"~ janj JJsPond.us" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 00:44:40 GMT, " George"
wrote:

I would shy away from introducing bacteria into your pond from a lake
simply because you don't know what bacteria you are introducing. You
could
also introduce parasites. I use aquazyme, which works very well for me.
You should wait at least 21 days for the nitrogen cycle to run to
completion before introducing critters to your pond.

The nitrogen cycle changes with each additional critter. Takes much
longer
without them for it to cycle, is my understanding. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

Not really. Once the nitrifying bacteria have been established (which takes
on the average, about three weeks to a month, the pond should be able to
digest nutrients up to the carrying capacity of the system. Only when you
overstock the pond should there be a problem with ammonia or nitrites
building up. The reason not to include your fish before the nitrifying
bacteria have become established is because of the nature of the nitrogen
cycle. In a new pond, normally, you would seed it with nutrients which the
bacteria can digest. After about three days, you will begin to see ammonia
in the water. After a week to ten days, the ammonia levels will peak (and
is the time at which any introduced fish would normally start to show
ammonia poisoning). After this period, the ammonia levels will begin to
drop, indicating the the ammonia-reducing bacteria are taking hold. From
about 1 week to 10 days onward, the nitrite levels will begin to rise as
the ammonia levels drop until about 14-16 days. At which time the nitrite
levels will be at their peak (adding fish at this time can lead to their
untimely death). After this, the nitrite levels will drop, and the nitrate
levels will start to rise as the nitrite-reducing bacteria become
established. Once all nitrite levels have disappeared, then you should
only see a low level of nitrate in the water, no nitrite, and no ammonia,
indicating that the nitrite reducing bacteria have become established.
This usually occurs by day 21, but could take as long as 30 days. At this
point is it safe to slowly begin introducing your valuable fish stocks. Of
course, you don't want to introduce a large number of them all at once, or
it will overwhelm the microbes ability to digest the increased nutrients. I
hope this helps.