Water PH

[BRENDA BARAJAS]

I have a 300-gallon decorative pond in my front yard have had for years.
I took everything out and cleaned and raised my pond so that it wasn't sitting flush with the ground to prevent ground water from running in. Since I have cleaned it my PH is through the roof . Everything I've used to lower the the PH hasn't worked. Water is green. Can mussels survive the high PH to clean the green water. They worked in the past to clean, but my PH wasn't high then.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[BRENDA BARAJAS]

Right now nothing will live in my water except for frogs. Anything else dies.
I have no concrete in or around my pond.
I have used vinegar a couple of times and would test the water and still very high.
So now have an empty pond except one plant. No frogs at the moment.

 

[sissy]

what is high ph mine stays around 9 and cleaning the pond is ok but not scrubbing off the good muck .do you have fish .do you have plants in the pond .Green water is a way of balancing the pond .Just a stage new ponds have.Do you have city water

 

[BRENDA BARAJAS]

what is high ph mine stays around 9 and cleaning the pond is ok but not scrubbing off the good muck .do you have fish .do you have plants in the pond .Green water is a way of balancing the pond .Just a stage new ponds have.Do you have city water

No, my fish died because of the PH. I have had my pond for years but I cleaned it a few years back and since then the PH has been off. Yes, city water, had them come to my house and ck it,very high. I do have a fountain to keep water circulating.

 

[sissy]

city water needs to be treated and high ph may not have killed the fish .If the pond water gets hot and then cool water goes in it could put the fish into shock .Find out what the water temperature is .Fish also do not like clean fresh water there is no good bacteria in that .Runoff will kill fish fast if fertilizer is added to the yard .Mowing the grass and grass clippings going into the pond will not help

 

[Stephen Noble]

Welcome Brenda. I would only use vinegar in my salad rather than in a pond. What is (was) your pH before adding vinegar? I saw your previous post where you have a 300-gallon pond and have had it for years. It is possible cleaning your pond completely could have killed the beneficial bacteria and now the pond will need to be cycled. Personally, I never alter the pH of my water. Tap water is usually buffered and quite usable as is. Perhaps you have well water? Why not just go back to what you were doing for years that proved successful? Again welcome to the forum!
Stephen

 

[Lisak1]

@Becky can we combine these posts? Same question in two different threads -

 

[Mmathis]

@BRENDA BARAJAS What is your pH? Telling us that it’s “off” or “hi” doesn’t tell us anything at all. What are your other water readings? If you just cleaned everything, you probably destroyed the beneficial bacteria, and your pond is having to cycle all over, from the beginning. That will mess with all of your water parameter. And, if you have city water, did you add a dechlorinator when you filled the pond back up?

 

[BRENDA BARAJAS]

Welcome Brenda. I would only use vinegar in my salad rather than in a pond. What is (was) your pH before adding vinegar? I saw your previous post where you have a 300-gallon pond and have had it for years. It is possible cleaning your pond completely could have killed the beneficial bacteria and now the pond will need to be cycled. Personally, I never alter the pH of my water. Tap water is usually buffered and quite usable as is. Perhaps you have well water? Why not just go back to what you were doing for years that proved successful? Again welcome to the forum!
Stephen

I am doing everything as I did yours ago.
The only change is from the city they've added something new to water causing high PH. My PH according to todays ck is now down to 8.4- 8.8. I am adding hydrogen peroxide. Have been using it for 2 months now PH is as mentioned above. It was higher and my fish died. I have nothing in the pond at the moment except 1 plant name horsetail Reed. It is a water plant. I have had it about 1 month. I also have a fountain to circulate the water continuously.
There is no Concrete in or around and no way any runoff from anything can get in.
I will continue using hydrogen peroxide for another month and then I will try a single goldfish to see how it does.

 

[BRENDA BARAJAS]

I am doing everything as I did yours ago.
The only change is from the city they've added something new to water causing high PH. My PH according to todays ck is now down to 8.4- 8.8. I am adding hydrogen peroxide. Have been using it for 2 months now PH is as mentioned above. It was higher and my fish died. I have nothing in the pond at the moment except 1 plant name horsetail Reed. It is a water plant. I have had it about 1 month. I also have a fountain to circulate the water continuously.
There is no Concrete in or around and no way any runoff from anything can get in.
I will continue using hydrogen peroxide for another month and then I will try a single goldfish to see how it does.

Anytime any leaves fall in or bugs floating I always clean immediately. Especially any grass clippings when the lawn is mowed.

 

[carolinaguy]

PH didn’t kill your fish. We need to know more. We have club members with pH permanentlily a 9+ with no fish death. PH doesn’t kill fish unless it hits 11 and you need a strong base like lye for that. More information will help.

 

[Lisak1]

I am doing everything as I did yours ago.

One thing many people say is "my pond has been exactly the same for years and then suddenly all my fish died". Well, something did change - your fish grew bigger. Sometimes a pond just hits a tipping point where the size and number of fish is suddenly just too much.

So how many fish are we talking about in this 300 gallon pond?

 

[BRENDA BARAJAS]

One thing many people say is "my pond has been exactly the same for years and then suddenly all my fish died". Well, something did change - your fish grew bigger. Sometimes a pond just hits a tipping point where the size and number of fish is suddenly just too much.

So how many fish are we talking about in this 300 gallon pond?

At one point only five then less, but they never got bigger than 5 to 6 in long.

 

[BRENDA BARAJAS]

PH didn’t kill your fish. We need to know more. We have club members with pH permanentlily a 9+ with no fish death. PH doesn’t kill fish unless it hits 11 and you need a strong base like lye for that. More information will help.

When my fish died the pH was probably 10 or 11 that's when they died. I have had no fish since, but every time I have my water checked for the ph and the other levels as well the pH is off the chart. So because of that I have never put any more fish in. The only thing that I had for several years was frogs that came in on their own. This is the first summer in 4 yrs. that I have no frogs at all. The cleaning I did, I never used any chemical just water and that's been at least 5 yrs ago . So I would think any bacteria would now be replaced. I only have one plant horsetail , in my pond and a fountain which I run continuously.

 

[Mmathis]

@BRENDA BARAJAS It might help if you could take a couple of pictures of your pond.

You have mentioned a few things that you might be able to clarify:

1. You recently raised your [preform?] pond, or rather, elevated it to avoid yard run-off. Is any part of the pond still in-ground?
2. You recently cleaned your pond. What did you clean it with and how did you clean it?
3. How are you testing your pH? Are you using a test kit or are you taking it somewhere to have it tested?
4. You said that the city added something to the water to raise the pH. What did the city add (you should be able to get a report from your water company), and are you sure it wasn’t something like chlorine or chloramines?
5. Did you add a dechlorinator to your water when you filled the pond back up?

WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR NOW:

1. See next post — my iPad is messing with me!