Seeking cycling adviceā¦
Please critique my theoryā¦
1. Fill pond with 1/3 capacity water (192 Gal as opposed to 578)
2. Get water to 75+ F
3. Add substrate, add new dƩcor, add rocks/decor from established aquarium, add hardy fish and add existing canister filter from established 125 Gal aquarium w/ old filter media
4. Put new filter on established 125 w/ new filter media
5. Wait two weeks and move 2 wk old canister filter from established 125 Gal to pond and fill to 2/3 capacity
6. Replace canister filter on 125 with new filter and new filter media
Questions ā¦ At what point should I add plants? ... How important would it be to transfer filters as described? ... Should I start with an even smaller volume of water (116Gal or 6ā deep minimum).
As I reviewed several articles on cycling a tank I found since I have material from an established tank and will be stocking the pond with hearty fish (Oscars) doing a cycle w/ fish made the most sense. When I used their equations (several were found) to determine the ā__ gallons per inch of fishā ratio I found the full pond to require more inches of fish than I plan to initially stock the pond with (understanding that 24ā of Oscar will become 144ā of Oscar in less than a year). This is why I chose the 1/3 volume to start as well as to work the filters in with at least some bacteria in the media.
Liner arrived today which means the only reason it is behind schedule is because Iām slackingā¦ Half the reason for that is Iām regretting the associated costs with having it filled with waterā¦ and the other half is the pieces are getting heavy and itās feeling more like work
ā¦ Iām just slackingā¦