding anything? Sorry for the long drawn out story and thank you for your time.

Respectfully,
Bob

 

[dieselplower]

I think the well water is fine. You want some ammonia in there to get the cycle going anyway. Just don't load it with fish right away.

 

[slyman]

Diesel, thank you for the reply.

 

[addy1]

I used well water, soft acidic, water. Our only option, everything turned out fine.

 

[crsublette]

I used well water, soft acidic, water. Our only option, everything turned out fine.

True, however, you have to share as well the volume of crushed oyster shells that I know, from your previous posts, is present in your system, which make a tremendous difference when using soft, acidic water.

 

[addy1]

I added the oyster shells the second summer, put in 100 pounds every spring. Our ph, since that first summer, has sat around 7.6, hardness around 100 plus minus. I just scatter them into the bog. No I do not know exactly how much water I have, guess around 8-10000 gallons, between all of the water flowing around.

Well water works as long as you know its baseline ph etc. I lost some fish the first year from not knowing. At least we don't have chlorine to worry about.