Fishkeeping - New News on "Lots of Ammonia"

OK Folks,

I have finally seen signs of change in my pool water.
I posted earlier asking for help on getting rid of my pool 160 gal. pond of
ammonis and increasing my nitrite. I have followed some of your directions
and have finally reached some form of results. Here is what I have:

1. On 12/22/04 I transfered 4- 8" koi from my 55 gal. tank to my 160 gal.
pond in the cellar. I continued to get ammonia readings but no nitrite or
nitrate readings.

2. On 01/4/05 I followed jan's advise and added "AMMOLOCK" to lock the
ammonia into a non-lethal form of ammonia. I think that this allowed the
ammonia to remain in the pond and be converted to nitrite. I also stopped
my 88% water changes. Every time that I lowered the water level of the pond
I would kill (dry off) the growing bacteria from the side of the pond.

3. On 1/24/05 I started using CYCLE to increase the nitrite levels.
Aparently CYCLE contains the right type of bacteria that break down ammonia
into nitrite (I think I got that right?). I also added some more biomedia
in the form of cut up green-pads. This increased the area for bacteria
production.

4. On 02/03/05 I noticed some algae growing on the surface of the filter
media. I have been keeping a plant light directly above to induce the
production of algae.

5. On 02/07/05 I havd my first readings on nitrate (5.0 ppm). NO
READINGS OF NITRITE YEAT. My ammonia readings were high (4-8 ppm) but the
fish were surviving because (I think) of the use of AMMOLOCK.

6. On 02/09/05 ammonia=8.0, nitrite-0, nitrate-10.

7. On 02/ 11/05 ammonia=4.0 , nitrite-0, nitrate-10.

8. On 02/16/05 ammonia=2.0 , nitrite-2.0, nitrate 20.

Thanks to all who contributed information.

Rich Holub