New strain of algae?

[milocat2012]

Wow, 11 fish gone! what a shame! heron is the biggest pain for any pond owner for sure. In my previous pond that i had a few years back we constantly had to keep the pond covered with the nets. That pond was located on big property on rural land. we've tried about any possible heron proofing including sprinkler scare crow which worked for about 2 years, but after couple of years using it one of them just managed not to care about being sprayed. So one day i discovered fish missing, next morning i woke up real early at sunrise and was watching my pond from the window, so to my surprise i saw him just coming to the pond, being constantly sprayed with the sprinkler scare crow, and not care one bit. I really had a desire to get a shot gun... if you can only shoot them... but instead we had to keep the pond covered since then. and even while it was covered they managed to kill another 2 fish: even know that they couldn't get the fish out, they still were praying on it, and one time i found dead koi floating in the pond with the pierced body. So heron just stuck his beak and poke the fish, couldn't take it out but result was still the same for me: fish was dead.
it will be 4th season since we moved and build this pond, and so far we've been lucky. I suspect it's because the area is very populated, houses are closed to each other and our back yard is small. However i saw mr heron couple of months ago during winter months sitting on the top my neighbor's garage looking down on my pond, but he still didn't have guts to come down yet... but ever since we saw him we installed drop cam that alerts me of any movement, so i'm watching the pond always on the camera, even if i'm not home. Not sure if i will start covering it or not yet. Just a shame that you have to keep natural looking pond covered with ugly nets.
As for my bio filter: i had big problem last spring with it not maturing quick: it took over 2 months before it finally started to work. That long of time was because we had crazy cold spring last year. I didn't get warm till beginning of june. and till then water temperature was probably around 55-60 F. so fish were eating but good bacteria not building up real good till the water gets to at least 70 F and stays there for at least 2-3 weeks. so the whole spring i had to get fish to survive on ammonia locking or removing products. Cost me a fortune to keep buying them. Then because of that kind of spring we had, lots of my fish broke out with nasty ulcers, fin, mouth rot. I had to cure them all summer with medications, injections, etc. Also lost a few koi during a summer because of it. so far this spring is stating the same cold. Just hopping that it will warm up and stays warm soon. So far i hadn't have ammonia problems yet, but the i hand't fed the fish yet also. only for a few warm days we had they eat some of that string algae that i have a lot of in the pond. but still getting ready and stock up on ammo lock and other ammonia removing products.

 

[addy1]

Look at what j.w did here
https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/heron-netting-101.13205/#post-195419

Keeps the heron out, it can not strike the fish through the net, it is too high above the water and they can not coil their neck and strike. Same as what I put over my pond, just slightly different netting and not hard on the eye. You can still work on the pond without removing it.

She used a finer net, even harder to see. My net is 3-4 feet above the water, since I hung it the heron has not stopped by. We have herons fly over our pond and yard every morning every evening. We are in their food, roosting, nesting flight path, something lol. I have seen the heron for the past week flying over, usually right over our yard.

 

[milocat2012]

