Hi Kris
I am way far from an expert, but its late and I cant sleep so here's my 5
cents worth of advice. It has been very painful but ponding is once again
teaching me.... common sense. There are a number of factors you did not
mention, like how many fish already, plants etc etc. There are a bunch of
things you could consider and many rules of thumb. But if all new fish act
funny, one dies and another is willing to jump into the unknown to escape
its current surroundings you have water problems -and the older fish are not
as excited about it YET. Change what you do know - even 20 Nitrates is
about the max I believe - got any filtering root systems? Adding Limestone
to your water feature sounds good to me but in the short run I would add
Baking soda and slowly bring you ph up, like today. 7.5 would be a very
safe first goal ecspecially if you are not sure if 6.9 is your lowest in the
morning, not bouncing too drastically ph. I would want to know what your
fresh water going in is. If its over 6.9 subsequent water changes will at
least temporarily improve ph and nitrates. You still have 2 new fish, which
is probably at least 2 too many. My wild guess is that the 80 reading is
telling you your fish load was already getting excessive - the darn things
grow.
Okay-well 5 cents doesnt buy what it used to.
The calvary should be arriving in just a few hours.
Good Luck!
Bill Brister - Austin, Texas
"Kris Kauker" wrote in message
om...
I hope I can find some help here, I've read and posted a few messages
here and there, so here it goes.....

I have a 125 gallon (yeah, that's all) pond. It's been up a running
for three years now. I added two comets a few weeks ago and a
Butterfly Koi over a week ago. For the past week, all the fish have
seem to be hidding in the corners of the pond or hiding together at
the bottom of the pond. This weekend, I lost the Butterfly fish.
This AM, I found one of the baby fish, about a year old flipped
himself out of the pond and out onto the ground. Luckily, it must
have just happened and I was able to place him back in the pond and I
quickly got him into a bowl.

I checked the all the levels with the following:
Ammonia - 0.0
pH - 6.9
Nitrite - 0.0
Nitrate - 80!

Yup, 80! I did some quick internet searching and came up with a water
change. I changed 50% of the water and filled it back up and
de-chlorinated the water. I also added some aquarium salt. The fish
are doing a little better, but some are still hidding. I again
checked the levels and all were the same except for the Nitrate that
was down to 20.

Any ideas on the problem?
SHould I be more concerned about the water quality?

This is the first major problem that I've had with the pond and I'm
lucky to say that's all.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kris Kauker
kkauker at princeton dot edu