# murky water



## acaditz (Jun 30, 2019)

New to cichlids, new to this forum. Recently moved to my dream home that has a 110g pond in my greenhouse. The pond came with an underground filter, I've added a pondmaster filter and a waterfall for more aeration. Two weeks ago I added 6 danios and after a week with no change in ammonia,( still tests 0),I added 6 juvenile yellow labs.. Treated water w/ Stability and stress coat. pH is 8, temp is 79, still no change in cycle. But water is getting cloudy w/ algae. Will doing a water change slow down my cycle? What about a uv sterilization light? When would it be safe to add more fish? I'm thinking mbuna


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Welcome to Cichlid-forum!

How will control the amount of sunlight? What will you do with the cichlids in the winter? What are the test results for nitrite and nitrate? Was the pond filter running continuously since old owner vacated?

Normally to reduce algae you would reduce light.


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## acaditz (Jun 30, 2019)

Nitrate and nitrite still reads 0. I added sun umbrella today. The pond was emptied, cleaned and refilled this spring. I plan to keep the greenhouse at 60 this winter. And I have a backup generator in case the power goes out.


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## ironspider (Dec 5, 2017)

acaditz said:


> New to cichlids, new to this forum. Recently moved to my dream home that has a 110g pond in my greenhouse. The pond came with an underground filter, I've added a pondmaster filter and a waterfall for more aeration. Two weeks ago I added 6 danios and after a week with no change in ammonia,( still tests 0),I added 6 juvenile yellow labs.. Treated water w/ Stability and stress coat. pH is 8, temp is 79, still no change in cycle. But water is getting cloudy w/ algae. Will doing a water change slow down my cycle? What about a uv sterilization light? When would it be safe to add more fish? I'm thinking mbuna


I had a pond for many years, the only thing that helped with the algae was a good UV filter, Ran it all summer.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

The cichlids (depending which ones) will still want to be at 78 degrees or close to it. Aquarium heaters are designed to raise the temp 10 degrees or less. IDK if there are pond heaters or what it costs to run them.


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## acaditz (Jun 30, 2019)

Ok, So now two more questions? Would adding another heater help in the winter? Which uv filter did you use?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Perhaps there are pond heaters?

For aquarium heaters, if each raises temp 10 degrees and room is 60 degrees you are still only at 70 degrees.


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## ken31cay (Oct 9, 2018)

Here's a link to a 2kw pond heater. It's an inline heater, which I guess makes sense for a pond. You'd have to research though how many watts you'd need to bring the pond's temp to where you need it. I use two 800 watt heaters in my 450gal but the temp never flucuates more than 4-5 degrees.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SIBO-Professio ... p_pl_dp_11


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## acaditz (Jun 30, 2019)

Thanks for the advice. Added a good uv filter. My water is now clear. I've added more mbuna, so now I have 6 yellow labs, 8 red zebra, 8 colbalt, and 12 dither. I made a maze with texas holey rock, lots of caves and great view from above. The rock shot my pH up to 8.4, but I'm still waiting to get a ammonia reading before I do a water change. Temp is 80, pH 8.4, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Don't save fry. What did you add for dither fish? The best dither is more mbuna. What are the dimensions of this pond?


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## acaditz (Jun 30, 2019)

pond dementions is roughly diamond, 6 x 4 at surface, 5 x 3 on bottom before substrate.


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