Tim,

Do you have any water quality test kits?

Though you are probaby right the chlorine (or chloramines) did the first
fish in, 120 gallon pond with that much rock in it probably has less than
120 gallons of water in it. Unless you mean with the rock you metered in
the water knowing that it did indeed 120 gallons? If not you may have added
25% or more new water. Had this pond ever had a water change out? Where you
took old water out and added new in?

Regarding the new fish, what was the pH at the store of purchase and the pH
in your pond. Temperature difference, theirs, yours? How long were they in
the bag before you got them home?

Tests to have on hand:
Ammonia
Nitrites
pH
Kh
A thermometer

And perhaps in your case something to measure chlorine so you know how much
dechlor to add? Do you know if your city treats the water with only
chlorine or does it use the more deadly form of chloramines? ~ 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

On 5 Jul 2003 19:32:56 -0700, (Timothy Tom) wrote:

We have a 120 gallon outdoor pond which had 3 5" koi and a 6" catfish
in it for the past 2 years. The pond had an auto-refill system
straight from tap water which was recently inadvertently turned off.
After finding this, I turned the autorefill back on slowly. I figured
maybe 25 gallons at most had evaporated before we noticed the problem.
To make a long story short, all the fish died within 24 hrs, and I
figured it was from too much chlorine shock. I took this opportunity
to totally clean the pond, and cleaned out a 1" layer of sludge on the
bottom of the pond, and I also decided to get rid of about 70 lbs of
small river rock on the bottom. I refilled the pond with tap water,
and ran the pond for a week with pumps going. I readded 2 koi, and a
goldfish which all died within 2 hours. I must have done something
very wrong for them to die so fast. What killed these fish? Should I
wait longer than 1 week prior to adding fish? I do have about 60 lbs
of large rocks in the pond, should I also add back some small rocks to
help reestablish biological filtration?