Kiki!!!! So glad to see you have appeared on the scene. Upgrading to 200 amp service is a great idea. And having a pro do it is the ONLY way to go. Be sure the paint job is done with lots of drop cloths to protect your lovely newly finished floors. We are doing the floors last, after the major portion of painting is done. But you do what you gotta do. If you have an option to have the kitchen done before you move in, ....that is, you have the time AND the money, decide what you need done and get it done before moving in. All of that work requires tearing into stuff, and lots of dust and cleaning chemicals and new flooring. You might even find that underneath the old flooring is good oak wood which can be refinished with the rest of your house. Lots of folks are going that route these days. If you decide to move in and do it later, a good contractor could get it done in a couple of weeks. That would be a good time to take a vacation. BUT, the dust would get all over everything in your house even if they are careful. it is easier to have workmen tromping around and through an EMPTY house than it is one you have treasured items in. Just the way I look at it. But very pleased to see you back with us. All of us here are passionate about your house. We love to hear what is happening.

I don't think the connectors "flyingkite" was going to use would work. I believe they are a 6.3mm pitch. The parts used for the interconnecting cables are difficult to find in small quantities. Here is some generic information. The connectors have a 4.5mm pitch. Extraction Tool - Waldom W-HT-2285P .062" Use this to remove the pins/terminals from the connector housing. Just google the model number to find suppliers of your choice.The tool worked very well and did not damage the pins should you wish to re-insert them after removal. The pins/terminals are more difficult to find in small quantities, but there is a seller on Ebay named kikiwave who sold the 2 position and 3 position connectors, complete with male and female connector housings including the male and female terminals. There are 10 units in each set for under $6/set. I made a long link cable by cutting the longer AC plug cable to size, crimping on new terminals and inserting them into the appropriate connector. I shortened some other link cables in the same manner. Having purchased 4 LED lights, I had 4 AC plug cables and 4 link cables which provided enough stock parts so I never used any of the purchased housings, just the female pins. Crimping the pins onto the wire was a bit challenging. I did not have the exact tool required but I did achieve a good mechanical and electrical connection. The installation is much cleaner and neater with custom link and power cables.

