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  1. #1
    Junior Member Rank = Fry BergkampBrewster10's Avatar
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    Nitrite level 0.5

    Have had a reading of 0.5 for nitrite for over a week in pond ,have been doing daily 10-15% water changes and still getting the 0.5 reading ,whats best to buy to help sort out this level ???? cheers



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  3. #2
    Senior Member Rank = Rokusai Simon Fish's Avatar
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    Stop feeding.
    Bigger water change.
    Different test.

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    Senior Member Rank = Adult Champion Gazkoi's Avatar
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    Nitrite can be difficult to move through to nitrate.

    what Filter and pond size do you have and how long has it been running?

    cheers

    Gaz

    Quote Originally Posted by BergkampBrewster10 View Post
    Have had a reading of 0.5 for nitrite for over a week in pond ,have been doing daily 10-15% water changes and still getting the 0.5 reading ,whats best to buy to help sort out this level ???? cheers
    Hobby and business gone but when you’re hooked you’re hooked.

    Always happy to help!!

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  7. #4
    Junior Member Rank = Fry BergkampBrewster10's Avatar
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    only a small 660 gallon pond ,have 2 pressurised filters running one been running just over 2 months ,was using a box filter before that ,

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  9. #5
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Frimley Koi keeper's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BergkampBrewster10 View Post
    Have had a reading of 0.5 for nitrite for over a week in pond ,have been doing daily 10-15% water changes and still getting the 0.5 reading ,whats best to buy to help sort out this level ???? cheers
    Have you checked your mains water as if you are doing loads of water changes and the nitrite level is high in your tap water you will never get it anywhere near to dropping until your filters mature and also if you are just using tap water the chlorine will be killing the good bacteria you require to mature your filter system unless you use some kind of dechlorinator.

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    Junior Member Rank = Fry BergkampBrewster10's Avatar
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    have tested the tap water it has zero nitrite and have been using dechlorinator when doing the water changes.

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  13. #7
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Frimley Koi keeper's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BergkampBrewster10 View Post
    have tested the tap water it has zero nitrite and have been using dechlorinator when doing the water changes.
    That's good as you have ruled out the obvious that quite often get forgotten about.

    If more water changes or bigger water changes and stopping feeding doesn't work then maybe something to try is remove the Ammonia if you can? I think you can use something called Ammo lock? which removes Ammonia fairly quickly I think?

    I could be wrong but if you remove the Ammonia in theory your Nitrite and Nitrate levels should drop? OK so this would slow the maturing process but you may be able to lower the dosage to limit the amount of Ammonia you have to allow your filters to mature?

    As your pond is fairly small it should be easy to play with the dosages to do a controlled Ammonia release?

    Just be careful with doing too many or too larger water changes as you could potentially mess your water chemistry up.

    Also if you are changing a lot of water at the moment with the temperature rising the colder fresh water you are adding will be altering the water temperature in the pond with a smaller pond especially and that too can have adverse effects on various things I believe?

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    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Frimley Koi keeper's Avatar
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    Just to prove a point have you actually tested your water for chlorine as some dechlorinators are a bit hit and miss?

    If you haven't already got anything, you'll need some DPD4 tablets and something to crush them with if they aren't rapid dissolving ones and a spare test tube. Fill the test tube with 10 ml of pond water, drop the DPD4 tablet in and dissolve it. Stick the test tube on a white surface and look down into the water from above. Any sign of pink and you have chlorine. It will turn pink eventually but you are only looking at the early results.

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    Junior Member Rank = Fry BergkampBrewster10's Avatar
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    cheers.will try another couple water changes and then if no improvement try some sort of ammonia remover

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  19. #10
    Senior Member Rank = Adult Champion Gazkoi's Avatar
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    Nitrite can take a while to move over to Nitrate.

    Water changes during filter maturity can hinder the maturing, so its a balance of ride it out and ensure the koi don’t suffer along with diligent husbandry.

    Salt can assist the koi from getting brown blood disease with nitrites are high. Vitalize can also protect the Koi during stress.

    Opinions will always vary, however personally I would Salt the pond and ride it out for a while, reduce the WC %, add steadily some beneficial bacteria and heat (if possible). If it don’t move after a while longer (couple more weeks) would revert back to larger WCs and consider the filters...

    Cheers

    Gaz
    Hobby and business gone but when you’re hooked you’re hooked.

    Always happy to help!!

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  21. #11
    Senior Member Rank = Adult Champion Gazkoi's Avatar
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    Have you got ammonia spikes mate? It seems ammonia has moved to nitrite?

