Water Quality ? yeah yeah yeah ... my water is fine !

Lets have a quick discussion about water quality and the effects of poor water quality.

pH- my last blog went into detail about pH but we can cover the basics here.

*pH is the measure of acidity or alkalinity in the water. A healthy pond depends on a balanced pH. The acceptable range for fish ponds is between 6.8 and 7.6.
*low pH is normally caused by lack of oxygen (surface agitation) build up of carbon dioxides and/or too many fish.
*high pH is normally caused by cement or limestone leaching into the water or a high pH water source.

Ammonia- toxic waste from animals ( fish, birds etc )

*a healthy pond has NO detectable ammonia.
*a healthy pond uses a biological filtration to remove the ammonia. By adding a nitrifying bacteria that uses the ammonia and a food source.

Nitrites- toxic solid waste from animals (fish, frogs, birds etc )

*nitrites left unchecked turn into ammonia (see above) and become toxic
*nitrites is converted (by the nitrifying bacteria)into nitrates which is consumed by your plants for food.
*overfeeding, overstocking, dead plant material are some of the more common causes of high nitrite levels.

Phosphate- dead organics in the pond

*most common build up of phosphate comes from use of an algaecide product
*dead algae, fish waste, decaying organics are also among leading causes
*sometimes phosphates are used in our water treatment plants to prevent corrosion of pipes
*a healthy pond should not register any Phosphate level


Soooo do you know more than you did before you read this? I hope so and I hope you have questions...

The key to every item listed here is Beneficial Bacteria. The addition and dosage of a QUALITY beneficial bacteria can make the difference between a healthy pond and a lot of heartache.