Our pond of 9 years failed.

[Doogs]

It's with some sadness, that I need to report our pond of 9 years seemed to fail over the course of a couple days.  We gained a 850 gallon pond with the house we live in over the last 9 years.  The state of the pond was never perfect.  I suspect our filtration was light, and our pumps were insufficent.. (350 gph range).  However, over 9 years we had no fatalities, so we did not change much..  The pond had survived pump failures, filter failures, algae blooms, raccoons, everything.

The other day, the pump to the waterfall stopped.  I estimate, it was off for several to 10 hours. A day after that, our large Koi and Catfish died.  Hearbroken, I assumed it was the lack of oxygen.  The smaller guys seemed to be doing fine.  Two days later, the smaller guys stopped feeding and died.  The waterfall was running for those two days.  I am at a loss for what happened..  It did get warmer here, it does seem like some of the algae died off.  Admittedly, we were more hands off than most, but we also seemed to enjoy a much higher survival rate than most.  ..We fill the pond an inch or so every couple weeks from the hose, could it have been something in the water?  could it been a cycle I was unaware of?  Why would the small guys die even if the waterfall was running well after the big guys died?

Thanks for any insight.

[Goodkarma]

Doogs,


So sorry that happened. I think you should test the water and go from there.  If it it is not the water quality then lack of oxygen would be the most likely culprit.

Regards,
Lisa

[miguynmkoi]

A very sad day indeed.  Sorry.  You've had this pond for a good amount of time.  Don't despair!

Sound like something may have gotten into the water, like chemicals not for ponds.  I'm no expert but maybe you can take a sample of your water to a local pet store or pond supply place to see if they will test your water for you.  It is possible that during the time your pump was down the stuff in the filter grew.  Maybe gaseous bacteria or whatever they are call.  All this could have been flushed back into the water when pump started back up.

Do not give up on your pond.  This would be the best time for you to redo the pond with a bigger filter and pump, etc.

[sooks]

The same thing happened to me. My pump stopped working and there was no oxygen and me being a student with no money. I couldn't afford a new one. Almost all of my fishes died.  :'( But now I'm starting over!

[frloplady]

sorry you lost your fish.  Big fish will die from lack of oxygen before the little ones do.  Could be they were just stressed enough that it took longer for them to succumb.  There is something with dying algae and O2 as well if I remember right?  That is what can be deadly with using the "algae-fix" kind of stuff.  

Is your pump(s) submersible?  Electrical shocks are not impossible.  If the pond was small and fish were growing it may have just gotten to the point the filters were struggling to keep up.  You'd only know that if you had been testing water regularly and the pump quitting may have set the whole pond over the edge.

Lots of maybe's...probably will never know.  Now is a good time to revamp the pond as needed and upgrade filtration

[Doogs]

Thanks for the insight, I'm going to run some tests on the water asap.  I suspect, we just hit a combination of items that tipped the pond over the edge.  I will take this opportunity to take our pond to the next level.

[tinkster]

So sorry about your loss.  Thats one of the most frustrating things, just not knowing sometimes what was the problem.  Cant wait to see your ponds when you get um back up and running

tink

[Doogs]

Now that the pond needs a fresh start, I guess it's time to take the hobby to the next step and get serious.

The pond is a concrete rectangle, appx 875 gallons, with 50 sq feet of surface and 32 inches deep throughout.  We have  a small waterfall on one end, and a small'ish external filter.  It has well established lillypads, that cover half the surface in the summer.

I need recommendations on new 'quality' equipment, filter, waterfall, pump (or pumps).
I might be leaning towards a waterfall filter, we can do an external filter, but there is not a great place for it.

What would you guys recommend?

[LeeAnne151]

Pony up for a high quality mag drive pump like Pondmaster or Sequence. I'm sure your fish deaths are all due to the pump dying. Very sorry.

[Johns]

Recommendation number 1:  Get a water testing kit that includes ammonia, nitrates,carbonate hardness, and PH.  Test your pond water at least monthly. 

If something caused the algae to die, the decomposing algae could have depleted the dissolved oxygen in the water, leading to fish death.  The algae may have been killed by run off of roundup or weed n feed type fertilizer.  Also you could have had a "PH crash" that would have had the same result.  Maintaining carbonate hardness via application of ordinary and cheap baking soda will prevent PH crashes.

Sorry about your fish loss, they can really grow on you.

Also check out "fish load" info at my website:  http://www.gardenendeavors.com/rack/web17.html

The main website URL:  http://www.gardenendeavors.com/

[Julles]

I'm so sorry to hear that.  I can't imagine having that happen, watching it, and not being able to reverse what ever was the problem.  I'm with the others - a combo of oxygen loss and some chemical getting into the water.

But don't give up on ponding. 

Think about increasing the size of the pond.  If you can't expand it, you could use cinder blocks or landscape timbers to add height around the edges, and then install a liner.  This means most of your pond is below ground level, and then you add a foot or two above ground, increasing your water content by several hundred gallons, if you want.  I just saw them do that on HGTV. 

I have a Pondmaster pump, (a couple, really) and they work well and are dependable.  Last year, I went to a pressurized canister filter, and love it.  It cleans the water well, and then pumps the water up my waterfall, so it creates a lot of aeration, too. 

If you can afford it, get one of the back-flushing self-cleaning ones.  But beware that a lot of them out on the market don't work.  I learned that the hard way, buying two different brands that don't work.  PondMaster's, with balls instead of filter media, plus a gizmo that manually agitates the balls when you back flush, that one DOES work, and I wish I had spent the money for it.  On the other hand, taking my Tetra filter apart once a week and hosing off the media (Laguna media, not the stuff that came with the filter) is not much work at all.

And remember - this time around, instead of buying lots of pretty fish, be selective and only buy the totally fabulous fish that you really love.  That will eliminate the chance of overcrowding your new pond.

Oh, and show us some pics.