Heres the story,
I built my pond last summer, over christmas it bust because I used a cheap poor liner. I lifted everything and put in a new liner made with butyl rubber.
I put my fish in, checked water quality, all was fine. ph level was 7ish.
Hired a builder to lay slabs around the pond, I went to work - told the builder "DO NOT GET CEMENT IN THE POND"
when I came home there was as much cement powder in the pond as around it under the slabs, I checked the water quality - all was fine, except the PH was of the scale, my PH strips couldnt even read high enough.
I drained the water down entirely and cleaned all of the cement mix out of the pond, filled the pond up again, put the fish back in and checked ph instantly, it was around 7.5.
a week has passed, and I have been checking my ph level and its been rising every day, to help this along I was doing 50% water changes every day and cleaning out the pond with a pond hoover to try and get rid of any more residue that might be there.
today i had 6 dead goldfish and a dead koi, so I have drained the pond down again, taken the fish out and put them into a tank which i purchased and they are now in the house, ph level is around 7, I cut away any excess cement which was laying around the edges of the pond, the builder tried to smooth the edge with cement but I cut it all away as I am thinking rain water is soaking through it and into the pond, to be honest his cement work isnt good as the mix is still quite loose and i can lift with my finger tips.
the pond water has been back in now for around 4 hours and I check the ph and its sitting around 7.5-8, im hoping it doesnt raise and I can put my fish back in, but im keeping a check on this for a few days before I put them in again, am I doing the right thing? anybody have any pointers? ideas? etc.....i really am clutching at straws at this point...
I built my pond last summer, over christmas it bust because I used a cheap poor liner. I lifted everything and put in a new liner made with butyl rubber.
I put my fish in, checked water quality, all was fine. ph level was 7ish.
Hired a builder to lay slabs around the pond, I went to work - told the builder "DO NOT GET CEMENT IN THE POND"
when I came home there was as much cement powder in the pond as around it under the slabs, I checked the water quality - all was fine, except the PH was of the scale, my PH strips couldnt even read high enough.
I drained the water down entirely and cleaned all of the cement mix out of the pond, filled the pond up again, put the fish back in and checked ph instantly, it was around 7.5.
a week has passed, and I have been checking my ph level and its been rising every day, to help this along I was doing 50% water changes every day and cleaning out the pond with a pond hoover to try and get rid of any more residue that might be there.
today i had 6 dead goldfish and a dead koi, so I have drained the pond down again, taken the fish out and put them into a tank which i purchased and they are now in the house, ph level is around 7, I cut away any excess cement which was laying around the edges of the pond, the builder tried to smooth the edge with cement but I cut it all away as I am thinking rain water is soaking through it and into the pond, to be honest his cement work isnt good as the mix is still quite loose and i can lift with my finger tips.
the pond water has been back in now for around 4 hours and I check the ph and its sitting around 7.5-8, im hoping it doesnt raise and I can put my fish back in, but im keeping a check on this for a few days before I put them in again, am I doing the right thing? anybody have any pointers? ideas? etc.....i really am clutching at straws at this point...
