Yes, its a water softer machine that uses salt. Never thought of it putting
salt in the water. I bought a test kit for ponds that test everything, but
wouldn't you know the salt one is missing out of it and I threw my ticket
away.
I'll have to find that out. I do water changes every month about 20 to 25%.
No algaecides, or medications used.

--
Priss
http://priss31.tripod.com/SmallPond.html




"~ jan" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 18 May 2003 19:06:07 -0400, "Priscilla McCullough"
wrote:

I have soft water from a water treatment thingie. Removes all clorine and
stuff.

What's a water treatment thingie? A water softer machine, or a water
conditioner from a bottle? Some water softer machines use a type of salt
to
soften the water and therefore you could have salt in the pond from it. I
know one can't taste salt in water even at 0.2% or higher.... I'm not sure
at what % one finally does taste it. Anyone?

Don't use salt. I only did one water change and that was last month when
I
cleaned the pond out.

I think your best bet is to take a sample of the water to the pet store
and
have them check for salt, if you don't want to purchase a test kit. Be
sure
you write down whatever number they come up with, either % or ppm and
report it here. Now if you had little to no salt coming from the tap and
didn't do any water changes, salts could just build up from evaporation,
that why it is recommended to remove 10-20% of the water every 1-2 weeks
and then refill. Not only does this remove salts, but heavy metals and
nitrates.

The only other thing I can think would be some herbicide has gotten in the
pond (have you used an algaecide, or other medications?) at a level that
affected the plants, but not lethal to the fish. ~ jan

See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website