New pond lover

[leeannecastro]

Hi everyone,
My name is Lee-Anne and I live in Colorado.
I built my pond in June. It is a double level pond, about 2000 gallons with two waterfalls. I have a 1250GPH pump and a DIY filter system that is set up so that the pump sucks the water through a series of filter pads in a container.
This new set up seems to work pretty well, but I am planning on building a 55 gal biofilter next spring.
I have struggled with some issues up till now, but hopefully they are behind me. We had a bad rainstorm last week and my pond flooded and got some mud in it. The filter was doing it's job and clearing out the water but then over the weekend my water suddenly turned green and I found both of my large Plecos dead. They were each over 15". They seemed to be covered in some white and green slime. I am not sure what killed them but my goldfish seemed unaffected. I didn't want to take any chances so I rounded up the fish and drained and cleaned the pond. Unfortunately, I lost a few of my goldfish while I had them in an aquarium overnight, but I have treated the water and put the remaining fish back in the pond and all seems to be well now. The water is clear and the fish are healthy.
Has anyone ever had a pleco (suckerfish) die suddenly like this?
I am not going to get anymore plecos until next spring as they don't fare well in the winter, but when I do, I want to make sure that I avoid another catastrophe, I had heard that when they reach that size, they are pretty hardy and no one that I have spoken to seems to have a clue on this matter.
I am going to try to attach some photos of my pond. It is still in progress and next spring I will be planting some vegitation around it and finishing the edges with some flat stones.
Thanks,
Lee-Anne

 

[DrDave]

Hi Lee-Anne, welcome to the Forum.
The Plecos likely died for several reasons, I suspect the silt didn't do them any good and the sudden algae bloom from the nutrients in the soil, plus the free nitrogen the rains give us helped the algae. Algae robs the water of Oxygen, especially at night.

Think about replacing your Plecos with a Chinese High Fin Banded Shark. They survive winters here in So Cal but in Colorado you might want to bring them in.

 

[leeannecastro]

Thanks for the reply Dr Dave. I asked at my local fish shop about the high fin sharks but they didn't have any and the lady had never heard of them.
I unfortunately don't have a great resource for ponds and info around Denver. Unless anyone is in the same area and has a good place they want to tell me about...
We actually had another severe rain storm here for the last 3 days, but I learned my lesson and I drained some of the pond water in advance. I also dug a channel leading away from my pond, just to be safe. luckily nothing flooded and evryone is doing fine now.
I tested the water today and everything is within normal range.