Ditto. Where in the pond system is the sample being taken?

And I see I need to add one more question to my sick fish form.

What is your KH?

I think when you test for that, being that you're using rainwater that has
no buffer, you will find your problem. Another way to check buffer (or lack
there of) is test the pH at dawn & dust, if your pH fluctuates more than
0.4 you do not have enough buffer. To add buffer use common baking soda,
but check it with a KH tester first, and make sure there is NO ammonia in
the system.

How old are your test kits, are they reading the same as the shop?

I have a similar pond set up only smaller, one pond feeding into another,
my water chemistry was off just a tad this spring, and it was the lower
fish who got sick. ~ 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 Sat, 06 Sep 2003 15:24:45 GMT, GD wrote:

From your earlier description of the two ponds: your system filters
water from the bottom pond and dumps that back into the top pond.
Effectively, the water that supplies the bottom pond is unfiltered (it
includes wastes from fish in the top pond. You state that ammonia is
0. Is this true of both ponds? And, have you checked the ammonia
(and other parameters) after the fish began suffering? If ammonia
levels exceed 0.5 mg/L, fish may clamp fins and are much more
susceptile to disease and other environmental stresses.


(Gallandro) wrote:

The only thing I can come up with is maybe it is Costia ? although
there is no redness or gulping for air. but they do go off there
food, retreat to the bottom of the pond before comming up to die.