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Started a conversation with Koigardner in another thread about home made filters so I decided to start this thread rather than hijack theirs.
I decided to add UV to my pond to clear up the water. Got it installed and boy did it work. In 3 days no green water…
Now for the bad part.
SWMBO had put away the pond test kit. It took me a couple of days looking for it before I finally asked where it was.
With the algae gone the work it was doing for my balanced system is missing. Just had the worst spikes I have seen in quite a while. There is a thick layer of dead algae covering everything in the pond. I spent the last two days building another filter. Vacuuming the pond doing water changes…..
I keep a bottle of blocker and a couple of cubic feet of Ammocarb for just such an occasion and am putting it to good use.
I have not added salt to the pond yet since I have so many plants now…but I may have to this evening.

Not feeding the fish
Ph = 8.2
Kh = 160
Gh = 200

So now I am back outside to mitigate damage…

If you have an ammonia spike it is very likey you are going to have a trite spike too. I would slowly ramp up a dose of salt and then start water changes as the nitrite peaks? Air at this point is helpful...lots of it.
The fish can not starve.
How old is the pond?

This pond is in its third spring. I am working on a water change right now.
Ammonia = 0.25
Nitrate = 5
Nitrite = 0.25

The way my filters are designed I had to add the UV going into a bio filter (rather than after the filter). I was wondering if any one is familiar with this causing problems with the bacteria in the bio filter itself?

I would of thought any colonized bacteria in your bio-filter or on the sides of your pond would be safe. Only bacteria that I would of thought that would be affected is floating bacteria.

I know others that installed their UV before their filters and had not this experienced this problem. Aqua UV claims the UV can be installed either before or after (preferred) the filter. The one big reason they prefer the UV to be installed after the filter is to avoid the possibility of the quartz sleeve from being damaged by something passing through the UV.

Hope you get the problem under control and all ends up okay.
Steve

John-Paul
the UV did NOT cause the problem

Two years ago Rich broke the bulb and sleeve on our UV when he accidentally fell against the UV (it is under our deck and space is very cramped)

I decided to trash the UV because it was stainless steel and some other metal and the bottom part was rusting out. It was 2 weeks before the new one arrived. My pond turned the thickest green one can image.

But I did not have a spike, not once and my pond is overstocked as most of my fish are now 30 inches plus

Something else happened to cause the spike

Don't do water changes, only what you would normally do in a week's time. Very small ones and do them by siphoning the crud off the bottom

Since it seems you may have already done a water change, post back here your numbers.

When one is dealing with ammonia and or nitrite and does a water change you will see that the ammonia and or nitrite is right back where it started BEFORE you did the change.

The reason why is when doing water changes, one not only removes the bad bacteria but also the good bacteria. Massive water changes only DELAYS the setting up of the biological filter.

Check those numbers after the pond is filled and you will see what I am saying is correct.

Get some ammonia binder, I like Ultimate made by Aquascience. Use my salt chart and remove the plant that can not take 1 pound of salt per 100 gallons and get the salt up. That is all the salt that is needed to bind the nitrite.

Feed very sparingly if at all. Fish will not starve to death, there is always something in the pond for them to eat, bugs that land on the water, plants to nibble on, and lots of microscopic "wild life"

One last thing, ammonia burns the gills, much like a baby that sits too long in a dirty diaper. Get lots of air in there. Air will also help the bacteria colonize.
Hang in there..

Bonnie

Oh and about your recent order, keep them in a large container of water in a shady spot outside because those plants you ordered are salt sensitive.

Bonnie

Thanks Bonnie and KG
The water changes were the result of vacuuming off the bottom of the pond. Probably about 10 - 15 % total.
Test results are the same as yesterday.
I added a bottle of amquel +
Supposed to remove ammonia nitrate and the nitrites…we’ll see…
I am ramping up the salt.
I will separate the plants
It looks like I have had pretty heavy spawning activity over the last week.
John-Paul

That’s good to hear about the UV. I ran up on a good deal on the Aqua UV Viper 400 watt. It is on a 8,000 gph pump which has the UV operating as a sterilizer. The turnover rate is a little under 1.5 times per hour.
I know the UV kills everything good and bad so I was worried I was killing everything…
John-Paul

I remember many years ago dealing with ammonia and nitrite spikes.

It was so frustrating to change 80% of the water, get it filled back up and see the readings were right back where they started!

I was not aware that Amquel will bind ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, been a few years since I used it ( we use it in shipping bags when we ship fish) so a gallon lasts a long time. A few years ago I switched to Ultimate.

Small water changes, preferably siphoned off the bottom, very light if any feeding, keeping the ammonia and nitrite bound up and you should be on the road to recovery

One plus factor, we are into summer temperatures and the bio-filter sets up faster than the cold of winter. In fact, if it were winter you could be dealing with this problem for many months instead of weeks!

Bonnie

Well duh!
Did the problem with the water quality start with the spawning?

Spawning will mess up water quality very quickly, especially in a heavily stocked pond.

Most ponds will have spikes for a few days. In fact if there was a spawn, do not feed because they have plenty to eat for days.

Bonnie

Thanks Bonnie
I would say the spawn was a contributing factor
I have experienced the spawn swings in the past but never to this extent.
I have purchased all the Amquel + I could find.
So far so good

The UV is absolutely unbelievable
I will try to post pics later
You can see clearly all the way to the bottom and its over 6 feet deep

My other issue is work is booming and hard to work on the pond.

I had even begun to suspect problems with the test kits so did some checking and found the chemicals in my kit are good for 3 years minimum and I have 9 months to go based on the lot numbers …