i always thought that biological bacteria safe for ponds, but today such a disaster happened to my pond. Will try to explain what happened: i was cleaning up the pond, tested the water and finally saw slight nitrite raising to 0.5 ppm. For me it was a good sign because of unusual cold spring temperatures didn't let my bio filters to catch up. For the past couple of months ammonia was very hight and no nitrite present. So the only thing i could do to protect fish is to consistently every couple of days add ammolock and it's been working fine. I do have some othe ammonia removing products, but i thinks that ammolock works best in the spring, as it still keeps the ammonia to feed the bio bacteria and help filet to catch up, and keeps the ammonia locked and not toxic to fish. After past few days that temperatures stayed above 70 F, it started to show some life in the filters, so i thought i'd add some microbe lift Super Start Bead Filter Bacteria to help spike up the filter. I had a small amount left in the quart bottle that i used couple weeks prior and i just opened a new bottle that i purchased a month ago to add more. I turned off my pump, and add it in the pre filter basket as i usually do, let it sit for about half an hour and meanwhile sprinkled some Green Glean granular algaecide on my waterfall to get rid of some started to show algae blooms. I was doing the same routing for past 2 years without any incident. All fish were perfectly fine before and while i was doing it. Then i put the pump back up and walk in the house. I got back out in the yard about an hour later and at first i couldn't understand what happened: water looked very dirty and had a brownish tint to it and i saw a few fish lying on the bottom of the pond looking dead, i ran to call my husband, and we started to discover that most of the fish are dead of near to be dead. We immediately grabbed the quarantine tank just filled a little bit water conditioned it and started to pull all the fish out the water. some of them were already dead and the others we put in the tank they look almost dead, but i just left them in the q-tank with aerator. It's been about 6.5 hours since this disaster happened result: 11 fish are dead all the big ones from 12'' to 24'' (it's 2/3 of my pond) i have a few of them that we manage to pull out still alive in the q-tank. So far they're alive but not sure what morning will bring. We have a drop cam monitoring our pond all the time, so we started to watch the tapes back to see what was happening and it was horrific to see all tapes are show that fish are fine up to the point when i put the pump back on: about 15- 20 min later all the fish started to jump out the water so hight some of them were hitting themselves on the waterfall rocks, it seemed that something in the water was poisoning them. I still don't know what could've caused it. Everything i did today i've done hundreds of times: i used the same algae side powder all last summer from the same bucket and i used it this year twice already in the same manner on the waterfall. The only thing was new is that new gallon bottle of microbe lift Super Start Bead Filter Bacteria, and even it says everywhere that it's harmful to fish but i don't know what to think anymore. Maybe this new bottle was somehow toxic i don't know. Something killed my fish in the matter of 30 min. I drained all the 3000 gallons of water out the pond, now refilling it with new water. i did keep the sample jar of the water that killed the fish. I'd like to test it on chemicals but not sure where i can do it. Anybody has any idea how possibly do a chemical test on the water? I also would like to test that bottle of microbe lift that i put in the water. I need to find what killed my fish so it wouldn't happened again.

 

[Priscilla]

Oh no!!!! So sorry to hear of this. Ugh! Losing fish is never easy. I don't know much about the biological add in's so I can't offer any help. But I have noticed that several people on here avoid them.

I hope you find some answers.

 

[Waterbug]

The only thing was new is that new gallon bottle of microbe lift Super Start Bead Filter Bacteria, and even it says everywhere that it's harmful to fish but i don't know what to think anymore. Maybe this new bottle was somehow toxic i don't know. Something killed my fish in the matter of 30 min. I drained all the 3000 gallons of water out the pond, now refilling it with new water. i did keep the sample jar of the water that killed the fish. I'd like to test it on chemicals but not sure where i can do it. Anybody has any idea how possibly do a chemical test on the water? I also would like to test that bottle of microbe lift that i put in the water. I need to find what killed my fish so it wouldn't happened again.

Sorry for your loss.

If you Google "water testing labs" you might be able to find a local lab to test the water.

How much of the Super Start did you add?

There's kind of lot going on chemically in the pond, kind of hard to say.

 

[Dave 54]

I for one trust the range of microbe_lift products that we use , now it could have been one of two things that killed your fish either the super start or the algaecide or both .
My logic is that between them there was a catestrophic oxyjen depleteion of your pond and this is what killed of your fish so quickly.
Your high ammonia content of the water being the final straw that broke the camels back so to speak

Dave

 

[milocat2012]

Thanks for replies everybody. i probably added about 2-3 cups of it, but as far as i read you can really overdose it. I think i have an answer now, it doesn't make any easier, but I called the microbe lift just to try to get some answers, they came up with logical explanation that actually made sense. I didn't backwash my Ultima II filter before restarting my pump. Remembering that when i called Aqua UV company last year about filter having hard time catching up in the spring, they told me not to backwash it every week and live it along for 5-6 weeks. But they didn't tell me that if you have your pump off for some time you have to backwash it. The person from microbe lift told me that if you don't backwash it you can release the toxins that been sitting in your filter for the time the pump was off back in the pond and it can turn water toxic. I guess that what it was. I just learn very emotionally hard and financially expensive lesson. Total fish loss count is 12 for today. most of my beloved pet fish are gone. I refiled the pond with fresh water today and let the remaining few fish back in the pond, but one that still was alive last night didn't make it thru the morning. I guess i'd have to start everything over again. I just had a kohaku koi came up with dropsy a few weeks ago, i was able to treat him with baytril injections and saved him. I was so happy that i saved him, but only couple of weeks later unknowingly kill most of them. I guess it was very stupid of me not to know about backwashing filter before restarting.

