The ammonia will be converted by bacteria to nitrites as soon as the filter
bacteria start to work. All surfaces of the pond are considered filter
surfaces by the bacteria. You will need to watch the ammonia as you add
fish and fish food, and then start watching for the nitrites. Amquel will
bind the ammonia into the ammonium form which is non toxic, but the bacteria
can still use as food. As the nitrites start to climb, the addition of 0.1%
salt, a little less than one pound per hundred gallons, will keep the fish
from taking in the nitrites that cause brown blood disease. After the
nitrite reducing bacteria build up, then nitrites are converted to nitrates,
which are just plant food and much less toxic to the fish. You will have to
go through the cycle.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"*muffin*" wrote in message
...
the testing kit is the liquid drops ( the dip stick one I did yesterday,
read way OVER 8.5 for ph/alkaline)
( I'll look for a 2 part ammonia tester tomorrow,,,,,,, do they have 'em
at
pet stores?)

umm I don't have the pump running either,, yet,( for filter & water
falls,,,, havent built the falls yet
will that help??

somewhere I read using "Amquel" to lower the ammonia? is there anythign
else? ( can *this* be purchased at a pet store??)

I have a couple gold fish ,, 'ON HOLD' at store,, needed to pick them up &
put in pond this weekend,,,,,,, umm, bad idea?


Muffin dang, had a pond 20 yrs ago & never tested anything, wonder how
it
survived!

OK,this morning tested with fresh water aquarium testing kit.
PH is 7.8
KH is in range of 200-400 PPM
GH is in range of 100-200 PPM
ammonia is 2-3 PPM

there are no plants of fish in the pond

ok, now what? is there anything to fix? & with what?
(I'll test again tonight)


everything sounds fine to me eept the amonia without fish there
should be none
which type of kit are you using dip sticks or liquid drops ?

one of our chem gurus jump in here and help with this one

John Rutz

*muffin* wrote:

OK,this morning tested with fresh water aquarium testing kit.
PH is 7.8
KH is in range of 200-400 PPM
GH is in range of 100-200 PPM
ammonia is 2-3 PPM

there are no plants or fish in the pond

ok, now what? is there anything to fix? & with what?
(I'll test again tonight)


everything sounds fine to me eept the amonia without fish there
should be none which type of kit are you using dip sticks or liquid drops ?

one of our chem gurus jump in here and help with this one

Not a real chem guru, imo, just married to one and therefore thru
osmosis..... I don't do too badly though with detecting poor water
quality... ;o) Speaking of which, I would have asked the same questions.
How old is the test, brand and type? Where the heck do you (the owner)
think the ammonia is coming from? Chloramine in the tap water, treated with
a product that detoxes only chlorine will show an ammonia reading,
therefore you need a product like Amquell or similar that detoxes
chloramines (combo of chlorine and ammonia). ~ jan


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

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

(in case you might have missed my other responses)
I'm in north Central Ohio. we used mostly water from a 'well' ( smells
heavily on sulpher) & cistern water to fill up the pond. the cistern water
was mostly rain water (some city water trucked in, but had been a week
before).

from what others have said, the date is probably too old for the test kit.

MEANTIME..... I ordered one of the '$$$ meters' to test the water,,,, should
arrive in a few days. some have said its pretty worth it. I'll take back my
other 2 salt water test kit purchases.

Muffin btw this morning we had 'frost' arrghhhh , this after buying $$$ new
plants for bordering my pond.. luckily I covered some of them,, the others I
hope are ok,,,,,, washed them down... this after the weather report said it
was only going down to 40,,, outside thermometer said 37 ,, had to be colder
OUT in the yard though.



Not a real chem guru, imo, just married to one and therefore thru
osmosis..... I don't do too badly though with detecting poor water
quality... ;o) Speaking of which, I would have asked the same questions.
How old is the test, brand and type? Where the heck do you (the owner)
think the ammonia is coming from? Chloramine in the tap water, treated
with
a product that detoxes only chlorine will show an ammonia reading,
therefore you need a product like Amquell or similar that detoxes
chloramines (combo of chlorine and ammonia). ~ jan


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