Water Tested, Nitrite 10.0 ppm Nitrate 40ppm Ammonia 0.50 HELP

I tested my pond water. I have Nitrite at 10.0 Nitrate at 40 and ph at
7.4 and alkalinity at 120 hardness at 120 Ammonia at 0.50. I am bringing
a water sample to my pet store. He checks it free. But Im worried. The
fish seem ok. But the small baby 1 inch fish are dying. I thought it was
lack of oxygen because I dont have the waterfall installed yet. The fish
seem happy. Last night they seem to gulp at the surface for air. But
then in the morning they are hiding under a built flat rock on top of a
pillar. I did a 20% water change after the reading. Im worried The water
is toxic. The pond is 3 weeks old. Thank you

"DD DDD" wrote:

I tested my pond water. I have Nitrite at 10.0 Nitrate at 40 and ph at
7.4 and alkalinity at 120 hardness at 120 Ammonia at 0.50. I am bringing
a water sample to my pet store. He checks it free. But Im worried. The
fish seem ok. But the small baby 1 inch fish are dying. I thought it was
lack of oxygen because I dont have the waterfall installed yet. The fish
seem happy. Last night they seem to gulp at the surface for air. But
then in the morning they are hiding under a built flat rock on top of a
pillar. I did a 20% water change after the reading. Im worried The water
is toxic. The pond is 3 weeks old. Thank you


Just to be sure, but you did dechlorinate the water? Chlorinated water makes
gills less able to absorb oxygen so that could be the gulping. For a new
pond, those seem like pretty odd numbers. Can you tell us the pond size and
fish load? As far as I know, just about any reading of ammonia other than
zero is bad. Are there plants? Is your test kit new?


San Diego Joe
4,000 - 5,000 Gallons.
Goldfish, a RES named Colombo and an Oscar.

"We need to make a sacrifice to the pond gods, find me a young virgin... oh,
and bring something to kill"

DD DDD wrote:
I tested my pond water. I have Nitrite at 10.0 Nitrate at 40 and ph at
7.4 and alkalinity at 120 hardness at 120 Ammonia at 0.50. I am bringing
a water sample to my pet store. He checks it free. But Im worried. The
fish seem ok. But the small baby 1 inch fish are dying. I thought it was
lack of oxygen because I dont have the waterfall installed yet. The fish
seem happy. Last night they seem to gulp at the surface for air. But
then in the morning they are hiding under a built flat rock on top of a
pillar. I did a 20% water change after the reading. Im worried The water
is toxic. The pond is 3 weeks old. Thank you

Nitrite keeps fish from carrying oxygen in their blood - that's why your
fish are gulping at the surface or hiding. You can either use Pond
Prime or AmQuel+ to detoxify ammonia and nitrite. Another helpful
treatment for nitrite toxicity is to use a small amount of salt and the
Cl- ion will counter the toxicity somewhat. You need 6x the nitrite
concentration for it to work, so use 1/2 cup per 250 gallons of water.
This low concentration will not hurt your plants or anything else.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

Hi, Yes i used a declor heavy metal (tetra pond safe) pond is 300
gallons. I have 2 (5 inch) turtles, 5 (3 inch goldfish) 3 3 inch
african clawed frogs, 1 apple snail, 1 (5 inch catfish, And a few
rosies. The filter is for a 1500 galon pond. with a 1800 gph pump that
is slowed down to about 1200 gph. no waterfall yet. no fountain. The
outlet hose hits a rock and flowes over that for oxygen (but I think its
not enough oxygen. The test seems way off. I tryed it twice. then I
tested my indoor aquarium and it was all good. Thank you

I have a few plants, the turtles eat them. they begin with the letter a.
I forgot there name. I have 5 bunches. Thank you

On Tue, 17 May 2005 20:16:56 -0500, (DD DDD) wrote:

I tested my pond water. I have Nitrite at 10.0 Nitrate at 40 and ph at
7.4 and alkalinity at 120 hardness at 120 Ammonia at 0.50.

Your pond is in the middle of its cycle to balance.

But the small baby 1 inch fish are dying.

They are dying due to brown blood disease because of the nitrite. Salt in
the pond will help this. I recommend going to 0.1%, this requires 13 ounces
of salt/100 gallons of water. Morton's water softener salt with NO
additives.

Last night they seem to gulp at the surface for air.

They are gulping for 2 reasons, they're gills have been fried by the
ammonia spike that happened prior to the nitrite, and because the pond
doesn't have enough aeration going on.

I did a 20% water change after the reading. Im worried The water
is toxic. The pond is 3 weeks old. Thank you

No worry there, you're right, the water is toxic. :-\ The good news is, it
is fixable. Unless you have no ammonia showing don't do a water
change without treating that ammonia with an ammonia locking chemical. Then
you can safely do a water change. Don't feed anyone till your test kits
read zero, then start feeding a little bit once/day and gradually increase
that. ~ jan


See my ponds and filter design:
www.jjspond.us

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

~ jan JJsPond.us wrote:
On Tue, 17 May 2005 20:16:56 -0500, (DD DDD) wrote:


I tested my pond water. I have Nitrite at 10.0 Nitrate at 40 and ph at
7.4 and alkalinity at 120 hardness at 120 Ammonia at 0.50.


Your pond is in the middle of its cycle to balance.


But the small baby 1 inch fish are dying.


They are dying due to brown blood disease because of the nitrite. Salt in
the pond will help this. I recommend going to 0.1%, this requires 13 ounces
of salt/100 gallons of water. Morton's water softener salt with NO
additives.


Last night they seem to gulp at the surface for air.


They are gulping for 2 reasons, they're gills have been fried by the
ammonia spike that happened prior to the nitrite, and because the pond
doesn't have enough aeration going on.


I did a 20% water change after the reading. Im worried The water
is toxic. The pond is 3 weeks old. Thank you


No worry there, you're right, the water is toxic. :-\ The good news is, it
is fixable. Unless you have no ammonia showing don't do a water
change without treating that ammonia with an ammonia locking chemical. Then
you can safely do a water change. Don't feed anyone till your test kits
read zero, then start feeding a little bit once/day and gradually increase
that. ~ jan


See my ponds and filter design:
www.jjspond.us

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website


I used to use 0.1% salt for nitrite. Now aquaculture articles are
popping up that say you can use much less. Using less is nice if you
have channel cats or weather loaches and is easy on the plants.

http://msucares.com/pubs/infosheets/is1390.htm
http://www.agctr.lsu.edu/en/crops_li...d+Nitrates.htm

Of course, you lose the protection against ciliates and other parasites
that higher levels of salt can provide.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

On Wed, 18 May 2005 06:58:13 GMT, Elaine T wrote:

I used to use 0.1% salt for nitrite. Now aquaculture articles are
popping up that say you can use much less. Using less is nice if you
have channel cats or weather loaches and is easy on the plants.

You're absolutely right. I just fine going to 0.1% seems to help fish that
have been stressed, which apparently these have. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~