Water question.

[Willo]

I know you have to add a chemical water treatments like Tetra aqua safe if you add tap water to your pond, but if you've had lots of rain should you also be adding a treatments to your pond?
We are having a serious thunder & lightning storm at the moment & my pond has risen a lot in the last hour, no need to do a water change

 

[koiguy1969]

shouldnt be an issue...

 

[dieselplower]

The main issue a huge amount of rain can cause is a large ph drop which can be stressful for the fish. It would have to be a ton of rain into a small pond.

 

[crsublette]

I know you have to add a chemical water treatments like Tetra aqua safe if you add tap water to your pond, but if you've had lots of rain should you also be adding a treatments to your pond?
We are having a serious thunder & lightning storm at the moment & my pond has risen a lot in the last hour, no need to do a water change

Sure, rain water needs treatment as well, except not for chlorine/chloramine such as is done for city town tap water. Rain water is incredibly acidic and an excellent solvent so the rain water treatment is to counteract these acidic solvent properties. However, treatment is not always necessary. For rain to have an impact on your pond, that is the pond's water pH, then this reaction depends on your pond water's alkalinity concentrations and the water volume of your pond in relationship to the amount of rain water the pond receives. The thread "Interesting PH Observation" (specifically skip down to post#7) should help you.

Since rain water is a solvent, once this water encounters other materials, then the "solvent" aspect of the water absorbs particular contaminants or components of the material. These contaminants can counteract the rain water's acidity or it can further increase the rain water's acidity. This contaminant potential is why carbon filtering rain water run off from house roofs, before the water enters the pond, is a good idea, at least to me it is.

So, depending on how the rain water is entering the pond water and depending on your pond water's chemistry, that is specifically the alkalinity, then you might not have to worry about the rain entering your pond. This is where monitoring water KH and PH levels come in handy, as talked about in many threads in the Water Chemistry sub-forum.

 

[Nualgi Ponds]

Agreed entirely with crsublette and I am assuming that a few months ago when you had this problem you checked your pH levels after the thunderstorm was over. What were your readings? A little late to the convo but I wanted to add my two cents and learn about your experiences.

Excess rain can be harmful to your pond and especially for areas that are more susceptible to acid rain. We’ve outlined why an improper balance of nutrients is a trigger for harmful algal blooms in ponds and hope this article will be helpful for future gardeners to minimize risk for aquatic life in your pond. http://nualgiponds.com/protect-your-ponds-ph-level-from-the-effects-of-acid-rain/

 

[Dave 54]

I know you have to add a chemical water treatments like Tetra aqua safe if you add tap water to your pond, but if you've had lots of rain should you also be adding a treatments to your pond?
We are having a serious thunder & lightning storm at the moment & my pond has risen a lot in the last hour, no need to do a water change

Willo that will be the result of Tropical storm Bertha hich was supposed to hit our part of the UK last weekend .
I got all the maintenance cracked out and finished and did the usual water change no problem , treating the water pior to it going into the pond using the dechlorinator unit we have
Next day Bertha hits the UK and there is torrential rainfall everywhere else than here in Plymouth cool we thought we missed a soaking Ha, Ha, no such luck Monday Bertha hit Plymouth and we got a drenching hhe rain was that heavy.
Well I thought the koi have a no food day once every few weeks and a half food day once a week , so I'll turn this into a no feed day (it just keeps them on their toes thats all),so I wont get soaked big mistake so I was to find .
I went out to feed them Tuesday morning bright and early as I do, I looked into the pond expecting to see expectant faces and I couldnt see them
Sunday the pond was crsytal clear , Tuesday so cloudy that you couldnt see the fish..... panic stations hit me , so as all us Brits do I cleared my head first off with a cup of Java , then I went out to sniff the pond waterI sniffed the water.
You can learn quiite a bit by sniffing your water and I use it as my first line of defence before checking the water perameters (good water doesnt smell of much, water that is going wrong can stink).
No smell so next out came the test kits.... all my perameters were fine but my next thoughts were what am I going to do to clear the coudiness ???
So I popped indoors (had another cup of java) then thought I know what to do
This year weve been evaluating a product called Tetra AlgoRem which acts as a flocculant and attracts algae to it, the causes it to clump together then the clumps are dumped it into your our vortex filter so I can drain it away .
It was a long shot that the cloudy water would clear so I added 227 ml to a bucket of pond water then spread it around the pond....... three hours later I popped out to check on its progress and O.M.G. it was crystal clear again
We are thinking the cloudy element in the water must have been fine sand particals picked up in the Sahara at the start of Berthas long journey to us, did you notice any clouding of your pond up the line from us Willo ?.
Nice to see you back with us again Charles . have you been busy as weve not seen you for quite a while my friend ?

Dave

 

[JohnHuff]

Sure, rain water needs treatment as well, except not for chlorine/chloramine such as is done for city town tap water. Rain water is incredibly acidic and an excellent solvent so the rain water treatment is to counteract these acidic solvent properties. However, treatment is not always necessary. For rain to have an impact on your pond, that is the pond's water pH, then this reaction depends on your pond water's alkalinity concentrations and the water volume of your pond in relationship to the amount of rain water the pond receives. The thread "Interesting PH Observation" (specifically skip down to post#7) should help you.

Since rain water is a solvent, once this water encounters other materials, then the "solvent" aspect of the water absorbs particular contaminants or components of the material. These contaminants can counteract the rain water's acidity or it can further increase the rain water's acidity. This contaminant potential is why carbon filtering rain water run off from house roofs, before the water enters the pond, is a good idea, at least to me it is.

So, depending on how the rain water is entering the pond water and depending on your pond water's chemistry, that is specifically the alkalinity, then you might not have to worry about the rain entering your pond. This is where monitoring water KH and PH levels come in handy, as talked about in many threads in the Water Chemistry sub-forum.

Translation: Check your pH and KH.

 

[Dave 54]

Translation: Check your pH and KH.

Always do plus we have Lithaqua as a bulster

Dave