Repainted pond fish dying

[Mossey00]

My sister has 14ft by 6ft deep cement pond filled with orfe/ very large koi and goldfish.
We repainted using professional pond sealing paint (£150) a pot. Did everything it said, washed it down after drying etc.. put fish back in and now they’re all dying so far out of 21 fish she has about 4 goldfish left and one ghost koi. It’s so sad all the fish she had had for years and well over foot long.
She tested the water and niterate etc we’re fine. What went wrong ???

 

[Markiemark]

Was the paint out of date? Stored wrong so it’s let off a chemical reaction?

 

[Mossey00]

No it was in date she checked all 4 tubs!

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome, but sorry you are here for sad reasons.

Can you give us some more information about your sister’s pond? There really is no way that we can tell you “what went wrong,” but we may be able to help narrow things down.

• Say again the dimensions — 6 feet deep by 14 ft......is it round?
• How many gallons?
• What kind of filtration is there?
• Is/was there a biological filtration system (by cleaning and repainting the pond surfaces, much of the beneficial bacteria was destroyed)?
• Is there any aeration like with an air stone?
• What were the fish kept in while the pond was being “repainted”?
• Why was the pond being repainted in the first place — was it leaking?
• Are there any plants in the pond?
• What are the results of the rest of the water tests? Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH.....?

 

[Mossey00]

Hi
The pond is triangle shape with a smaller top tier that she kept plants and the filtration went in and waterfall she has about 5 air pump balls.
She had to repaint as it was leaking thru the bricks.
They were kept in a 10ft pool with the original pond water and moved the pump into that. The levels were low/med on ammonia and stress, ph and gh were 12.
When she put the fish back in she used tap water and included Blagdon tap water mixture then transferred pond water back into pond with fish. Yesterday she added 4 pond balls and some nitrate/oxygen plants. The filter is bio filter and skimmer also.
She did buy some plastic planters filled with stones and hessian bags and added 2 lillies all were washed down before putting into pond.
All koi are gone and golden tench

 

[Jhn]

That stinks, sorry for the fish loss.

What was the number associated with the ammonia test?
So, she removed everything from the pond, including from the upper portion that had the plants in it? How much plants are in the pond?

Agree, with Mmathis, much of your beneficial bacteria population if not all was destroyed during this process. When fish where added back the pond basically started its cycle over again like you would with a brand new pond.

Really, the only way to help counter this is adding a product like prime that detoxifies the ammonia. Along with water changes(one of the very few times I would do them) to lessen the severity of the pond cycling. Also, saving the filter media, rocks plants, any wet surface that is movable to the temporary pool then back to the main pond as these surfaces will be covered in bacteria, will also help.

 

[Mossey00]

I think the ammonia was 4
She has 4 plants on top tier that the filter water runs thru before going down to big part and 2 lillies in the main but she only just bought them with the tubs as the koi kept eating them

 

[Mossey00]

Sorry ammonia was 0-0.5mg/l !!!

 

[BarbO]

I am sorry to read this story. Did the water she refilled the pond with contain chlorine? If it did, and she didn't add something to remove it, the chlorine could have killed the fish, plants, all good bacteria on everything in the pond. Chlorine can kill fast. Please ask her.

 

[Mossey00]

No chlorine added just old pond water top up with tap water and tap water formula added

 

[GBBUDD]

I'd suspect the paint was oil or epoxy base?

Was there a catalyst that you had to mix in the paint?

When you were painting was the temp fish area close by?

Were you using an air pump to keep o2 levels up ?

i'd suspect the fumes may have been injected into the water which could have been toxic.

or that the catalyst if you had one wasn't fully mixed or proper ratio.

 

[liznpdx]

sounds like you took so many thought out precautions! I am so sorry for your loss. So many... (((hug)))

 

[Tara]

Sorry to hear about the fish, if the fish are still ill and dying, perhaps moving the fish still alive back into the temporary pool for now would help them, especially if you don't know as yet what's killing them. What paint did you use? Sometimes the cure time frame for a sealant paint is seven days. I'm no expert, but if the remaining fish are dying as you said, moving them into a the temporary pond with freshly treated water, air and pump, and treating the remaining fish is what I would consider doing, at least until I knew the pond was safe.

 

[Mossey00]

The paint had separate sealant that you had to mix for 2 mins. We followed all the instructions by the book, washed it down let it dry etc ! We took out the fish straight away but it was too late 4 days now and only 2 fish still alive a sarasa and a fan tail , all the koi/orfe/tench all gone.

 

[GBBUDD]

catalyst can be a real issue at times, I would lean in that direction . weather it was when the water wen't in and the fish followed or the fumes when adding catalyst the directions also can lean toward resperators