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Thread: Nitrite

  1. #1
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Yonsai dshaw63's Avatar
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    Nitrite

    Can anyone recommend a filter boost to assist in lowering nitrite and boosting filter Thanks in advance Dean ???



  2. #2
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion RS2OOO's Avatar
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    The answer to that is no.

    I tried every product I could find last year and none worked. Took 9 Months to get it sorted.

    In the end I cycled some K1 in a bucket with an airstone, adding ammonia as required, then put it in the filter once it was mature and that finally got my nitrites down.

    Between May and November my nitrite levels ranged between 1 mg/l and 2 mg/l.

    I added salt to the pond to reduce its harmful effects and other than slow growth from some Koi, they remained fine and healthy.

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  4. #3
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Yonsai dshaw63's Avatar
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    Hi RS where did you source the ammonia and any particular type, just tried all the local chemists and getting strange looks in return. Also how much did you add to bucket and how long to mature. Do hope these are not stupid questions, many thanks Dean ??

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    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion RS2OOO's Avatar
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    Sorry for late reply mate, I totally missed your post.

    This is what I use, and at this price I think its thereabouts the cheapest on eBay:

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ammonia-M...QAAOSwzaJX9QBz


    I got 25 litres of new K1, PP'd it overnight then washed it, then put it in a 75 litre builders bucket full of pond water and put an airstone in to keep it moving.

    I put 5 mg/l of ammonia in and tested it every day with an API test kit.

    Once the ammonia started getting consumed there was such a high nitrite spike that I guess it became toxic so I did 2x 50% water changes every day (replacing water with pond water) to keep the nitrite down to under 5 mg/l and kept doing this until the nitrite started dropping.

    There was a fair amount of labour involved but after a while you work out how much ammonia to keep adding to keep the levels stable. Once it had matured I was adding 5ml of ammonia to the bucket 4 times per day and it was getting consumed within hours.

    Once the nitrite was getting consumed at a reasonable rate I added the K1 to my Nexus.

    Within 24 hours the pond ammonia had gone to zero and stayed there (whereas it was fluctuating between 0 and 0.25 before), and around 7 days later the pond nitrites started dropping and by 10 days the pond nitrites went down to zero having been at a stubborn 1.5 to 2 mg/l all summer.

    The bucket took 2 weeks for ammonia to start going down and around 6 weeks to start consuming nitrites. Sounds a long time and it is, but by the time I started doing this I'd gone 7 months with a nitrite problem in the pond so was willing to try anything.

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  8. #5
    Senior Member Rank = Rokusai Simon Fish's Avatar
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    Just been reading this subject on manky answers.
    Go there for the proper version.

    So the ammonia spikes bugs develop eat it then nitrite spikes, this takes longer for the bugs who eat that to get going.
    In short water changes and cut back on feeding.

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  10. #6
    Thank you Simon,

    The article that you refer to on how to do fishless cycling is on this link:
    Fishless cycling

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