 

[Fishylove]

Please don't beat yourself up so badly, we all learn from our mistakes unfortunately it comes with a price. Tragic, I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[crsublette]

I didn't backwash my Ultima II filter before restarting my pump. Remembering that when i called Aqua UV company last year about filter having hard time catching up in the spring, they told me not to backwash it every week and live it along for 5-6 weeks. But they didn't tell me that if you have your pump off for some time you have to backwash it. The person from microbe lift told me that if you don't backwash it you can release the toxins that been sitting in your filter for the time the pump was off back in the pond and it can turn water toxic. I guess that what it was.

Sorry about the fish. It is never easy when these events happen, but, to try to recover something from this, view it has a hard earned lesson of what to do and what not to do.


Yep, I think the quote above is the cause of your fish deaths in addition to the fish already being weakened by the ammonia presence, which created a " 1-2 combo punch " that I think was the fish's demise.

At a pH between 8.2~8.5, then takes very little ammonia to weaken fish. This was the first punch that hit the fish, as talked about in the thread An ammonia question... A reading from the strip.

When fish are jumping out of the water like that, then there is likely respiratory problems, which can be cause by the gas. To understand more about the hydrogen sulfide gas, then check out post#19 in keeping pond running all winter.

When you left the filter, without any water circulation (thus without oxygen) in addition to it being quite dirty due to not back-washing for several weeks, then this allowed hydrogen sulfide gas, which is the toxic gas, to accumulate. Fortunately, at a pH of around 8.2~8.5, then only around 3~9% of the gas is actually toxic. However, this can be just enough to damage the fish if they are already weakened. So, this was the second punch. At high pHs, this level of toxic gas would likely not have harmed the fish, as long as the fish did not swim directly through it, if the fish were not weakened due to other issues.

Takes very little time for this gas to be created. If there is a substantial amount of organics present and with warmer temperatures, then takes much less time for this gas to be created. Once during the summer, I was cleaning my pond and had all my pumps off. The pond water was in the high 70 *F range. Took me about a hour to clean the pond. Once I turned the pumps on, I instantly smelled a significant amount of stale water and rotten eggs. All I can think of is that the bio-film was the organics in the plumbing that allowed this to happen. Now, I always keep everything running while cleaning.

Organics significantly increases oxygen depletion, which further aids in the creation of the gas, and, when the water is left stagnant in a pipe, then even the microorganism's bio-film is plenty of organics to turn the water stale.

If your water pH is high, such as above 8.0, and you smell stale water or rotten egg smell, then you are smelling only a very tiny portion of it since the high pH is masking the remainder from being smelled. So, if you have a high pH and smell stale water (or even rotten eggs), then do what you can to significantly increase aeration or dose a very low level of hydrogen peroxide to neutralize the gas, as talked about in post#93 in rocks and gravel on the bottom of the pond.


I don't think for one minute that the bacteria product was the cause of this. Actually, bacteria products are highly recommended for bead filters, included a recommended high alkalinity, since these devices have troubles with creating microorganism colonies. I bet the entire reason the Aqua UV guy told ya to not backwash the filter was due to the fact that the back-washes actually knock off a significant amount of microorganisms off of the beads. There are many reasons why I am not a fan of bead filters and these points made in this post list just a few reasons why I am not a fan of them. Most often than not, irrelevant of what the manufacturer says on the product description, I mostly find folk using bead filters for fines particulate filtration instead of biological filtration.

 

[Herma]

Hey, I am the newbie here, just fresh past my own pond disaster, but why is your pH so high? Why not a water change? My pH used to be always high until I realized that the cinderblock that I was using as a pot holder actually leaches out something that makes the water so alkaline. My pH was up to 10, had pea soup and string algae. After some water exchanges, came down to neutral. Maybe you sprinkled in some fertilizer accidentally?

 

[crsublette]

Hey, I am the newbie here, just fresh past my own pond disaster, but why is your pH so high? Why not a water change? My pH used to be always high until I realized that the cinderblock that I was using as a pot holder actually leaches out something that makes the water so alkaline. My pH was up to 10, had pea soup and string algae. After some water exchanges, came down to neutral. Maybe you sprinkled in some fertilizer accidentally?

Everyone has different water chemistry. My underground well source water is actually 8.6 pH with an alkalinity of around 14ppm and GH around 18ppm.

Other folk that use treated city water, much like areas in southern California, will have a high pH due to the city's water treatments, and have a low alkalinity depending on how the city treats the water. Other areas, such as folk living around the phosphate mines in North Caroline, can having significant algae blooms due to their source water. Other areas actually have a higher concentration iron and potassium.

