New pond water parameters

[happysnapper 454]

I’m mostly asking for reassurance that what I think is happening is happening lol.

 

Stocked my new patio pond (35g) on Friday with two fish. I have three creeping Jenny plants, a few stems of hornwort mostly for them to munch, and a pothos with roots submerged. My water comes out of the tap with 1ppm ammonia. I set up a sponge filter with media from an established tank (have since added an Aquascape underwater filter).

 

Saturday morning:

Ammonia: 1

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate:0

Fed pellets 2x

 

Sunday morning:

Ammonia: 0.5

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

Fed pellets 1x and zucchini noodles 1x

 

Today:

Ammonia: 0.25

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

Fed pellets 1x

 

Are the plants taking up all the nitrate before it shows on my test? Or do they suck up ammonia too?

 

 

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[tithra 4,917]

Most plants actually prefer ammonia/ammonium over nitrates, so yes, if you have enough plants they could certainly be helping to reduce that.

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[shakaho 6,312]

Did you put the water with 1  ppm ammonia into the fish pond? 

Do you use Seachem Prime daily to Protect the fish from ammonia? 

While aquatic plants do use ammonia, you don't have many plants in there.  Hornwort can consume a lot of ammonia if you have a lot of hornwort.  Do your fish actually eat it?  Mine won't.

Your sponge filter doesn't appear to have enough nitrifiers to handle the ammonia since you don't see any nitrite or nitrate.

[happysnapper 454]

Yes, I dose with Prime when I see ammonia. Today’s test is 0, 0, 0. I have never seen ammonia levels drop without seeing nitrate before. I’m confused.

There isn’t much hornwort, no. One of them eats it. Also saw her nibbling the creeping Jenny.


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[shakaho 6,312]

Your filter nitrifiers may produce some nitrate and the pothos (a land plant that uses nitrate) may just gobble it all up. 

I don't know your water change schedule, but with ammonia in your tap water, you should consider small frequent water changes so that you never have much ammonia in the tank.  Changing 10% of the water daily maintains the average water quality as well as a 50% weekly water change, and you never have more than 0.1 ppm ammonia, which should be gone in a few hours.

[happysnapper 454]

I usually do about 75% weekly in my tank and double dose the Prime. The ammonia is gone by the next day.


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[happysnapper 454]

In the pond I haven’t had it long enough to develop a schedule but is there any reason I should change it if there’s no/low nitrate? I was going to give it a top off today.


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[koko 14,326]

On March 27, 2018 at 10:57 AM, happysnapper said:

In the pond I haven’t had it long enough to develop a schedule but is there any reason I should change it if there’s no/low nitrate? I was going to give it a top off today.


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I don't think so  

[shakaho 6,312]

In the typical aquarium, you can control the build up of nitrate by changing 50% of the water weekly, assuming you provide at least 20 gallons per fish.  By changing this water, you also control the build up of:

various minerals, some of which may be high in your tap water,

organic compounds, which can be harmful to the fish, but which feed bacteria using up a lot of oxygen.  Some of these bacteria can begin to feed on the fish if the population gets so high they are competing for organics.

nutrients leached from fish food -- particularly sinking foods and gel foods -- which can create a biofilm on top of the water

dust, leaves, and other stuff that  gets blown into the pond by the wind.

Topping off increases the concentration of all dissolved materials.

Suppose you put a glass of tap water on the kitchen counter.  When half of the water has evaporated, you top off the glass with more tap water, and repeat this several times.  would you drink the water in the glass?  

 

Edited March 30, 2018 by shakaho

[koko 14,326]

5 hours ago, shakaho said:

In the typical aquarium, you can control the build up of nitrate by changing 50% of the water weekly, assuming you provide at least 20 gallons per fish.  By changing this water, you also control the build up of:

various minerals, some of which may be high in your tap water,

organic compounds, which can be harmful to the fish, but which feed bacteria using up a lot of oxygen.  Some of these bacteria can begin to feed on the fish if the population gets so high they are competing for organics.

nutrients leached from fish food -- particularly sinking foods and gel foods -- which can create a biofilm on top of the water

dust, leaves, and other stuff that  gets blown into the pond by the wind.

Topping off increases the concentration of all dissolved materials.

Suppose you put a glass of tap water on the kitchen counter.  When half of the water has evaporated, you top off the glass with more tap water, and repeat this several times.  would you drink the water in the glass?  

 

Good thinking there  

Quote

In the pond I haven’t had it long enough to develop a schedule but is there any reason I should change it if there’s no/low nitrate?

This is what I was talking about, meaning I wouldn't change your schedule, I would only change it if you need to do more water changes.

As Sharon said don't top off that is a bad idea. I did once to a salt water tank and it messed up my tank.