*Note: There are two "Koi-Lo's" on the pond and aquaria groups.
"Kelly" wrote in message
ups.com...
Exactly, and a self admitted mistake I made. We will be constructing a
new and much larger pond next season (big enough for 4 koi), but until
then, I"m trying to make this thing work.
And it should work for now.
Every night this week I have done a 50% water change. Despite my
efforts, I measured the nitrite today and it was OFF THE SCALE at over
3.5 mg/L. Pardon my language but ****!!!
Allow me to suggest you either take some of the water to a nearby Aquarium
or pond store and let them use their kit to check it - or buy another kit
and do it yourself. It's possible your kit is defective in some way. If
all kits read high then there is something causing this high nitrite.
Neighbors or their children aren't tossing in bread or other snacks to the
fish are they?
I'm not understanding how it's getting so high so fast even though I'm
doing changes. Well I know what most of you will say, the pond is
SMALL!! Damn.
So I was forced to remove about 80% of the water for fear that my poor
koi will suffer the extreme.
When I'm doing these water changes, should I be adding more of the
commercial bacteria stuff each time? Or will this just make the
situation worse?
I read in the Aquarium groups that those products don't do jack-crap for the
nitrogen cycle. They all recommended BioSpira - about $15 if you can find
it.
I haven't fed the koi in about a week. But now that there are eggs in
the pond they are eating these. I don't want to remove the eggs
because it really stirs up the pond and they are hard to remove.
This would have me ripping my hair out........ :-O
sigh
So what I'm going to have to do is do TWO water changes each day. And
test each day and make sure the nitrite is not rising.
Please try another test kit and be sure nothing is being tossed into your
pond by a neighbor or unthinking child. SOMETHING is driving up those
nitrites if your kit is correct. Also, try and find BioSpira as that
product is said to have the correct bacteria to cycle with.
--
Koi-Lo....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
rec.pond's FAQ are at:
http://www.geocities.com/justinm090/faq.html
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