Water changes only replaces your pond's water to more closely match your source water chemistry, which could cause problems for some folk.

 

[milocat2012]

Thanks everybody for responses. Charles, it's great explanation that you gave me. at this point unfortunately after disaster already happened i was doing tons of research i already knew about toxins, and hydrogen sulfide gas build up. I'm actually very surprised that it's so little information anywhere about importance to backwash inclosed type of bead filers after shutting down your pump even for a little while due to this type of problem. Actually i've done the same thing before several times: restarting the pump without backwashing and nothing ever happened. The pH in my pond wasn't that high: i checked it after the fact happened and it was around 7.8 pH. Well here based on this bad experience that you know that it would depend on many circumstances for it to turn down to be so poisonous to fish. Now of course i'd never do the same thin again, my only concern is if you ever have power outage while you're not at home, how you can prevent something like this from happening after power comes back on. My only thought would be to try and keep your filter fairly clean at all times by backwashing it every few days. That's what i intend to do from now on. I don't care what the Aqua rep told me about not washing good bacteria away, look what happened when i listened to his advice... In my case if killed most of my fish within the matter of minutes before i discovered it and took actions 12 of them were gone. I guess i could consider myself lucky that i could save 8 of them. I actually never saw anything that would kill fish that fast. I'm also very surprised knowing as of how dangerous it could be that manufacturers of those type of bead filters including Aqua UV wouldn't put warnings on their user manuals so people know to always backwash their filters after shutting pump off. in fact i intend to call Aqua and tell them what happened, just to see what they say and even if they're aware of this kind of danger.
As for ammonia, Yes my ammonia readings were pretty hight, due to cooler temperatures and slow filtration establishment but it's hard to say if any of it was toxic or not and how much, because i was consistently adding ammolock so i think all or most of it was locked in non toxic forms. i probably used up closed to 3 big bottles of ammolock so far. I did the same thing last spring and it took closed to 3 months before weather warmed up and filters finally started to do their work.

 

[crsublette]

1) Thanks everybody for responses. Charles, it's great explanation that you gave me. at this point unfortunately after disaster already happened i was doing tons of research i already knew about toxins, and hydrogen sulfide gas build up. 2) I'm actually very surprised that it's so little information anywhere about importance to backwash inclosed type of bead filers after shutting down your pump even for a little while due to this type of problem. 3) Actually i've done the same thing before several times: restarting the pump without backwashing and nothing ever happened. 4) The pH in my pond wasn't that high: i checked it after the fact happened and it was around 7.8 pH. 5) Well here based on this bad experience that you know that it would depend on many circumstances for it to turn down to be so poisonous to fish. Now of course i'd never do the same thin again, 6) my only concern is if you ever have power outage while you're not at home, how you can prevent something like this from happening after power comes back on. My only thought would be to try and keep your filter fairly clean at all times by backwashing it every few days. That's what i intend to do from now on. 7) I don't care what the Aqua rep told me about not washing good bacteria away, look what happened when i listened to his advice... In my case if killed most of my fish within the matter of minutes before i discovered it and took actions 12 of them were gone. I guess i could consider myself lucky that i could save 8 of them. I actually never saw anything that would kill fish that fast. 8) I'm also very surprised knowing as of how dangerous it could be that manufacturers of those type of bead filters including Aqua UV wouldn't put warnings on their user manuals so people know to always backwash their filters after shutting pump off. in fact i intend to call Aqua and tell them what happened, just to see what they say and even if they're aware of this kind of danger.
9) As for ammonia, Yes my ammonia readings were pretty hight, due to cooler temperatures and slow filtration establishment but it's hard to say if any of it was toxic or not and how much, because i was consistently adding ammolock so i think all or most of it was locked in non toxic forms. i probably used up closed to 3 big bottles of ammolock so far. I did the same thing last spring and it took closed to 3 months before weather warmed up and filters finally started to do their work.

1) Thanks everybody for responses. Charles, it's great explanation that you gave me. at this point unfortunately after disaster already happened i was doing tons of research i already knew about toxins, and hydrogen sulfide gas build up.

You're welcome.


2) I'm actually very surprised that it's so little information anywhere about importance to backwash inclosed type of bead filers after shutting down your pump even for a little while due to this type of problem.

