Saving the fish

[Zaskia]

Hi, I bought a house in winter and found out that the half empty pond has living fish in it... The house needed tons of work and it was freezing so we are only getting around to it now.

There are lots of small tears in the rubber lining around the 'bridge' that we are going to fix using some kind of sealant. I think I've identified all of them. There is still enough water in the pond that the fish survived -15 degrees Celsius but it's full of leaves and doesn't look good at all so with the temperatures starting to increase, I'm getting worried.

There is currently no pump or anything, I'm not sure how I'd supply power to one as it is at the far end of the garden. We do want one though..

So really, I'm thinking the priority is getting the leaves out and water levels up? So that brings me to the following questions...

How does moving the leaves around in so little water affect the fish? The leaves being removed, would the quality of the remaining water be too bad to keep?

Should I take the fish out and empty it completely? (How..?) The thing is, there are about 6 colorful fish.. and I saw lots of blackish ones yesterday. There is no way I'll be able to locate even most of them.

Also, to fill up a pond this size, how do I do it? I live in the country and use a well.. I'd need to fill it up reeeeeally slowly if I used that or get water brought in. But then it would all get added at once.. with the fish still in the pond??

I have no experience with ponds or fish and I can't yet speak the local language. I'm relying on my husband to figure things out but I'm the one who really cares about the fish so it's not happening as fast as I'd like.

Anyway, any advice would be very much appreciated!

Thanks,

Zaskia

 

[MoonShadows]

Hi Zaskia,

That pond can be beautiful again. I really like the bridge spanning across it. I'm kind of still a newbie here, so I don't know how much help I can be, but there are a lot of friendly and knowledgeable ponders here who will be able to guide you. I just wanted to say welcome aboard.

Jim

 

[Tula]

Welcome Zaskia I agree with @MoonShadows , your pond can be beautiful once again !

I take it you have no pond equipment at all ? If you're serious about keeping the pond and the fish, you'll have to purchase some basic equipment.

You mention tears in the rubber liner. I'm assuming the low water level is due to these tears...the water drops to that point, then levels off?

If I was tackling this project, the first thing I'd do, is get a pump and a large container. I'd lower the pond water with the pump, putting it in the container and catch the fish and put them in the container.

Once you empty the pond, you can take a good look at the liner, to see if it can be salvaged.

 

[EricV]

If the liner is developing lots of small tears it could be deteriorating and not worth trying to patch. It would almost certainly be easier to find a kiddie pool, pull out all the water and fish, and drop a new liner on top of the old one and re-fill. To the left of your first photo, is that a waterfall or stream that leads into the pond? Any indication of where the existing plumbing is/was?

This looks like it could be a very nice pond with a bit of effort and money.

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome! Your pond is going to look very nice once you get it up & running. You might find that trying to repair a liner is more trouble than it's worth -- there might be more areas that need work and it can be frustrating trying to track all of them down. Depending on the size of the pond, you might find it initially expensive to completely replace the liner, but in the long run that might be your best option.

 

[bagsmom]

Welcome! I'm with Jim in the newbie boat, but everyone on here is great and so helpful. You will get good guidance from this bunch!
I agree with what others have said -- if the lining has many tears and problems, it may be at the end of it's liner life. Might make more sense to replace the whole liner and then know it will last 20 years.
I got mine from Webb's Water Gardens online. I thought they had the best price.
Good luck!

 

[Usman]

hi welcome , im no expert either but can suggest what i wud do , 1st u can try mending obvious holes and fill water see if it leaks again then ...

did u remove rocks from border ? ok il assume it was exposed , i have feeling this liner has been exposed to sunlight alot and it has lost its strength on the borders ,if u have more then one puncture its very difficult to control that if any one is left , it will b annoying if u work hard beautify it then again it leaks

if the water is not going below level seen in pic then thers hope, if u can b a bit crafty u can trim this liner from corners to eliminate punctured weak area and make this pond smaller , bring more soil around it and raise the edges beside ground then place rocks on the edges

after solving leakage issue then i wud suggest using a net to clean the leaves , if u can suck out little by little mud at bottom and adding clean water that wud work as u have water problem , i wud carry on with small improvements then see how it goes then later u can clean it fully too , as tula said uil need separate container for fishes , save same water in it then clean the pond . i dont think uil need pump if u only have 5 small fishes and other tiny ones but u can have it later on , its not emergency .

 

[PondMutt]

type of liner leaking.. if it is a thin plastic liner , very likely can not be salvaged , however if it is a EDPM liner [ quite thicker rubber] to might be salvaged ..
a remediation project .

 

[CometKeith]

Hmmm. Good luck with your new found pond and welcome to GPF. A few axoms to keep in mind. The less you do to a pond the happier the fish are. Water that looks poor can be great for your fish and great looking water can be dangerous to your fish.
That being said I would go very slow with anything you do and do a lot of research first. I would think if you can stop your liner from leaking eventually rain water will fill it up again.

 

[Zaskia]

Thanks to everyone for the advice and the warm welcome! I didn't expect so many replies!

We measured the pond yesterday.. it's 8 meters long, 5 meters wide at its widest. How deep I'm not so sure. About 1 meter at the deepest point? Very bad at estimating these things.

A lot of you have mentioned the tears so I'll say a bit more about them... The lining is quite thick rubber and the tears are all located under or just to the side of the bridge so I'm thinking that the previous owners, who did most things poorly in the house, must have bashed the bridge against the pond to get it in place...

Now, the water level hasn't actually dropped at all since we moved in so it appears that all the tears are above the water level. I'm going to try and remove all that is left on top of the liner to see if I can locate any more tears but so far I have found none to the left of the pond (the larger area).

