My new fish are listless. I stirred up the bottom of the pond three days ago.

[MitchM]

Just a little bit overwhelmed. I have much to learn.

Ask any question.
Nothing is too basic or complicated.

 

[Lisak1]

@Karen Crowley I'm glad to hear your fish are doing better - that's the only thing that really matters!

I realized after I answered your question that it wasn't really a complete answer. Stirring up a bit of debris on the bottom of the pond won't bother fish. But if you were to have a pond with a thick layer of debris, it could actually be trapping dangerous gases that would be released by stirring up the bottom. Just wanted to clarify that for you - although that's not the case in your pond - as well as anyone else who might read that answer in the future and think "oh good! That two foot thick layer of gunk won't hurt at all if I start swirling it around!" haha!

 

[Karen Crowley]

@Karen Crowley In addiiton to the Seachem Prime that @BarbO mentioned, I would definitely recommend you to test your water as soon as possible with a liquid/drop master test kit and post the results. You probably won't like this but you're most likely going to need to rehome those koi sooner than later. Koi get HUGE and you're already pretty well stocked with 5 goldfish in about 200 gallons. Most people will only recommend koi if your pond is over 1000 gallons and that's the low end of the range.

This is the kit I use to test my water since it has the tests for pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000255NC...olid=34HXSAYHGQHJG&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

I hope your fish do well, but in the long run I fear the koi will need a larger pond, maybe it's time to start digging!?

I'm just having my pet shop test the pond water for now, since it's such a small one (200 gallons).
I'm going to work on converting my sport pool (5' deep) into a larger pond asap.

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

I'm so glad to hear your fish are doing better @Karen Crowley and we would all love to hear about your pool to pond conversion when you get it started.

 

[Karen Crowley]

@Karen Crowley I'm glad to hear your fish are doing better - that's the only thing that really matters!

I realized after I answered your question that it wasn't really a complete answer. Stirring up a bit of debris on the bottom of the pond won't bother fish. But if you were to have a pond with a thick layer of debris, it could actually be trapping dangerous gases that would be released by stirring up the bottom. Just wanted to clarify that for you - although that's not the case in your pond - as well as anyone else who might read that answer in the future and think "oh good! That two foot thick layer of gunk won't hurt at all if I start swirling it around!" haha!

Thanks for the clarification! (No pun intended)

 

[BarbO]

Karen, really glad to hear the fish are fine now. Chlorine is a dangerous thing at times, I speak from experience. I accidentally killed a whole tank of fish when I did a big water change and added Metro powder instead of dechlor. Same bottle of white powder, but different labels on each...never again to make that mistake.
Barb

 

[Karen Crowley]

Karen, really glad to hear the fish are fine now. Chlorine is a dangerous thing at times, I speak from experience. I accidentally killed a whole tank of fish when I did a big water change and added Metro powder instead of dechlor. Same bottle of white powder, but different labels on each...never again to make that mistake.
Barb

Barb, sorry to hear that. It crushes me to know I have killed goldfish once before. I took on the responsibility to care for them, but failed.
I have been nervous ever since I started covering my pond. I just knew something was terrorizing my fish. Turns out we have a visitor every night. Ever hear of a Cane Toad, aka Bufo? I'm buying a net!

 

[Karen Crowley]

I agree with ShawnInfirmity. I also have a 200 gallon pond, with allot of plants and filtration. I currently have three comet and three sabumkin goldfish. I had ten but this was too much for the system and caused and algae bloom and an increase in my nitrates.
The algae you cleaned of feeds off of nitrates. If you get rid of it you will have to find some other way to deal with nitrate levels.
Personally I use a gravel vac to do about a 25% water change once a week. This also remove the fish waste and other funk on the bottom of the pond. Otherwise the funk will decompose and increase the biological load on the pond.
I would not remove the algae it your friend and the fish also eat it. Do you have any plants?

Panzer, how long do you think that I can hold off the process of establishing a new environment for my growing fish? Since you have six goldfish, are you going to also have to create a larger home for them?

 

[Panzer13]

Panzer, how long do you think that I can hold off the process of establishing a new environment for my growing fish? Since you have six goldfish, are you going to also have to create a larger home for them?

I live in a townhouse and my backyard space is very limited, about a 20'x25' area. I have used all the space I have available.
My goal is to have enough plants in and around my pond to handle to handle at least the majority of the biological load from my six fish. So far that has been a real challenge do to our cold weather.
Their are allot of ways to improve water quality, filters, bogs, plants, and yes decreasing the fish population.
Even if you do expand odds are your fish will breed and you could find yourself with to great of a biological load.
I think the most important quest is what do you want to do? This is supposed to be fun after all and everyone has a budget. So keep that in mind.
I think in my case when the weather gets nice and my plants take off things will balance out.
Being in Florida I would think that water lettuce and water hyacinth would take up allot of the nutrients that your algae is feeding on. I just had a whiskey barrel with four small goldfish last year and they did fine with those plants and a 40% water change a week.
I invested in some barely straw, which is supposed to produce low levels of hydrogen peroxide when it decomposes in water. Hopefully it will work, we will see. Worst comes to worst I invest in a UV sterilizer.
What ever you decide to do

 

[Karen Crowley]

I've watched many videos over the past few days regarding the conversion of swimming pools to ponds. Mostly, the videos were elaborate constructions. I found one guy in Australia who shows pool to pond ideas, but I wasn't able to ask questions.
So, does anyone out there know if I can use the pool pump etc? Can't I simply dechlorinate the pool and maybe run it for a certain period of time?

