On Wed, 2 Apr 2008 18:44:47 EDT, Pond Addict
m wrote:

Aquarium Pharmaceuticals (API) results:
Nitrate - 0%
Nitrite - 0%
PH - 7.7 - 7.8
KH - 5° (89.5 ppm)
GH - 6° (107.4 ppm)
Red Sea test kit results:
Ammonia - 0%

Those look just fine.

Pond Care test kit results:
Salt 0.00% - 0.02% (Holding off on the salt in case I'm going to put
meds in the pond and then water change.)

I'd bring the salt up to 0.1% (most meds can be used with this amount of
salt).

Is "PP" PraziPro?

Prazi was the expensive stuff I recommended, but now that you're ordering
a
microscope, you might as well scope them first.

PP is Potassium Permanganate.

Will it cause problems for the snails,
tadpoles, frogs, ducks or my cat or dog that visit?

No, fairly safe stuff. Well... it may clean the gut of the above animals
if
they've got flukes. ;-)

There's also a general fuzz coat around the pond that I'd consider
normal. In case it's relevant, the pond was created by excavating,
putting down a liner, concreting over that, sealing that with a fish
safe coat and landscaping with boulders, etc. It was built in Spring/
Summer of 2006 and there has never been any significant fish loss.
There were mainly "mechanical losses" due to a drain cover I had to
rework. There are skimmers on the left and right of the pond which
feed a waterfall, and the bottom drain goes to a bead filter, a UV
light and back to the waterfall as well. Currently only one skimmer is
active. I actively clean up leaves,etc. that are by the water's edge.

Sounds to me like you did some serious research on how to build a pond th
e
right way, and didn't skimp.

Thus my recommendation is to get the microscope and see if flukes are
really the problem. Salt to 0.1%, this will help the fish fight off any
spring crud, it is not necessary to keep salt in the water if there aren'
t
problems, but spring is always a good time to have it there. The parasite
s
and bad bacteria wake up before the fish's immune system does.

And instead of doing those big water changes, do smaller ones more often.
One thing fish prefer is a stable environment, where the pH & temperature
do not fluctuate much. ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us