Hello all,
Pond newbie here, though I have been researching a lot the last few weeks. Great forum you have going here, been reading as much as possible but today I was presented with my first real issue........3 dead fish.
First some background. Its a pond slightly under 1000 gallons, 6-7 weeks old. Dimensions are approximately 10 x 6 x 2 feet deep ( these are not consistent so I rounded off). It is a retaining wall pond built into the side of a hill. I am running a 2500 GPH pump located in a skimmer and into a waterfall filtration spillway that house bio-balls and pads. The waterfall has 4 stages/levels and drops about 3 feet with a lot of water flow. I should be getting plenty of oxygenation. This plus two more small pumps running into those ornamental frogs that "spit"
I have city water, chlorinated i am sure. In the beginning I filled the pond up with a garden hose and let it run for a week before adding a couple fancy goldfish, starter bacteria and some water hyacinth. For a time I was having a water leak issue, and was needing to add water everyday from the hose. I finally discovered that my water was disappearing through a leak in the hose that fed my waterfall. Through the process I added some Lilly pads and more fish and all was well.
Right around the three week stage, I developed the dreaded algae bloom. i tried to address this with mechanical 5 micron filtration and water changes everyday of about 70 gallons. What I would do would be to fill one of those small plastic kiddie pools everyday, let it sit for 24 hours and then pump the water into the pond through a home made activated carbon filter. This filter consisted of a pvc housing of 4" in diameter and about 18" long. In it I placed a 12" long 50 micron sock and filed it with AC to give me about 14" of AC the water had to pass through before exited the filter. I did this to hopefully treat any Chlorine/chloramane that had not dissipated in the 24 hour sitting period.
Alas, this was to no avail and my water stayed green, however the fish were healthy. Enter eBay and a 13 watt UV. When I received this UV I installed a 5 micron filter at the discharge of the UV and whala, within three days my water was crystal clear. In the process we added some more fish.
Well I came home today ( the last fish we added was Saturday) and discovered three dead fish (one small one became lodged in the small pump that fed the ornamental frog and I noticed a changed in water flow and went to inspect the pump). Further examination revealed 2 more dead fish.
Of the fish that died, one was from Saturday and each of the others was from a different dealer. Most of my fish were rather inexpensive as I bout most of them in the 4-6 inch or smaller range. I do however have a couple of nicer 8-10" fantail koi that I paid $50 each for. Yes I now know the importance of quarantine. I guess I figured I would spend more money on a quarantine setup than I did the fish, and justified it that way in my over ambitiousness.
The thing is I am not convinced it is a disease, and maybe more a water quality issue. The remaining fish are all very active, swimming and eating fine. They play in the waterfall (not linger, just play) eat the plants, etc etc. I am still waiting for my Test kit to arrive and for the time being I can only test PH, which seems rather high.......around 8.5-8.8 would be my guess using a strip. Out of the tap my ph tests 7.5. But if I let it sit and breath for a day it then tests high just like my pond in the 8.5 range.....this I don't understand. Furthermore, when I run it through the AC filter, it seems to lower the PH almost to the level of the tap water, which really should not be happening either.
For the interim, a took the AC filter which I previously only used when doing a water change, and placed it into the filtration loop with the UV and 5 micron filter. This slowed down the water-flow through the UV, but for now my water is clear so that is a non-issue.
I have seen no symptoms in the fish, only that 3 died. I am not discounted the very real possibility that I introduced a disease, just not convinced this is the cause. But if anyone recommends a good all purpose medication, I would be sure to get it if you thought it might help.
I am concerned about my ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels and until my test kit(s) arrive was wondering if I should add some zeolite to my AC as a precautionary measure.
Any suggestions?
Pond newbie here, though I have been researching a lot the last few weeks. Great forum you have going here, been reading as much as possible but today I was presented with my first real issue........3 dead fish.
First some background. Its a pond slightly under 1000 gallons, 6-7 weeks old. Dimensions are approximately 10 x 6 x 2 feet deep ( these are not consistent so I rounded off). It is a retaining wall pond built into the side of a hill. I am running a 2500 GPH pump located in a skimmer and into a waterfall filtration spillway that house bio-balls and pads. The waterfall has 4 stages/levels and drops about 3 feet with a lot of water flow. I should be getting plenty of oxygenation. This plus two more small pumps running into those ornamental frogs that "spit"
I have city water, chlorinated i am sure. In the beginning I filled the pond up with a garden hose and let it run for a week before adding a couple fancy goldfish, starter bacteria and some water hyacinth. For a time I was having a water leak issue, and was needing to add water everyday from the hose. I finally discovered that my water was disappearing through a leak in the hose that fed my waterfall. Through the process I added some Lilly pads and more fish and all was well.
Right around the three week stage, I developed the dreaded algae bloom. i tried to address this with mechanical 5 micron filtration and water changes everyday of about 70 gallons. What I would do would be to fill one of those small plastic kiddie pools everyday, let it sit for 24 hours and then pump the water into the pond through a home made activated carbon filter. This filter consisted of a pvc housing of 4" in diameter and about 18" long. In it I placed a 12" long 50 micron sock and filed it with AC to give me about 14" of AC the water had to pass through before exited the filter. I did this to hopefully treat any Chlorine/chloramane that had not dissipated in the 24 hour sitting period.
Alas, this was to no avail and my water stayed green, however the fish were healthy. Enter eBay and a 13 watt UV. When I received this UV I installed a 5 micron filter at the discharge of the UV and whala, within three days my water was crystal clear. In the process we added some more fish.
Well I came home today ( the last fish we added was Saturday) and discovered three dead fish (one small one became lodged in the small pump that fed the ornamental frog and I noticed a changed in water flow and went to inspect the pump). Further examination revealed 2 more dead fish.
Of the fish that died, one was from Saturday and each of the others was from a different dealer. Most of my fish were rather inexpensive as I bout most of them in the 4-6 inch or smaller range. I do however have a couple of nicer 8-10" fantail koi that I paid $50 each for. Yes I now know the importance of quarantine. I guess I figured I would spend more money on a quarantine setup than I did the fish, and justified it that way in my over ambitiousness.
The thing is I am not convinced it is a disease, and maybe more a water quality issue. The remaining fish are all very active, swimming and eating fine. They play in the waterfall (not linger, just play) eat the plants, etc etc. I am still waiting for my Test kit to arrive and for the time being I can only test PH, which seems rather high.......around 8.5-8.8 would be my guess using a strip. Out of the tap my ph tests 7.5. But if I let it sit and breath for a day it then tests high just like my pond in the 8.5 range.....this I don't understand. Furthermore, when I run it through the AC filter, it seems to lower the PH almost to the level of the tap water, which really should not be happening either.
For the interim, a took the AC filter which I previously only used when doing a water change, and placed it into the filtration loop with the UV and 5 micron filter. This slowed down the water-flow through the UV, but for now my water is clear so that is a non-issue.
I have seen no symptoms in the fish, only that 3 died. I am not discounted the very real possibility that I introduced a disease, just not convinced this is the cause. But if anyone recommends a good all purpose medication, I would be sure to get it if you thought it might help.
I am concerned about my ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels and until my test kit(s) arrive was wondering if I should add some zeolite to my AC as a precautionary measure.
Any suggestions?