New to the forum, but I have had a very large pond for 15 yrs. Now problems.

[montanosmile]

I have not sought advice for a long time, but I have a dilemma. I have a quite large pond in excess of 250,000 gallons that I fill from a domestic well. Well, I live in California and we are having serious water problems. I have a river running through my property with rights. I was told when I converted my pond from natural and Bass to Koi that I should never use river water to fill my pond. The excuse was risk of infections and parasites. That makes sense to me. I have heard both views that it is not problem and the naysayers. I don't have competition Koi and have adopted many rejects from the locals. But I love them and would hate to introduce pathogens to their environment. My pond has many natural plants and has been used for irrigation of pastures to allow for water turnover.

My problem is that we are now in a water crisis as my well is stuggling and we are not able to continue to fill my pond with clean well water. I have a river 300 ft away. Can I filter this water to continue to fill my Koi pond? Professional and experienced recommendations appreciated.

Don

 

[DrCase]

I would think any water would be better than no water .

 

[Becky]

Hello and welcome to the forum Don! Great to have you here

 

[Meyer Jordan]

I have not sought advice for a long time, but I have a dilemma. I have a quite large pond in excess of 250,000 gallons that I fill from a domestic well. Well, I live in California and we are having serious water problems. I have a river running through my property with rights. I was told when I converted my pond from natural and Bass to Koi that I should never use river water to fill my pond. The excuse was risk of infections and parasites. That makes sense to me. I have heard both views that it is not problem and the naysayers. I don't have competition Koi and have adopted many rejects from the locals. But I love them and would hate to introduce pathogens to their environment. My pond has many natural plants and has been used for irrigation of pastures to allow for water turnover.

My problem is that we are now in a water crisis as my well is stuggling and we are not able to continue to fill my pond with clean well water. I have a river 300 ft away. Can I filter this water to continue to fill my Koi pond? Professional and experienced recommendations appreciated.

Don

What you suggest is possible and feasible. My first thought when I read your post was, even though you have 'Rights'. What do those rights include? The EPA is quite strict on enforcing environmental restrictions on public waterways. This river flowing trough your property is just such a public waterway. I would check first to see if permitting is required before proceeding any further.

 

[j.w]

Don

 

[slakker]

More curious than anything, but does the water restriction apply to well water or just city supplied?

 

[DoDad]

I've useriver water for all my domestic uses for 21 years with no problems.

 

[RobAmy]

Welcome

 

[sissy]

Welcome and i think i would test the water first for harmful stuff like run off of fertilizers or weed killers .The power towers here got charged with it because they sprayed the weeds and it was a windy day and killed peoples trees and plants nearby and polluted a stream and pond and they had to clean it all up .They claimed the spray was harmless but it killed 10 and 12 ft trees .With the way things are these days you really need to be very careful

 

[Meyer Jordan]

I've useriver water for all my domestic uses for 21 years with no problems.

In the eyes of the government, there is a huge difference between domestic use and pond and/or irrigation use.

 

[DoDad]

My permit allots me more water than I'll ever use for all my uses including my ponds..

 

[Meyer Jordan]

My permit allots me more water than I'll ever use for all my uses including my ponds..

Great! If you are sure that you have the legal ramifications covered lets address your question. Parasites and infectious pathogens are ubiquitous to all aquatic habitats.Healthy fish are rarely bothered by them. So that should not be an issue.
I would be more concerned with a significant difference in pH. It would be wise to test the two--river and pond. Temperature differential would be my next concern. Otherwise I see no reason that the river could not be used as source water for the pond.

 

[DoDad]

pH is a constant 8.2 and I have a total of 10,800 of water in buried holding tanks so the water stays at a constant temperature.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Then the only filter that you will need will be for protecting the pump.

 

[callingcolleen1]

River water changes from time to time. Around here where I live, spring breakup the water quality goes down and the water can have a funny smell in the spring. Down in California the population is quite dense so pollution very likely. Plus you have been having a long drought so the water quality could really be bad. If you filter it you should be ok.

Sure hope that water crisis does not go on for too long...