 

[Karen Crowley]

I live in a townhouse and my backyard space is very limited, about a 20'x25' area. I have used all the space I have available.
My goal is to have enough plants in and around my pond to handle to handle at least the majority of the biological load from my six fish. So far that has been a real challenge do to our cold weather.
Their are allot of ways to improve water quality, filters, bogs, plants, and yes decreasing the fish population.
Even if you do expand odds are your fish will breed and you could find yourself with to great of a biological load.
I think the most important quest is what do you want to do? This is supposed to be fun after all and everyone has a budget. So keep that in mind.
I think in my case when the weather gets nice and my plants take off things will balance out.
Being in Florida I would think that water lettuce and water hyacinth would take up allot of the nutrients that your algae is feeding on. I just had a whiskey barrel with four small goldfish last year and they did fine with those plants and a 40% water change a week.
I invested in some barely straw, which is supposed to produce low levels of hydrogen peroxide when it decomposes in water. Hopefully it will work, we will see. Worst comes to worst I invest in a UV sterilizer.
What ever you decide to do

I also am using barley straw. So far, I haven't noticed great results, but I am hoping that in time (a couple of weeks maybe?) the green water will clear up. I just want to see the fish.

 

[Lisak1]

I've never read great things about barley straw. Someone can correct me if I've got this wrong, but I think the idea is that it releases hydrogen peroxide as it decays. But then you have a bunch of decaying barley straw. So why not skip to the chase and just add the hydrogen peroxide?

 

[Panzer13]

I've never read great things about barley straw. Someone can correct me if I've got this wrong, but I think the idea is that it releases hydrogen peroxide as it decays. But then you have a bunch of decaying barley straw. So why not skip to the chase and just add the hydrogen peroxide?

Ok, yes that is true it does produce hydrogen peroxide or H2O2, and it can take a month or so for the barley to decompose and release it.

So I have done my research on this. First of all I am going to say that H2O2 is a toxic substance. It has the ability to kill all life in the pond at high enough levels.

So just dump some H2O2 in there and be done with it is some really reckless advice.

There are several algaecides that use H2O2 as an active ingredients, and I am sure that if they are used as directed they would be safe for fish. But what is it going to do to the plants and beneficial algae is the pond? If you kill off all of your plants and algae what is going to deal with the nitrates in the water? All that dead algae is going decompose and drastically increase your biological load. I can go on but this seems a mush worse issue than green water.

The goal with the barley straw is to slowly release small amounts of H2O2 in the water in order to retard the growth of some algae. Namely the free floating algae that turns our ponds green. Yes it does take a month or so to become effective, but they do sell a pond safe barley extract that you could use in the interim.

 

[Lisak1]

So just dump some H2O2 in there and be done with it is some really reckless advice.

I'm not known to give reckless advice on the regular, but go ahead and try to put enough hydrogen peroxide in your pond to kill your plants or fish. You'd need gallons and gallons and gallons at full 35% strength. Make that barrels. H2O2 is incredibly safe at a 3% dilution - in fact, I spray it directly on my plants in my gardens to control fungus and wilt. I had fusaria in one garden bed and the advice I got from a master gardener was to stop using the bed for SEVEN YEARS. I decided to try H2O2 instead and was able to use the bed that same season. It's great stuff. AND it's cheap.

I use sodium percarbonate in my pond to clean algae off my rocks and waterfall with reckless abandon. The only thing I've ever killed is the string algae I put it on. The byproducts of sodium percarbonate are hydrogen peroxide and soda ash. Also great stuff which is sold in the pond trade for 30 or more times the price as Eco-Blast, among other products.

And yes, killing off algae WILL increase the amount of dead organic material in your pond. I remove as much as possible by hand before I treat it and then catch as much of it as possible after it's dead before it gets in the pond.

 

[Panzer13]

I'm not known to give reckless advice on the regular, but go ahead and try to put enough hydrogen peroxide in your pond to kill your plants or fish. You'd need gallons and gallons and gallons at full 35% strength. Make that barrels. H2O2 is incredibly safe at a 3% dilution - in fact, I spray it directly on my plants in my gardens to control fungus and wilt. I had fusaria in one garden bed and the advice I got from a master gardener was to stop using the bed for SEVEN YEARS. I decided to try H2O2 instead and was able to use the bed that same season. It's great stuff. AND it's cheap.

I use sodium percarbonate in my pond to clean algae off my rocks and waterfall with reckless abandon. The only thing I've ever killed is the string algae I put it on. The byproducts of sodium percarbonate are hydrogen peroxide and soda ash. Also great stuff which is sold in the pond trade for 30 or more times the price as Eco-Blast, among other products.

And yes, killing off algae WILL increase the amount of dead organic material in your pond. I remove as much as possible by hand before I treat it and then catch as much of it as possible after it's dead before it gets in the pond.

I know I probably offended you and for that I apologize. However your statement of “So why not skip to the chase and just add the hydrogen peroxide?” is rather vague and dismissive.

Further none of your rebuttal makes any of my statements less true.

In the end I feel we have a difference of methodology here. I would prefer to use a more natural slower approach. If it doesn’t work I can always opt for “heavier artillery” later.

I appreciate that in your experience your method has been effective for you.

In my experience introducing chemicals into a closed system such as a pond or aquarium can sometimes have drastic and unforeseen effects. So you will forgive me if I choose to and advise others to start small and ramp up if and when necessary. Also keep in mind that both I and Karen Crowley have small ponds, 200 gallons. I see from your profile that your pond is 4000 gallons.