Saving the fish

[Zaskia]

Ohh that's a great idea moby! There is also a barn.. My husband is going to try and figure out a way to collect it. Some of the tiles have moss growing on it. Wonder how that would that affect the water quality?

So taking on board what everyone said, I will first clean/rough up the liner and patch it up with sealant on a nice day. Collect some rain water and add it to the existing water.. Doing this gradually should give me an idea as to whether I've missed any tears. I will check with the water suppliers what the quality of the water is and maybe buy a little as well. Once the water levels seem stable I will deal with the quality... Doing everything very slowly!

Also keep the area around the pond tidy and put a net over it next autumn!

Thanks to everyone again!

Zaskia

 

[addy1]

I use roof water, no neat moss growing on ours, I would think it would help filter the water coming off the roof. When we get a hard rain, my pond gets a great water change over.

 

[MitchM]

Regarding the well water supply, you could put a garden hose to the pond and just run a trickle of water through it for a number of days.
I have a well also and did that.
Make sure you know your well capability and water quality first.
A regular pond water test kit will do, or better yet if you have the water quality report from the company that drilled your well. Our municipality keeps water test records, maybe you have a local council that you could call.

 

[Lola]

We also have a well that my husband has run dry on a few occasions when putting water into our pond. What we do now is set the stove timer for 1/2 to 1 hour. When the timer goes off, we turn off the water flow to the pond. We have found this to work very well.

There is also a product that is described as landscape foam sealant which might help you put your pond back to where it should be. We will be using it shortly because of a small/slow leak in our liner. You look like you have a good beginning for a beautiful pond. Best wishes!!

 

[keyplayer]

You've received lots of good advice and ideas. Something you may want to consider, given your need for make-up water is to harness RAIN by collecting what falls on your roof. This was the first "expensive" item for my pond -- quality prodessionally installed RAIN GUTTERS and a custom-designed collector system. This has been the BEST investment for my pond as in this WET climate, it provides over 90% of the make-up water for 1200 gallons of ponds. This is healthy natural water which needs NO "treatnent" and, directing almost constant system overflow (gently!) through the ponds helps keep them crystal clear. BTW re LEAVES, I get a LOT of leaves every year but only remove what I can gently scoop from the deepest parts using a rubber-safe child-size bamboo rake. The FISH enjoy the soft bottom. All the best -- you'll enjoy it!

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

View attachment 98213 View attachment 98214

 

[Zaskia]

Hello again!

We've sealed the tears and have been collecting rain water so the water levels are rising! Hopefully we did a good job on the tears and we can keep increasing it.

Just a question though.. After a couple of days of rain we have some sunshine finally and most of the fish are in the 'new' shallow area. Why is that? Do they need the sun after spending days in deeper water during the rain? With the new water and the weather still being around 10 degrees celcius it can't be lack of oxygen so..

Really hope the cats stay away from my garden.

Thanks to all the new replies!

 

[MitchM]

I suspect the fish prefer the warmer water in the shallow area.

 

[sissy]

All I can say is good luck and I would replace the liner .The bridge is really nice and someone put love into that pond .The liner no matter what t is could be past it's life expectancy

 

[Usman]

All I can say is good luck and I would replace the liner .The bridge is really nice and someone put love into that pond .The liner no matter what t is could be past it's life expectancy

i agree , may b they can replace it after settling in and saving money later on and see how this repair goes it wud b fine if they can drag it more

 

[PondMutt]

ya know .. do you know the methodology for leaks ,, , it leaks down to the hole , and then stops [ excluding evaporation] examine the top of water for defect , patch it .. EDPM [ the rubber stuff] supposed to be good for 30 years .. , patch kits available .. primer [cleaner ] double sided edpm stick tape .. ,,,

no power at the pond ? this would be a still water pond then .. if there were power at the pond i would suggest a retrofit bottom drain and some bio filters { Waterfalls ,, the sound of falling water !!!!!}

reference the existing fish ,, ask them .. commune with them . .. ..

as regards +crap+ in the bottom of the pond .. net on a stick .. very gently pass the bottom with the net .. could be quite a lot anaerobic there .. very vile and dangerous stuff.. .. ,, there is stuff we can add ,, to kill the dangerous anaerobic .. but it too +could kill the fish +

i would not worry about the Cats .. except for drowning .. any fish they caught out , was destined to be cat food

 

[CometKeith]

Re your fish in the shallower area that is fine. It allows you to see your fish and it's better all around for them. Their metobolic rate is higher when the water is warmer and they will be more active. The upper surfaces of the water is more oxygenated than the deeper water so as they are being more active they will receive more dissolved O2 which is better for them.