Yep, main reason for the little information is that folk would more often shift blame and state what they do not know due to "untested long term damage" paranoia by being too cautious rather than stating what should be common sense. However, as Mark Twain said, "“common sense is very uncommon;” thus, it must be taught by others or achieved through experiences.

If it has been 5~6 weeks for organic waste to build up, then bead filters should absolutely be flushed away before shutting down the pump.


3) Actually i've done the same thing before several times: restarting the pump without backwashing and nothing ever happened.

If I recall correct from your previous post (post#52), then this time was a little different since this time, as you stated, "remembering that when i called Aqua UV company last year about filter having hard time catching up in the spring, they told me not to backwash it every week and live it along for 5-6 weeks." So, this time it was a little different since you had 5~6 weeks of organic waste built up inside the filter.


4) The pH in my pond wasn't that high: i checked it after the fact happened and it was around 7.8 pH.

Yeah, lower pH does not help with these toxic gases. Lower pH chemically makes the toxic gases even worse which is why aeration becomes even more important when the pH decreases.


5) Well here based on this bad experience that you know that it would depend on many circumstances for it to turn down to be so poisonous to fish.

Exactly correct.

In most situations, when there is good aeration within the filtration and pond, then these toxic gases never accumulate to become an issue.


6) my only concern is if you ever have power outage while you're not at home, how you can prevent something like this from happening after power comes back on.

It depends on how your filtration is setup. When using a moving bed (fluidized) filter or a wet/dry filter, then these toxic gases are instantly expelled. Some also attach a bypass to their line to install a venturi on the bypass so to inject air into the water before the water returns to the pond. Also, the water return from the filter could exit into the pond where there is significant aeration, such as a waterfall or stream or near a air disc bubbler.


7) I don't care what the Aqua rep told me about not washing good bacteria away, look what happened when i listened to his advice...

Yep, I am always cautious when taking advice from salesman since they are more often interested in shifting blame rather than admitting they told the customer inadequate information.


8) I'm also very surprised knowing as of how dangerous it could be that manufacturers of those type of bead filters including Aqua UV wouldn't put warnings on their user manuals so people know to always backwash their filters after shutting pump off. in fact i intend to call Aqua and tell them what happened, just to see what they say and even if they're aware of this kind of danger.

It will be interesting to hear what they have to say. My guess is that they will revert to saying some variant of, "the instructions state you need to backwash the filter"; however, this time there were extenuating circumstances, such as the advice told by a AquaUV rep, that created the problem.

This is why I mostly do business with serious hobbyists, such as those who sell to and are involved in the "contest show" arena where the hobbyists take the advice given extremely serious. There are a few good filtration businesses out there that were started by these same serious hobbyists. However, you will not know of them since they are not national and significantly lack the marketing budget of the national product chains.


9) As for ammonia, Yes my ammonia readings were pretty hight, due to cooler temperatures and slow filtration establishment but it's hard to say if any of it was toxic or not and how much, because i was consistently adding ammolock so i think all or most of it was locked in non toxic forms. i probably used up closed to 3 big bottles of ammolock so far. I did the same thing last spring and it took closed to 3 months before weather warmed up and filters finally started to do their work.

The microorganisms and other enzymes actually digest the AmmoLock so the organisms can properly digest the ammonia. The shelf life of ammonia binder products, such as AmmoLock, are quite short once dosed in the water. This is why an ammonia rebound is often experienced with these products. I hope you were following the instructions, which state from the Drs. Foster and Smith : "Add 5 ml per 10 US gallons of aquarium water. Continue to add Ammo Lock every 2 days until ammonia is not detected. If after 7 days, ammonia is still present, perform a partial water change, service your biological filter and reduce feeding. "

However, as stated in API's document, as cited with references, "The first stage of the test was to prove that AMMO LOCK caused no adverse effects to live fish cells. Under controlled conditions, live fish cells were exposed to a 10 times recommended dose of Ammo Lock". Personally, I would never recommend to dose this much, but these products are made so to over dose the water and still not hurt the fish. However, I would still do a slow major water change (around 40% or more) once you stop using the AmmoLock so to remove any salts that the product put into the pond.

Thus, I truly doubt the ammonia binder product could have been in any way possible responsible for your fish's demise.

