Minimal time between water changes?

[jay moussy]

I accidentally ran down my 800 gal. pond water level by two feet and now need to gradually refill, as not to shock goldfish.

I put in 160 gal. yesterday, tap water with dechlorinator.
How should I develop a schedule to gradually refill?

BTW, I used to top off using three 30 gal. barrels, letting water sit for half day, then dechlorinate., then siphon into pond.
For this new situation, I let hose run into pond, time/calculate rate, and add dechlorinator as I go. Is this OK?

 

[Stephen Noble]

Not sure how much water you lost; a two-foot loss could be quite significant in a shallow pond. So I am not sure of the scope of your water loss. You would probably do fine refilling it gradually over a couple of days. This time of year, the water temp differential between your pond and the tap shouldn't be much of an issue but the pH could. I would proceed slowly unless you have some compelling reason to fill it faster. In this case, adding dechlor as you slowly add water over a period of hours is fine. Don't worry about topping it off in a hurry, just get enough water in the pond to keep it from overheating and for filtration to properly function. If not an emergency, perhaps wait a day and then trickle in about 90-gallons water over a period of several hours. Best yet, is your 30x3-gallon siphon system with pre-treated water. I have two 50-gallon barrels that are used to pre-treat the water. This water is then trickled into my ponds/aquariums. Works great. Good luck!
Stephen

 

[poconojoe]

Just as a note for others...I have a device that screws on the end of my hose that digitally reads out how many gallons passes through it. Very handy when needing to know how much de-chlorinator/conditioner to add.

 

[jay moussy]

Just as a note for others...I have a device that screws on the end of my hose that digitally reads out how many gallons passes through it. Very handy when needing to know how much de-chlorinator/conditioner to add.

I measured, my hose delivers 100 gal. in 14.6 minutes!
Timed two 30-gal bins, then the corresponding math.
I need to look into devices like you mention.

For some reason, my town-supplied local water pressure is the lowest I ever experienced, short of a mountain cabin getting a hose off a brook!

 

[poconojoe]

There are many of them on Amazon ranging from $15-$50. The one I have is no longer available, but there are many others. Search "hose water flow meter".