Also, there is very little sun in Sweden (where I am) so the rubber being exposed to the elements for a while might not have been tooooo bad?

I do think they had a pump that was probably powered by a cable running from the house.. We found a sort of pipe behind a garden deck and there is some kind or track in the ground... How safe is that kind of setup..?

Anyways, I spent some time removing as many of the leaves as possible yesterday but it seems like quite a few have turned to mush.. In an ideal world I would capture all the fish and empty the pond but if there is any way to not empty it, I'd really like to try that. The water to fill it up is going to cost at the very least 150 euros and that's for only half the pond . With the new house and the bathroom currently being renovated (right down to the floor beams sniff) I try to save where I can.. And if I must get a pump etc.. *sigh*

In any case, there are at least 20 fish.. And they are very very cute! One much bigger than the others.. I'm going to save them somehow! But I must do something.. I did find some scales just after moving in on the grass and I'm guessing the cats might have gotten one. They were all near the edges yesterday so..

Thanks again for all your help!

Zaskia

 

[CometKeith]

Sounds like you are making excellent progress. The pond has what you would call "beneficial bacteria" associated with it. Also most likely there is algae built up on the liner and on rocks etc.. The problem with replacing the liner or changing all the water is you will be getting rid of all the good stuff that is helping to break down toxin from fish waste into more inert substances. That's why I recommended that you go slow before you change too much and learn as much as possible first. If you can fix the upper liner without changing all of it that is much preferable because you won't have to "cycle" your pond from scratch. There is a lot of info on GPF about cycling a pond, but basically you are starting from scratch with nothing to eliminate harmful elements until your pond cycles. Same goes true for changing all the water. The mucky dirty water in fact is probably healthier for the fish than brand new water. If you are thinking of changing the water I would not change more than 10-15% at a time. I hope this information is helpful. The fact that you had 20 living fish means that things may not look nice but it's not too bad for your fish!

 

[brokensword]

Keith; maybe if enough of the old water can be saved, a new liner then can be installed PLUS use part/all of the old liner on top of the new to help with the seeding? Just a thought...

 

[Usman]

Thanks to everyone for the advice and the warm welcome! I didn't expect so many replies!

We measured the pond yesterday.. it's 8 meters long, 5 meters wide at its widest. How deep I'm not so sure. About 1 meter at the deepest point? Very bad at estimating these things.

A lot of you have mentioned the tears so I'll say a bit more about them... The lining is quite thick rubber and the tears are all located under or just to the side of the bridge so I'm thinking that the previous owners, who did most things poorly in the house, must have bashed the bridge against the pond to get it in place...

Now, the water level hasn't actually dropped at all since we moved in so it appears that all the tears are above the water level. I'm going to try and remove all that is left on top of the liner to see if I can locate any more tears but so far I have found none to the left of the pond (the larger area).

Also, there is very little sun in Sweden (where I am) so the rubber being exposed to the elements for a while might not have been tooooo bad?

I do think they had a pump that was probably powered by a cable running from the house.. We found a sort of pipe behind a garden deck and there is some kind or track in the ground... How safe is that kind of setup..?

Anyways, I spent some time removing as many of the leaves as possible yesterday but it seems like quite a few have turned to mush.. In an ideal world I would capture all the fish and empty the pond but if there is any way to not empty it, I'd really like to try that. The water to fill it up is going to cost at the very least 150 euros and that's for only half the pond . With the new house and the bathroom currently being renovated (right down to the floor beams sniff) I try to save where I can.. And if I must get a pump etc.. *sigh*

In any case, there are at least 20 fish.. And they are very very cute! One much bigger than the others.. I'm going to save them somehow! But I must do something.. I did find some scales just after moving in on the grass and I'm guessing the cats might have gotten one. They were all near the edges yesterday so..

Thanks again for all your help!

Zaskia

going good , clean and roughen the place around puncture then place a patch of liner over the puncture when u add sealant , do u have suction pump? you can rent some type of external pump for cleaning the mud and rotten leaves if ur keen later on, but make sure u are accurate and not to drain alot water out , just 10 to 15%

i see trees and leaves around the pond , they can get in to it again

ye i think same as @CometKeith its better to take baby steps , as ur new and its not small pond you guys can get lost while doing whole process of cleaning and transferring fish to temporary place as u dont have temp tank , pump or aeration etc without aeration in small place they will die and if u add new water in new pond liner , uil need to cycle pond for some time or ur fishes can get sick in new water .... afterall fishes are doing well in this pond atm , u dont wana disturb the balance and start over again , so 1st thing to fix the pond and create proper border , u did take out most of the leaves that could have been issue if they rot alot

 

[moby]

Could roof water be collected and used to help fill up the pond? I use mine to top up after backwashing the filter and as far as I'm aware, it doesn't cause problems. I tend to use mine soon after it's been collected, but I don't really know if that's correct, I'm just assuming the shorter time it's stood as opposed to going 'stagnant' in the water butt, the better? Realise it's quality could therefore depend on how it's stored, for how long, or what type of roof material your house has?? Someone will hopefully comment on the suggestion?

 

[addy1]

Welcome to the forum!

We are on a well, test the ph before you use the water. Ours is very acidic, I could never do a large water change or add without buffering the water to higher ph. It will kill the fish

I have fixed liners using something we have here, you should have something similar.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Loctite-...-Sealant-1675273/203163733?keyword=pl+roofing

I clean the liner with acetone, rough it up a bit with sandpaper. Make sure it is dry, goop up the tear both sides, top bottom of the tear and in the tear it self, i.e. use a lot. Then cut a piece of liner put it over the goop, push down. Then take the goop and go around the edge of the piece of liner you added. Make sure all the edges are covered let it dry for a few days before adding water. My fixes are still good years later, freezing, heat etc.