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| I have had some ammonia problems lately. The only thing that had changed in regards to the pond, was that I had repotted my water lilies in July. I started pulling up their pots and just above the cat litter line was a hazy white scummy coating. I carefully lifted them out so as not to spill any of the very stinky water back into the pond. I rinsed them out thoroughly and put them back in. Ammonia levels quickly dropped to zero. I figured I would take them out every two weeks and rinse them until I figured out how to repot them properly. It's been two weeks, and this morning was the first non zero ammonia reading, it's .25.
So, can someone advise me on a better way to pot these things up? I have each one in a plastic tub and have zip tied a plastic basket with big openings over the top of each one to keep the koi from rooting around in there. The tubs are filled with cat litter, which I had rinsed out well. When I initially re-potted them in July, there was lots of rotting matter in there that I cleaned off. I also put a jobs fertilizer stick in each one, which I had never done before. This summer has been very eye-opening for me. I learned that all those years I didn't do water testing and didn't do many water changes, I haven't been right, I've been lucky. The more I learn, the more amazed I am that I have never lost fish in the 11 years I have had them (until this summer, that is, which was my first clue that I have been oh-so-wrong). Anyway, I digress. What am I doing wrong? After lots of forum reading, I thought I was doing the right thing with my plants. |
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| hi there i pot all my lillies & waterplants in openweave planters that are for waterplants. line it with newspaper then 3/4 fill with a heavy loam soil ( no additives like no organic material) that could float. then put in a waterplant fertiliser tablet near where the roots will be. plant the plant a bit more heavy soil. then some clean riversand then largish pebbles or small rocks to stop the fish from disturbing anything. it seems to work well. no problems at all, no ammonia problems, and the plants grow well hope that helps. mazela |
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