32 replies to this topic

[mailman62]

just filled pond anddont have any fish in yet , still installing stock tank filter but have skimmer to falls working, what should the water parimeters be for testing water? have only tested for phosphate wich was 0.25 and PH was 7.5 , also filled with city water and have not treated it with any dechlorinater yet. was reading some on addition of bactieria when i add fish ,could pond be cycled naturally with just 2 or three fish or is this a bad idea?

[Squidhead]

If you haven't bought a dechlorinator yet I would suggest "Pond Prime" by Seachem. It is an excellent dechlor and is the most cost effective I've found. Most others dechlor about 10,000 G for the price of one 2L bottle of Prime that dechlors 40,000 G.
As far as "bacteria in a bottle" try it if you want, I have never had any luck with them personally and with testeing a few different ones. A few fish will cycle the tank, this is the way it has been done for years. It is not my favorite way anymore using ammonia instead of fish will do it too, you have to have patience and/or someone with a healthy pond that will give you some of their filter media to seed your filter. This way you can add fish slowly without as much concern as ammonia poisoning.
Other tests that are helpful are ammonia, it's almost a must for first establishing your pond.

[PS3]

go to the pest store and buy some feeder gold fish and feed them every day.
this will ge the pond started and get the dechlorinator before puting the fish in
get like 10 to 15 fish

[DoDad]

If you haven't bought the dechlorinator and don't have chloramines in your water supply get some Sodium thiosulphate it's cheap .
With a new pond that doesn't have it's bio up to speed you could use a product like ClorAm-X that will remove, and thereby detoxify, ammonia, chlorine and chloramines from water

[DrDave]

I make my own declor using Sodium Thiosulphate as well. 4oz per gallon of distilled water is the formula I use.

[mailman62]

was told by a pond and garden store that if i just let the newly filled pond run that the chlorine will evaperate in week or so , is this true or not ? thanks

[DrDave]

In a week yes. But if you have fish in there, they will be dead in 6 hours or less.

[Squidhead]

mailman62 said:

was told by a pond and garden store that if i just let the newly filled pond run that the chlorine will evaperate in week or so , is this true or not ? thanks

Yes, that would be true. But that is chlorine only! Chloramine will not "evaporate". Chloramine needs to be removed by a good dechlor or activated carbon (AC) filtration. For effective AC filtration there is a minimum contact time with the AC media for it to work properly. You would need to contact your water company and ask if they are using chloramine. Sometimes you can go to the water companies website or your town or counties website for the info. Dechlor is inexpensive compared to other pond necessities. It would be silly to not use it. A $40 -$50 bottle of quality dechlor will detoxify 40,000 gallons of water. So after the initial fill a bottle will treat a 1000 gallon pond for 3 years with a weekly water change of 25%. If you do bi-weekly changes 6 years.

[digginponds]

sorry I suppose I have healthy fish.....when I added the fish from the 400gallon,to the 1200 gallon,I did no treatment to the water............mmmmmmmm,seem to be swimmin,and fine to me......But then again these fish were born in my 3000 gallon pond up North.
Also the market companies want ya to buy there stuff.Trust me Illinois is the largest Pond supply state in the whole USA.I've heard every excuse to use chemicals,bla,bla,bla

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Edited by digginponds, 05 July 2010 - 03:08 PM.

[addy1]

We have chlorine free well water.

Your fish look great diggin

[Squidhead]

digginponds said:

sorry I suppose I have healthy fish.....when I added the fish from the 400gallon,to the 1200 gallon,I did no treatment to the water............mmmmmmmm,seem to be swimmin,and fine to me......But then again these fish were born in my 3000 gallon pond up North.
Also the market companies want ya to buy there stuff.Trust me Illinois is the largest Pond supply state in the whole USA.I've heard every excuse to use chemicals,bla,bla,bla

Diggin, I'm glad your fish are alive and doing fine. What I'm saying is if you don't know what your water supply is using for disinfection don't assume because someone got away with it, you will. I don't base my information on advertising and never said I did. Go to your state or national EPA site or Science departments of major universities and search water science or try similar ethical reliable sources and see if you make the same judgement on the issue. It's your pond and your decision do what you want but, a fact is a fact!

You can smoke 2 packs of cigarettes a day and maybe never get cancer, you wont have the lung capacity or be healthier, but you might live a full life....or you might just die! you can speed in your car all your life and never get a ticket or you could speed once and get nailed. Then of course theres Russian roulette....

[digginponds]

I didn't assume anything,this is what I've done with all 14 ponds I have built.................... I realize the danger in water,like well water hard water.....precaution is a good thing,just not for my fish,considering I know where my water comes from. Gotta remember some of those chemicals can cause CANCER,kill your plant life etc.Just like adding peroxide to kill string algae,sure it kills it,but it also irritates the fish gills.....catch22,catch22
Each to there own pond,my friends

[Squidhead]

To be clear, I wasn't saying you are assuming. What I meant was don't assume because someone doesn't use a dechlor it will be OK for you. Every water company uses different amounts of chlorine and/or chloramine. It can vary from .5ppm to 3.0ppm of just chlorine.

If anyone is interested-

People can go to www.epa.gov and see if you can get your areas water treatment report online here is a link to the EPA's FAQ's on Chloramine http://www.epa.gov/s...chloramine2.pdf
There are a number of other things you can come up with if you search. Use the sites from universities and government agencies.

[addy1]

We have a well so no chlorine! yippe one less thing to think of. if we have fish that is

[digginponds]

[quote name='Squidhead']To be clear, I wasn't saying you are assuming. What I meant was don't assume because someone doesn't use a dechlor it will be OK for you. Every water company uses different amounts of chlorine and/or chloramine. It can vary from .5ppm to 3.0ppm of just chlorine.

If anyone is interested-

People can go to [url]www.epa.gov[/url] and see if you can get your areas water treatment report online here is a link to the EPA's FAQ's on Chloramine [url]http://www.epa.gov/safewater/disinfection/chloramine/pdfs/chloramine2.pdf[/url]
There are a number of other things you can come up with if you search. Use the sites from universities and government agencies.[/quote] good info:arrow:

[quote name='Squidhead']To be clear, I wasn't saying you are assuming. gottcha!

I suppose in smaller towns water is a issue,here in the 3rd largest city in the USA,our water supply is great......Heck I can take fred out of the pond put him in a glass of water and he'll just swim,lucky me huh?