Oil spill in Pond! Advise needed...

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Yesterday I had to drain my entire pond and pull out all of the fish.

Dad was walking by the pond with motor oil to take around back. While he was walking he tripped and the oil fell into the pond. About 2 quartsof it!

I rush out and scooped out all of the fish and put them in bucket of cleaner water. I drained the entire pond and removed the liner and hosed it down and scrubbed. I didn't want to take any chances of there being any oil left on it.

A couple of the fish had oil on them, so I rinsed them off with declorinated water for a couple of minutes straight. I then put those two in a small container and soaked them in stress coat to replace their slime coating. They are now doing just fine.

I refilled the pond with hose water and added the declorinator. Then I rinsed all the plants thoroughly and replaced them in the pond. I threw out my other pump, since it was right next to the oil spill and sucked a bit of it up!

Disaster averted successfully, I hope.

However, what should I do now that my pond was drained and scrubbed?

Anything I should look for with the oil fish?

And, was this the proper course of action for this disaster?
 
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I'd do a regular start up. If you see any remaining oil you can use paper towel to remove. Oil sticks to the dry paper like a magnet.

IMO a better course of action would have been to shut off the pump and remove the oil off the water surface with paper towels. Since oil floats you can normally get 95% of it. After that it's normally easier to remove fish without getting oil on them and you can deal with the remaining oil.

The main danger is the fish trying to eat the oil and then at some point a lack of gas exchange, but you normally have some time. Back in the old days lots of pumps were oil cooled and would sometimes leak. So oil was a more common problem back then.
 

fishin4cars

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FYI, If anyone can locate, There are oil absorbent pads made just to remove oil off the surface of water. I've found them at some automotive part houses. Originally designed for oil removal at industrial plants and for oil refineries. Many quick oil change business use them as well. I keep about 20-30 pads in the garage for emergencies. As WB stated paper towels and news paper works pretty well for those that don't have acsess. Glad to hear they are doing well so far. I would be watching breathing and skin closely.
 

Mmathis

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Hoping all is well. I know you must feel anxious since this comes so close to your recent loss. Saying little fishie prayers for you! Keep us posted.
 

j.w

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Somebody dumped oil in my neighbors pond and he left the fish in and drained water while filling w/ new. He bought some container of stuff that he dumped in there to help the fish. It's been over a month and all is well and no loss of fish. He has huge beautiful koi.
 
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FYI, If anyone can locate, There are oil absorbent pads made just to remove oil off the surface of water. I've found them at some automotive part houses. Originally designed for oil removal at industrial plants and for oil refineries. Many quick oil change business use them as well. I keep about 20-30 pads in the garage for emergencies. As WB stated paper towels and news paper works pretty well for those that don't have acsess. Glad to hear they are doing well so far. I would be watching breathing and skin closely.
WOW, five diamonds! The paper towels worked great on my 10x5' pond. Bounty large rolls, my wife on one end, me on the other laying them in overlapping rows and leaving the towels until they began to sink (learning that was not necessary but it did keep the oil from flowing where we just worked). We pulled the towels out from one end of the towels-row after row. This got 95+% of the oil out of the pond. Cause of the oil, our winter floating heater sprang a leak. Right after the cleanup I realized it may have been mineral oil however, oil is oil and I won't take the chance. THANK YOU for the paper towel method.
 

Mmathis

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Hi there, @kevinhersh, and welcome to our group! We’re always happy when we get a follow-up based on some of our threads — even if the thread is 9 years old, LOL! Thank you!
 
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what @fishin4cars IS TALKING ABOUT ARE CALLED DIAPERS IN THE TRADES you ask for a spill kit and they have these diapers that do not absorb water they only absorb oils hydraulic fluids etc.

And what was also mentioned above was to shut the pumps off EVERYTHING AIR STONES FONTAINS EVERYTHING scare the fish to go to there fish cave if you have one and let the water calm you can use those diapers or any bucket or tray and skim off the top of the water OIL AND WATER DON'T MIX right. well the oil will make it's way to the surfaces and you can skim off the top just barely having a bucket in the water and flow over the top skimming the surface
 

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