    Cheers

    Gaz

    Quote Originally Posted by BergkampBrewster10 View Post
    cheers.will try another couple water changes and then if no improvement try some sort of ammonia remover
    Hobby and business gone but when you’re hooked you’re hooked.

    Always happy to help!!

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  23. #12
    Junior Member Rank = Fry BergkampBrewster10's Avatar
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    ammonia jumps between 0 to 0.25 but has been 0.25 last 2 days ,

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  25. #13
    Senior Member Rank = Adult Champion Gazkoi's Avatar
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    Again, personally I would not be overly bothered about that in the short term.

    Most importantly how are the koi behaving? Any flicking, flashing, jumping, sulking, not eating, fatalities, hanging or fin twitching?

    Cheers

    Gaz

    Quote Originally Posted by BergkampBrewster10 View Post
    ammonia jumps between 0 to 0.25 but has been 0.25 last 2 days ,
    Hobby and business gone but when you’re hooked you’re hooked.

    Always happy to help!!

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  27. #14
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Frimley Koi keeper's Avatar
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    What pressure filters have you got?

    How many and what size fish have you got?

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  29. #15
    I’d put money on immature filtration and small water volume being the issue here.
    Much harder to control small water volumes as I learnt when keeping tropical fish. You haven’t got the buffer that a larger volume gives.
    Stick to what Gaz is saying


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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  31. #16
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    Yes smaller pond quicker everything can change good or bad.

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  33. #17
    Junior Member Rank = Fry BergkampBrewster10's Avatar
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    fish are all acting fine ,not seeing any problems , guessing will just keep doing small water changes and keeping an eye on the ammonia and nitrite readings over next week

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  35. #18
    Junior Member Rank = Fry BergkampBrewster10's Avatar
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    installed all pond solutions pf8000 filter just over 2 months ago as old filter system broke ,and added a second filter start of this week a fishmate powerclenz 15000 ,have added evolution aqua pure + to both filters to try help kick start the process, I have 6 koi all between 8 - 10 inches .

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  37. #19
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    I think we have just found your problem.

    6 koi between 8 to 10" in a 660 gallon pond filtered by 2 pressure filters.

    I think you have too many fish for the size of your pond and not enough filtration for the amount of fish you have even if you had a bigger pond.

    It is doable but you'll need to be properly cleaning your filters on a very regular basis to just to keep on top of your water parameters at the moment but as the temperature stays higher for longer you will struggle to keep up. The problem you have is, you need to get your filters maturing but you also need to be cleaning them regularly enough to get rid of all the muck they collect which is basically washing away the good bacteria in the filters so it's a bit of an issue when the 2 things you need to do are counteracting each other.

    I had a similar issue to you when I started only my pond was a bit bigger. I had a 5500 lph in pond pump feeding a 9000 Bioforce filter (the older version not the Revolution version) and soon realised that I needed extra filtration so went for a 1200? box filter. That worked for a while but then needed to upgrade again so added a Tornado 2 protein skimmer and then later on a small veggie filter. That seemed to be working but the cleaning and maintenance was a bit of a nightmare and very time consuming. By this time my fish were all getting bigger, probably between 6" to 18" and due to the maintenance I was doing the water parameters were pretty much spot on but the water was not really that clear. What was also helping me was the filter system and pond were fully matured so could take a bit more abuse than they could when I first started to upgrade things. Eventually I upgraded to a pump fed Eazy Pod and a separate UVC and that worked well. Again the water was good but never really clear so I added a multi cyclone filter between the UVC and the Eazy Pod and also a filter sock on the outlet of the Eazy Pod plus a disc thing in the Eazy Pod. The water clarity was noticeable better. I have just recently added an in wall skimmer and that's feeding a Bioforce Revolution filter (yes I know they're crap but it was just sitting there doing nothing in the garage so cost me nothing) then I added the Tornado 2 protein skimmer and the different the skimmer system made was amazing. The surface of the pond was noticeably clearer in 2 days

    The maintenance with just the Eazy Pod and UVC was fairly easy and quick but the additional bits take a fair amount more looking after but the results are worth it.

    As for the multi cyclone filter and the disc, I don't think they are really doing that much and could probably be removed.

    This is just to prove that you can do it without mega expensive filter systems but you have to be able to do the extra maintenance to get it there and be prepared to do an addition here and there as required or funds allow.

    I had someone with a much bigger and better filter system look at the water clarity of my pond and wish they could get something similar.

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  39. #20
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    I had the 9000 Bioforce, box filter, Tornado 2 and veggie filter all running together and the Bioforce filter was feeding the box filter and Tornado 2 via a Y which had valves on the outlets and then the box filter was feeding the veggie filter.

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