Folks,

Well, my filter design didn't work like I wanted it to, so I went to a
simpler design, and the fact it discharges directly out of the bottom
of the
filter negating any piping, makes it a lot simpler than my previous
attempts, that by the way, have worked very successfully even with the
piping.

Well, I broke down and I also replanted all my plants using pea gravel
this year instead of soil in the pots like has been suggested on in
this group. When I finally divided all the lilies, and put them in
pea gravel no one mentioned to me that I should not put fertilizer
tabs in the gravel when I did the replanting. I usually put two of my
Oklahoma Lily Plant Tabs (OLPT) in each pot in the middle of soil just
under the lily, when I repot the lilies each year. In any event, with
no fish in the ponds (Thank God I didn't put the fish out before I did
this dividing/replanting), I have been battling ammonia at the level
of about 10ppm plus. I have never seen test tube water testing that
yellow in my life before. I figured immediately that the OLPT were
the culprit and started my filter and did subsequent water changes.

Needless to say, I finally got the ppm very low and decided to get my
fish out side. I still have a couple inside right now, and will
probably get them out tomorrow, Wednesday.

I checked yesterday morning before I went to work and I had
indications that the nitrogen cycle was establishing itself with low
ammonia and finally a low nitrite level, so all is looking good. When
I got home last night I checked the ponds again and the ammonia and
nitrite levels and both zero, so needless to say I am cycled.

So John Rutz, as discussed in the thread dealing with the use of
Biospira and its cost, it looks like I sure don't need it "for it
sure doesn't appear to look broke so I am not going to fix it."

I moved my Luft air pump outside to put air into the ponds last night
and I will probably me moving a couple more out there Wednesday. I am
thinking about getting one of those Dynamaster piston pumps that puts
out 20psi and although it is louder it is outside in the garage and
should not be to bad as far as noise pollution is concerned. This
should take care of my air requirements for the outside with one pump.

Water is pretty clear for a start up and the fish seem to be doing
great. I feed them the last two morning and last night and they
eagerly took the food and are swimming about briskly. I have set up
one auto feeder to feed the little Ranchus and Veils. I had to put a
diffuser on two of the cascades, one, for the Ranchus and Veils babies
and one for the Adult veils, because I am using the Little Giant 4,300
gph pump, although I do have hose hooked up to the discharge port that
puts out only 3,960 gph and then it does have to life about 6 feet at
present, so it should not decrease the discharge that much. I haven't
measured it as yet.

I have finally got access to a pickup and so this Wednesday when I am
off I
will hopefully be getting the pickup and moving the other freezers to
the yard and get them ready to be hooked up in the pond setup.

Additionally, I did something really silly. I didn't read the
instructions fully for the new test kit I had for KH and the way I was
using it suggested that I had a low KH. I checked this for about 4
days and couldn't figure out why my Oyster Shell Chicken Grit was not
keeping the KH up like it always had before for the past 7 years. The
pH was staying at 8.2 . Well, yesterday I decided to read the
instructions again. Needless to say, I wasn't using it right and my
KH kit, when used properly, gave a reading of 197 ppm. So that part
of the filter is working well also, so I should not have to worry
about that for awhile.

So, at my house the ponds are doing great finally, and the tree frogs
are singing happily. An interesting note, is that during the time
period when the pond ammonia was very high the tree frogs had
absolutely nothing to do with the ponds and were no where around.
Once the ammonia got down to .5ppm they appeared and have been
croaking ever since. Now that the ponds are cycled the there must be
at least six out there each night, which drives my wife nuts, but they
will stop in about two weeks, so she is looking forward to this event,
although with a lot of late ball games for my daughters that have been
scheduled, by the time we get home she is so tired the frogs don't
even bother her sleep.

Well, I got to run.

Tom L.L.

God Bless and Keep You and Yours,
Regards from Pawnee, OK, USA, Zone 7a, and Hope you have a "Great
Day,"
Tom La Bron
LTA Oklahoma State University
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Website URL: http://www.geocities.com/norbal.geo