I dropped cement in the pond water

[markodare]

Hi
I've just constructed a garden pond.
It's 1.8m by 1.2m with railway sleepers around the top. I filled it with water then decided to place some concrete slabs around the sleepers. When placing the cement on the sleepers, some cement (not much) fell into the water. There's some gravel on the liner and the water has gone a bit cloudy.
Will it damage the fish after putting then in, there is no fish in the pond at the moment.

 

[GBBUDD]

It will spike your ph let the water settle and clear and you should be fine

 

[j.w]

and welcome @markodare

 

[CometKeith]

You can always do some water changes before you put your fish in if you are concerned. I get all sorts of silt and sand and construction debris in my pond because so many people are building close to us. The only real issue is it gets cloudy after a hard rain. I also use a pond vacuum to clean the bottom.

 

[Stephen Noble]

Hi
I've just constructed a garden pond.
It's 1.8m by 1.2m with railway sleepers around the top. I filled it with water then decided to place some concrete slabs around the sleepers. When placing the cement on the sleepers, some cement (not much) fell into the water. There's some gravel on the liner and the water has gone a bit cloudy.
Will it damage the fish after putting then in, there is no fish in the pond at the moment.

No harm since there are no fish. Let it settle and see if you can vacuum any loose stuff out. Was it just a small amount or an entire bag? If it was a tremendous amount then just drain the pond, clean it out and refill. Your dimensions indicate that the pond is at least 230 UK gallons (no depth given so depth of .5 Meters used) so it isn't a massive amount of water. Agree with the above, a small amount is no big issue. I am interested in your railway sleepers. Are they actual sleepers that are treated? If so, is there any chance they can leach into the pond? By the way, Welcome to the Garden Pond Forums!

 

[Mr. Green Frog]

Good catch Stephen. Yeah most don't realize those rail wood ties/sleepers have creosote and creosote is a known carcinogen. Those logs are treated with nasty chemicals to inhibit pests from eating them. There are laws in many places that restrict where they can actually be placed, due the risk of leeching and apparently in the US, EPA has no allowance for use in home landscaping (our local hardware stores are permitted to sell it "used," which seems to be some grey area under the assumption people purchasing it are not using it in personal landscaping situations i.e. it's "sale" is legal, but where you use it is restricted).

I suppose if you seal them 100% with something like an oil based clear sealant which almost needs sprayed on to get full coverage and numerous coatings, or better yet, a clear epoxy, you might be able to get by even if still illegal, but would ditch them in favor of something more aquatic friendly. Lots of plastic decking stuff that might be more suitable. Could stack them for neat appearances.

 

[GBBUDD]

I can not speak for the entire country but i extremely doubt there is any selling of creosote treated timber to the general public . That is some environmentally unfriendly stuff. There are simiar products that maybe being labeled as such to boost sales . Even the rail roads are moving away from them and have started using concrete.