Someone please help me

[JohnHuff]

John, When you say take a pic of the filter do you mean the motor part or the box part? And now that I have 3 weeks of professional experiance pretty much killing my fish(ugh) I have decreased feeding to once a day. I suppose my concern with that is that after hardcore scrubbing the pond to remove what ever it was that was killing them I'm worried that I have not left them with enough nature made food.

- The box part, the outside and what's inside.
- The hardcore scrubbing probably removed the beneficial bacteria/algae that was keeping the fish alive!

 

[ColleenMRowley]

the last photo was taken before the cleaning

 

[ColleenMRowley]

i cant seem to figure out how to post pics, if you look me up on face book i have them posted there on my wall, (e-mail address removed)

 

[JohnHuff]

Hi: @ColleenMRowley
The first pics are just of your pond and this looks like your prefilter:

Have you cleaned this? If you open it up, there should be some matting inside. If that's all there is, then you don't have a biofilter.

 

[ColleenMRowley]

Yes this pic was taken before the pond was cleaned and there is now a pad inside of it but that didn't have a pad in it till about 8 days ago.
The pad is about an inch and a half thick

 

[ColleenMRowley]

Hi Colleen. Your pond needs to build up beneficial bacterial to process ammonia and nitrites because you scrubbed the sides. Sometime this can take 4 weeks or more. Also you have way too many fish and that is what probably caused the flashing because the ammonia was eating away their stress coat. Also you need oxygen pumped into the water. That's why the fish is hanging in the water feature because it doesn't have enough oxygen in the water for them to breathe. Low O2 will kill your fish. You will see the biggest fish die first from this and probably see it in the morning when O2 levels are at the lowest. Honestly you probably need to re-home some of them until you get your water quality under control because it will be a big uphill battle to get the water good with so many fish in the pond. You gave zero readings for ammonia but I don't trust that based on the description you gave and think you must have had very high ammonia and nitrite You can try water changes of 15-20% each day if you don't have anywhere to put them until your pond cycles.

Hi Comet,
I went and purchased them a O2 toy. Several, like 5 fish seem very fascinated by the Lilly pad that sit on the surface and the cord that goes to the blower on bottom, they hang out under the pad kind of nudging at the cord pushing the pad around. Is that normal.
I am seeing pretty quick regrowth of the algae on the walls of the pond

 

[ColleenMRowley]

I plan on gutting the land between the 2 ponds to increase size and depth

hope is picture #2 her.....or his? Body is looking painfully hurt to me she...(blood shot )or he used to be solid white and orange I hope (her name ) she gets better
I figured out how to add images

 

[ColleenMRowley]

Hi: @ColleenMRowley
The first pics are just of your pond and this looks like your prefilter:

Have you cleaned this? If you open it up, there should be some matting inside. If that's all there is, then you don't have a biofilter.

 

[JohnHuff]

@ColleenMRowley
- That flat box with the blue/white pad is a mechanical filter only. You will need to clean that pad about once a week during the biological active seasons otherwise it will get clogged up and damage your pump.
- The first goldfish with the red blob on its head. Not sure if that's an Oranda fancy goldfish. If that is, then it won't be able to stand cold weather. If you live anywhere where it snows you will have to bring it in for the Winter.
- You don't have a biofilter and you'll need one. I think you said you bought an air pump. The simplest thing for you to make would be one of these and attach it to the end of your hose:

Just look up moving bed filter DIY and you'll see plenty of others. Just buy some K1 from ebay, get some tubes and an old plastic bottle.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kaldnes-K1-...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item33866b10f4

You can also buy the sponge filter on ebay and stick the bottle on top of that. For a 400g pond, use a bigger bottle.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bio-Sponge-...3494?pt=Fish_Filters&var=&hash=item4abb4074c6
Look up sponge filter.

 

[ColleenMRowley]

Very cool I like the DYI theory thank for your help. Looks like I have more work to do

 

[CometKeith]

Hi Colleen, Great water action and your pond looks really nice! It sounds like you are on the right track. Water movement and aeration are key to having a healthy pond. Even in the winter this is desirable to reduce toxins that can build up in your water. As you can probably tell most of us on gpf don't use a lot of chemical additives. The recipe for success is pretty simple once you get the hang of it. You want to have beneficial bacteria (bb) utilize the bad toxins like ammonia and nitrite. Also it's a good idea to have some plants to use up nitrates. A good way to build up bb in your pond is a bio-filter. I think the bio action is actually more important than even the mechanical filter. The bb lives in the bio balls in your bio filter. Try to read up as much as you can about how to cycle a pond so you can learn about ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Also limit the amount of food you give your fish until the pond has fully cycled. Many of us have started out much worse than you. We all sound very expert but I made beginner mistake after beginner mistake for several years until I figured out what to do. Luckily you found this forum to get you on the right path. I wish i knew about it when I first started. Remember healthy water doesn't always look great to us and super clean water may be toxic to your fish. The first year or so don't worry about algae because as long as it doesn't cover the entire surface it doesn't hurt the fish at all and once your pond cycles most of it will go away as long as you don't overfeed. Good luck!

 

[ColleenMRowley]

Hope died last night
Yesterday she developed a full coat of white fungus. My spirits are low.
I have found someone that is coming out to the house today to take a look at the pond and fish. My fingers are crossed.
Fins are looking much better on. I been reading and understand the fin collapses and almost all of the fish were suffering from that. But that seems to be improving. I'm on day 3 of the pimafix and melafix.
With my furthered knowledge I'm really fearing this flukes thing.
I'm just greatful to have this man offer his help and see what he has to say.
Till later
Colleen

 

[Tula]

Very sorry about Hope

 

[Fishylove]

Welcome Colleen! I'm so very sorry you worked so hard, only to have it all go to pot. FYI the sales people that sell you the fish, don't ask you how big your pond is, don't ask you how many fish you have already, because THEY DONT CARE! Your loss keeps you coming back to fix what problems pop up from having too many fish, from having too many of the wrong kind of fish for the size of your pond, from not quarantining the fish for AT LEAST two weeks before putting them in your main pond.
They just simply don't care
So please do not beat yourself up about this! This is not totally all your fault and we all have been there to some extent before. All new pond owners get so excited and want things done now unfortunately Mother Nature doesn't work that way
This is how we learn and you've now got some good teachers!
Good luck and don't get too discouraged!

 

[Lisaebetten]

Nevermind[/QUO
What do you mean by this? If you don't care to help educate why post this?