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  1. #1

    Nitrate and nitrite levels

    Hi all, my new pond started up in mid September, running on a QK25 combi drum, the pond is approx 15k litres and initially struggled with high ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels.

    Had put this down to new pond syndrome as after 2/3 water changes, reduced feeding and introduction of filter start up gel the green water cleared and ammonia dropped.

    A month or so on and the ph is around 7-7.5, ammonia is 0 but nitrite and nitrate are very high - 8 and 80 respectively on the NT labs testing kit. Any ideas? Assume if nitrate is high it is at least converting the nitrite into nitrate despite the filter not fully maturing yet

    A few of the fish seem to be flashing a bit and have a bit of fungal infection on a couple of them, and trying to gauge advice on the water parameters above. I used Blagdon anti fungal treatment when the pond was new but seemed to do nothing other than make the water green!



  2. #2
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion Twhitenosugar's Avatar
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    Your nitrate sounds right but are you sure about your nitrite reading?

    Did you mean to say 0.8?

    You're still in the middle of new pond syndrome and will probably be battling it for months. It took my pond over 18 months until NPS resolved itself on my pond. Although being unheated it took longer than if I were heated.

    The bacteria to break down ammonia get established pretty quick but the ones to break down the nitrite are well known for taking a long time to get established.

    Other than heating the water (to speed up the process) the only option available to you is to keep checking as you are and keep up the water changes. You'll get there... Eventually.

    Although if the fish are newly added, there is a good chance they have parasites as well.


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    Last edited by Twhitenosugar; 25-11-2024 at 11:17 PM.
    13,000L fibreglassed raised pond with window

  3. #3
    Thanks for the response.

    I’ve just checked the NT labs kit and it is 8.0 for nitrite and in their toxic range, but not sure what metric that is. It’s been like that for a while though

    As you say I hope it’s just new pond syndrome. Fish came from a temporary pond so no introductions etc, but if you have any suggestions re anti fungal additive that doesn’t turn the water dirty green please let me know!!

  4. #4
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion Twhitenosugar's Avatar
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    If nitrite is 8 I would stop feeding and immediately do a large water change.

    If it remains at that level you'll be at risk of losing fish very quickly.

    I would hold off feeding for a couple of weeks. Them going without food in these temps will not be the end of the world for the fish, but if you keep feeding it will keep the nitrite levels high and could well result in fish deaths. So it's just not worth feeding them for now until you can get the nitrite down to a safe level.

    One option available to you is salt. Salt can protect the fish from nitrite. But be warned, it takes a lot of subsequent water changes to dilute the salt out. Which actually won't be such a bad thing as the nitrite will likely remain persistently high for months. But the only down side is if you need to treat for parasites, some treatments can't be used with salt. So you need to weigh up the pros and cons.

    If you do want to use salt then I suggest dosing at a rate of 0.6% and use PDV Salt.

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    Last edited by Twhitenosugar; 26-11-2024 at 10:49 PM.
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  5. #5
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion Twhitenosugar's Avatar
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    If you also need to treat any bacterial issues acriflavine can be used with salt. In fact salt and acriflavine compliment each other quite well in treating fish (I've used it before when treating bacterial infections).

    Not sure if it'll work on fungal issues though.

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  6. #6
    Thanks for the reply.

    I will do a water change, and look into acriflavine.

    By 0.6% salt what do you mean? Pond is approx 15k litres. I put some sodium bicarbonate in last night

    The pond was set up with mid / low returns and filter bay quite some way from the pond itself, so as I couldn’t see the water coming back in or evidence it I was initially worried that the pump rate was lower than expected or worst case the pump wasn’t working. However I shut off the valves post water change, filled the drum and then pumped to the pond (return starts off above water level) and I did notice the pond level rise slightly, so assume no issues there. Just frustrating I don’t have a clear visual of the return rate as you would with a bakki shower etc

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  8. #7
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion Twhitenosugar's Avatar
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    1 litre of water weighs 1kg.

    So 0.006 (which is 0.6% in decimal format) x 15,000kgs = 90kgs of salt.

    They normally come in 25kg sacks. Last time I bought them they were about £13 a sack. Not sure on prices now.

    If you are not sure on your exact volume, then it may be wise to underdose. Just in case you have mis calculated your pond volume.

    I say this especially as you can't go over 0.9%, otherwise you could end up killing the fish. And even if it is only 0.4% salinity, that should still serve it's purpose.



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