Consider doing some serious research. Asking people for opinions only gets you opinions which are almost 100% passed back and forth so many times people actually start to think they're facts. You're doing pretty good. You already understand no nitrite means no bacteria. You used the term "total ammonia" too which is good. You're already smarter than the average bear. Let's bump it up one more notch. Lets start with the easy stuff. You don't mention the temperature of the water but I have to assume it's pretty cold. Nitrifying bacteria slow down as the temp drops. At 39F they stop. At 46-50F they only work at 25%. So trying to get a bio filter going is a bit silly in most climates in winter. Moving the fish back to the pond has the same issue, no working bio filter. Moving them back to the pond must work cause that must be a safe place cause millions of ponds overwinter fish without loss. Must because of bio filter...right? Nope. A little harder now is the term "ammonia". When pond people talk about ammonia they almost always think of it a chemical. That's a problem. Ammonia in the pond is 2 chemicals, NH3 and NH4+. They're kind of the same, the difference is just ions. But ions are the thing doing the harm to fish so kind of important to us. What's an ion? Forget about it...not important to us. We only care about how to keep fish safe. There are lots of terms for NH3 such as "free ammonia", "Ammonium hydroxide" and probably what most people just call "ammonia". Let's make it simple and call it "deadly ammonia". This is really what scares us. Lots of terms for NH4+ too "ionized ammonia", "ammonium". Lets call this "safer ammonia" because for fish that's what it is, safe. Most tests are for "Total Ammonia" which of course is the total amount of deadly and safer ammonia. So a total ammonia test by themselves tells you almost nothing when ammonia is detected. There are test kits for telling the difference between deadly and safer ammonia but most people use total ammonia tests. This causes lots of fish deaths as people do all kinds of crazy stuff to lower ammonia...which may have been safe to begin with about now fish are stressed by the "fixes". The weird thing is deadly and safer ammonia go together. You always have both. And they change from one to the other in the blink of the eye as temperature and pH changes. As temp drops "deadly ammonia" converts to "safer ammonia". As pH drops same thing "deadly ammonia" converts to "safer ammonia". As temp and pH go up safer turns into deadly. You've been raising pH, or trying to keep it up, and have been cheered into doing so, to get a bio filter going which probably can't start due to low temps. Keeping the pH up is also busy converting safer ammonia to deadly ammonia. For example there will be about 90 times less deadly ammonia when pH is lower from 8.5 to 6.5 at 68F. By letting water temp fall and letting pH go down the fish can be safe even when total ammonia tests are crazy high. My suggestion is to find a ammonia - ammonium chart on the web you like and use that along with your pH test and water temp to determine first if you have a problem. It's likely you don't have a problem...but are doing things that could cause problems. If you have a problem then water change is the best option imo. Adding an ammonia binder means test results will be meaningless and you'll be flying blind. If needed water changes are often you could consider a 24/7 drip water change. Even with treated city water these can work. I also suggest letting water temp fall to around 40F. Converts most deadly ammonia into safer ammonia and almost stops Aeromonas bacteria from growing. I would not let water stay below say 37-39F for days. Lots of people with froze over ponds think the water temp is near 32F but that's another myth. Fish under ice in a backyard pond are likely enjoying a 39F temp. With an above ground tank the water temp can drop below 39F, even below 32F so you have to keep the temp up a little. Low temp also lowers fish metabolism which reduces ammonia production. Natural selection kind of worked this all out for us...as long as we don't "fix" it. I suggest letting pH fall to wherever it wants to be. You could force pH lower if you really wanted to, knew what you were doing, AND actually had a deadly ammonia issue AND water changes were a problem for some reason. Be really careful of people saying pH should be this or that range. They almost never know what they're talking about and are just repeating what they heard from other repeaters. In reality it's almost impossible for normal water sources to have deadly pH levels. Trying to push pH into some made up range with little understanding is more dangerous. Some other small points...size of the tank doesn't really matter. Sure, bigger the tank the slower ammonia becomes of problem...but it's likely to still be a problem. All the rules of thumb on ratio of water to number/size of fish is a bit silly. Just made up number out of thin air. Fish are kept safe with testing and understanding. Most city water now days don't use chlorine but instead uses chloramine. They sound the same so most people think they're the same and give the same advice they did 20 years ago for chlorine. Chloramine is made by adding ammonia. When we add chemicals to remove "chlorine" that ammonia is released which is why those pond products add an ammonia binder. And why total ammonia tests become useless even with temp & pH charts. Adding binders means you have no idea what's going on ammonia wise in the water unless you have specific tests for the binder.

Good God, you guys!! Wait until you see the rest of the house!! HA HA! Thought about answering you all one by one, but going to cherry pick before ending my lunch break! I'm 40. I owned a house before with my now ex-wife, moved into an apartment and now moving into a house. So, I've got all the control of what color to make things, how to set it up, etc. without really knowing how to do that. I can hold my own with repairs and my dad is a contractor who translates my "You know, we could..." to "This is how you do it," which ultimately turns into "Hold this light while I do it." I'd like something better than not, but, it seems a lot of you are saying that I should get used to the space first and then tackle it. With an entire house to do this to, this makes a lot of sense. I've picked out appliances that'll run about $1400 for a fridge (skinny enough to fit), a stove (gas) and a dishwasher (my first!!). I did think about used to just tide me over in the short term and still might. I've got 2 weeks to decide. Didn't think about the fire hazard thing and moving things over. A pair of 9's for an 18 makes sense and just slide things over. Not sure how the gas line would effect that, but, that's easy enough to fix. A lot of you said things about budget. I'd like to keep it low, only because I've got the whole house to think about and paint was the cheapest option to give it a different look because the cabinets do like jainky. But, they hold dishes and pots and pans, soo.... could be future Paul's problem! @P M That looks really cool! That's a good luck for the pantry! Also, I work in IT for a university, so the school provides the grant. I have to stay five years and that's it. After that, I can do with what I want. It's not that they approve the changes. They had an inspector come thru and he comes up with a to do list of things that have to get done in a year. My list is 23 things long, but, some of those are super easy (reseat the toilet) and others are more complicated (rewire the garage). They don't have a say in what I do day-to-day, but I have to fix what they want fixed before next September. Again, thanks everyone! Sorry i can't respond to you all one by one, but I've read everything you wrote and provide updates! :)