Pond issues

[ThornyLittleFlower]

I've had a small 4ft x 2ft x 1ft pond with waterfall for 3 years. I've tested the water and it seem fine but my fish keep dying and I even found a big dead frog. I feel I should completely empty and restart my pond again but I don't want to upset all the wildlife in there. I have loads of frogs, 2 goldfish (I had 2 then 1 died so I bought 3 more but now 2 of them have died and 1 big frog) I saw a baby newt in there the other day. So my question..how can I safely restart my pond without upsetting the wildlife I have left? I have space to double the size of pond too while I'm at it.

 

[Mmathis]

@ThornyLittleFlower Hello and welcome. You might get better responses if you started a new thread topic. This one is over a year old, and many members might not be looking here — your question will get lost and will be hard for others to follow. Then, you can go to “introductions “ and tell us all about your pond!

I’ll see if the moderators can move this one for you.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!

You can restart the pond by putting pond water and all the critters you want to save into a large enough container. With a aerator then dig fast! Save some of the algae, i.e. liner rocks etc. in water, so you have a good layer of the beneficial bacteria when it gets going.

 

[j.w]

@ThornyLittleFlower

 

[poconojoe]

There could be several things that can be killing your fish.

You say you tested the water and it "seems" fine. I don't know what that means or what you have tested for. You would need a good test kit to get proper results. The type that uses test strips is not accurate. API pond test kits are the standard. Once you have the results from those tests, post them here and we can help.

Here are some things off the top of my head that can be bad for your fish:
Poor oxygen concentration, high concentration of ammonia, poor filtration, heat, chemicals washing into the pond, adding unnecessary or harmful chemicals that claim to be miracle fixes such as algaecide, parasites.

Perhaps a description of the dead fish would help with diagnosis. Were they bloated? Any scars or visible infections? How are the live ones acting? Are they swimming normally? Are they swimming to the surface gasping for? Are they flashing, swimming around fast and rubbing against things?

 

[Mmathis]

Welcome to our forum!

You can restart the pond by putting pond water and all the critters you want to save into a large enough container. With a aerator then dig fast! Save some of the algae, i.e. liner rocks etc. in water, so you have a good layer of the beneficial bacteria when it gets going.

@addy1 Thank you for moving this!