"Kathy" wrote in message
news:apkne.188$Zt.16@okepread05...

"Geezer From The Freezer" wrote in message
...


Tispe wrote:

Thanks, another question......what is a normal range for nitrates and
phosphates?

My light is flourescent.....should I still change it?

Thanks for your input.

For nitrates it's less than 40ppm, preferably less than 20 if possible.
I can't recall from memory what Phosphates were.

OK, just a dumb question, I have tested my water and all the readings are
perfect, except for the nitrate's which are too high, so what do I change,
or add to get them into the normal range? How can all the other numbers
be OK and just this one way off? I have 3 ponds and one 50 gallon house
tank, all treated the same way, and yet only have trouble in one pond.
Help me understand what is going on. I have 2 fantail gold fish in the 50
gal. 7 ...4 inch comets in each of the 150 gal. and 7... 8 inch comets in
the 300 gal. all 3 have pondmaster pump/filter systems that are 3 times
the required size of the amount of water. If that info helps. KatAZ


You didn't say which pond has the Nitrate problem. But I believe the
recommended gallons per Goldfish for a pond is about 40 (So you seem OK
here). It's higher than the normal 10 for a tank, as you don't normally do
water changes in a pond. Does the problem pond have a proper biofilter? Is
the pond cycled?

The usual prescription to lower nitrates is water changes. You may also try
feeding less, and adding more plants. I rarely feed my pond fish,
unfortunately they have lots of string algae to eat.