Help

[j.w]

I agree re new test. Thank u. Yesterday was an upsetting day losing my fish then tons of questions coming at me

Sorry for you and hope you can work through this and things get better. Didn't mean to upset you more w/lots of questions.

 

[MermaidTracy]

we only see your words sorry you lost the fish, but that is why when they breed they do so by the hundreds or thousands. and why a 30 inch koi can sell for 10,000 or more

I don't have koi for that reason. They get way too large

 

[WaterGardener]

Sorry you had a bad day. With improvements to your pond's water quality the fish will do better.

Forgot to say that the baking soda should be dissolved in pond water and then poured into the pond.

Finally was able to see the test results. Hard for me to see that on .y.phone. The pH is in the acid range, so it looks as though you have had a pH crash. As @BKPondcritters stated, that and the KH need to be raised. As soon as possible would be good to start. Just don't try to do it all at once.

If you can get the dimensions of your pond, we can help get an approximate size.

 

[Lisak1]

Being upset is understandable but emotion can't get in the way of reason and logic. At the end of the day, they are fish. Sometimes they die and we figure it out; sometimes we just never know why.

Runoff is possible with a flat patio - they all run off somewhere. More than one pond has suffered from a nearby patio being cleaned or re-sealed or treated and the runoff killed the fish.
How big is your pond? That's a key piece of information to have and not hard to figure out. Even if you're only using de-chlor you need to know pond volume
Your filter - is it a biological filter? Or mechanical? Is it properly sized? Have you cleaned it recently? Is it meant for a pond with fish or is it more of a water feature pump/filter all in one deal?

Here we are, just a bunch of strangers on the internet trying to help fellow pond lovers out. Sometimes we have to ask DOZENS of questions before we get to the root cause. You'd be surprised what people overlook.

 

[j.w]

Can one prevent a ph crash by keeping a bag of crushed oyster shells in a pond?

 

[WaterGardener]

I have never used ground oyster shells, but a lot of people do.

The problem that I see with it is that it will only dissolve in acidic water. So your pH would already have to have crashed for it to work to raise it. And it would only raise it until it was no longer acidic, so to around 7 maybe. So it seems to me that it won't prevent a crash. Also, it dissolves very slowly and could take a long time to correct the low pH.

I have read about people having it in their ponds and the pH crashed after a heavy rain. So it would seem that the answer is no, it won't prevent a crash.

I'm sure there will be others who swear that it works in their ponds and that's great.

I would like to see a scientific study on that if anyone can find one. That might help to answer the question.

 

[GBBUDD]

Can one prevent a ph crash by keeping a bag of crushed oyster shells in a pond?

I doubt it but it will not hurt either its kinda like a daily nlvitamin , will you become 25 again healthy and bouncing around . I doub t it . But is a small dose of calcium a benefit ? it sure is in my eyes

 

[j.w]

I doubt it but it will not hurt either its kinda like a daily nlvitamin , will you become 25 again healthy and bouncing around . I doub t it . But is a small dose of calcium a benefit ? it sure is in my eyes

I have some hanging around for chickens so I might just put some in a net bag by moving water and whatever.

 

[Mmathis]

I kept crushed oyster shells in my bog, mixed in with the pea gravel.

 

[GBBUDD]

I kept crushed oyster shells in my bog, mixed in with the pea gravel.

It can't hurt it's next to impossible to get the ph and kh too high