On Sat, 16 Aug 2003 22:57:37 GMT, "MattO" wrote:

And IMHO nitrites last longer and are even worse. In the presence of any measurable
ammonia or nitrite I will always recommend large, repeated water changes
until levels are at lowest measurable reading on the test kit. Yes that may
prolong the cycle - so what - the fish live.

From the KHA program we learned that in cases of ammonia, doing water
changes could make things worst. This surprised me to, but as you mention:

And I can't make any claim of actually understanding the science behind
temp/pH/ammonia toxicity relationship.

This is where people get in trouble with ammonia showing on the test and
doing a water change. Take the pond that has had a pH crash, bio-filtration
stops as the bio-bugs don't like that low pH either, thus the ammonia
reading goes up. The ammonia though isn't toxic, or is less so, the lower
the pH. So if you do a large water change, upping that pH suddenly the
ammonia becomes toxic. Better is to detox the ammonia with a product like
Amquel or similar. Nitrite can be overcome with salt in the pond. (I do
believe there is a formula regarding how much salt to nitrite reading, I
think someone even posted that here not too long ago.) Anyway, doing these
things (addition of amquel & salt) allows for the water change and also
does not slow the cycle, if that is the reason for the spikes. If it's a pH
crash, then we do a KH check and fit that too. ) ~ jan

See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
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