contaminated pond

[Jerry Walsh]

I read in Sylvia Bernsteins book, how she made the mistake of buying cheap goldfish to cycle her pond. Well, I too did this before receiving her book. My concerns are, should I do it over again ? I've lost many cheap goldfish in the cycling process, the healthy ones seemed to survive, along with 2 coy. My nitrites just recently came back to zero, amonia seems to be non existiting, ph 7.4 and high nitrates ready for seed I think. My plumbing is fine, pumping the volume of water in my 120 gallon pond in my basement with four grow beds, not 12 inches deep either. I lost vegetation to mice while cycling the pond and closed my beds up. I think I'm ready to GROW. Any suggestions ?

 

[Sheri Schmeckpeper]

Jerry, If your nitrates are boosting up, you're ready to grow.

We used goldfish to start our aquaponics tanks because they're very hardy, produce a lot of waste, and replacements are cheap. They did a great job! But that hardiness also means they could be carriers of disease. Goldfish aren't usually bred in the good conditions, so they tend to be more prone to be carriers. In everything you do, you're calculating your risks. Since your current goldfish & coy are doing well & if they seem happy, you're fine.

In our first attempt we cycled with the goldfish & they were fine until we introduced a plecostomus which was infected. Bad move; do over!

In our second attempt we treated the goldfish & pleco for their illnesses with meds in a separate tank prior to introducing them to the system for cycling. Then we added a few tilapia & observed. When all was well, we added the rest of the fish & had no problems.

If I were to do it again, I'd consider treating all newly purchased goldfish and any other non-food fish before using them for cycling, just to make certain they're OK. And if I were to introduce any new fish to my existing system, I would put a few of my fish in a tank with the new fish & observe for a couple weeks to make certain the new fish are clean.

So be cautious and use your best judgement. If you make a mistake, you've learned a valuable lesson about what doesn't work, and you'll do it even better with greater understanding the next time.

[Jonathan Farrand]

I am using cheap-o gold fish too. Just like dog breeds matter. Fish stock does too. Cheap feeder fish are mass bred leading to defects at times. Inside and out.

 If you don't mind cultivating a heathy brood over time cheap gold fish are ok in my opinion. Just be ready to have fatalities over a period three to six months. I have lost around one third to half of my original 200-250 fish addition. The existing pond gold fish and six new koi purchased from a chain pet store have been and are all fine throughout this feeder fish dying out phase. 

[TCLynx]

If you have surviving fish that seem strong then I would say simply continue.

If all fish died, then you might still go ahead and add plants since you say nitrates are high, but if you are worried you might dose with ammonia to get the system to between 1-2 ppm of ammonia and see if both the ammonia and nitrite can drop to 0 within 24 hours.  If that is the case then you are ready for more fish.  It might be helpful to get the next price range up in fish if you think it was simply cheap fish that didn't survive.  If you think you have a disease you might continue with the fishless cycling for a while longer since many parasites won't survive more than 3 weeks without fish.  Many other diseases are ever present and if you can keep your water quality high and minimize stress most fish survive them.

[Jovan Johnson]

with what u stated above u seem to be cycled. U could plant seeds a little before so when nitrates appear u have plants on sight to absorb them.