 

[milocat2012]

Thanks you Charles for detailed break down and explanations. I don't think that not enough aeration is the problem in my pond. I'll give you a little heads up how my pond is set up: firstly once the water comes to intake baskets (i have one 1/2 H.P. artesian pump, but since my pond is quite large: about 3200 gal i set it up with 2 intake baskets on each end of the pond) then everything comes together with T connector and comes into 6000 gal Ultima II filter, and after it comes out of ultima it splits between 4 waterfall boxes which are also filled with bio media for extra filtration, one of them runs thru longer stream. My 2 UV lights: 57 and 25 watts are installed between Ultima and waterfall return boxes. The waterfalls i believe provides plenty of aeration, but i also have an air pump running with 2 air stones on each end of the pond. I'm attaching pictures of my pond with few fish that survived that ordeal. Now while weather warmed up more or less my filters are finally caught up, as ammonia readings went down to 0 and nitrites are at 0.5 ppm. I added 0.2 salt to protect fish from little bit of nitrite. I guess that dumping all that contaminated water out of my pond and refilling it with fresh water 2.5 weeks ago probably helped filers as well. by the way at the time of that incident i think my filter wasn't backwashed for about 2-2.5 weeks. Apparently it must have had enough waist to turn extremely toxic. One bad thing that after that ordeal one or my koi: biggest 30'' butterfly surviving female came down with fin/tale rot probably from the stress of that poisoning. So couple days ago i gave her potassium bath and started melafix treatment of the pond plus feeding them medicated food. She looks a little better after potassium melafix treatment, the fins are not as red anymore, still have missing chunks out of it, but hopefully will grow back eventually. Problem is that i ran out of melafix supply i had. I ordered more from local online pond supply, that usually gets to me 1-2 days after ordered, but they were overwhelmed with orders after holidays, so are not shipping as quick as usual. Hoping to maybe get it tomorrow. Is any other good treatment to add in the water to help heal fin rot? I also gave her 1 baytril injection after potassium bath. I know that you should give 5 but i don';t think that she has a bad case to disturb her with 4 more injections so decided to just give her 1 while she was already outside the pond. she is not that easy to handle and take her 4 more times out as she's so big.
I finally called Aqua UV company yesterday to talk about filter problem, but as i expected they denied that thing like killing your fish could happen just from not backwashing your filter. They said that they never heard that it could happen, but when i told them that it happened to me, I even send them video clips that i saved from my drop cam monitoring my pond. So the whole event was on video and i saved a few clips. After they look at the videos one rep called me and told me that he knows what my problem is: he said that my fish had gill fluke. Maybe he though that i was some kind of dummy and didn't know what gill fluke is. I saw a few type of parasites in my pond experience including flukes, but no kind of parasite make any fish react like they did on that video exert if they're poisoned. Plus no parasite will kill fish in 30 min. And when i asked him that how it could be coincidental that the only reaction started 20 min after pump was restarted and you can see on the video that first minutes that water started to run from the waterfalls all fish got bunched up on the corner away from all waterfalls, as they felt that poison and tried to get away from it right away. then started to jump out the water and spin around like crazy. After i ask him that question he didn't really know what to answer and have no more arguments to tell me. I told them that should put warnings about this type of problem to make people aware to always backwash filers after pump shut down, but i doubt that they will do it.

 

[crsublette]

And when i asked him that how it could be coincidental that the only reaction started 20 min after pump was restarted and you can see on the video that first minutes that water started to run from the waterfalls all fish got bunched up on the corner away from all waterfalls, as they felt that poison and tried to get away from it right away. then started to jump out the water and spin around like crazy. After i ask him that question he didn't really know what to answer and have no more arguments to tell me. I told them that should put warnings about this type of problem to make people aware to always backwash filers after pump shut down, but i doubt that they will do it.

If your observation is correct, which I have no reason to doubt it at all especially considering you are quite knowledgeable in koi keeping also involving scrape/scoping, I think your observation and conclusion is nearly undeniable unless there is something else unknown. There might have been such a high concentration of the gas that water really needed even more significant aeration.

A small future improvement could be to attach a venturi to the pipes on the input side of the waterfall containers or place some aquarium air diffusers inside the waterfall containers. A venturi can be easily DIY'd as well if purchasing one for your large pipe is too expensive. The disadvantage of the venturi is that it adds to your system's head height so, depending on your pump's head height capabilities, the venturi could reduce your flow rate..

Yep, I think your observation is undeniable.


Very nice pond. Neat design idea on how you incorporated the waterfall and stream.