Xref: kermit rec.ponds:151424

On 23 Jun 2004 21:38:46 -0700, (KarenZ)
wrote:

I'm new to rec.ponds and to pond keeping in general, and I hope you
more experienced people can help me with a problem I have with my
pond.

My pond is very small (about 50 gallons or so I think) and I had two
cute little 3" koi. They lived for about a month. When the second
died today, I took a sample of water in to where I bought the koi and
they tested it, and told me it was too acidic. The other levels were
OK. They recommended a chemical treatment called "PH Down" but,
because I have two dogs that think nothing of drinking from the pond,
I don't want to use that product as it's hazardous. Any other ideas
out there on how to bring down the PH of my pond, in a way that would
be safe for pond-drinking pets? Also, any ideas on why this happened
and how I can avoid it in the future? If it is helpful to know, I
also have in this pond 3 aquatic plants (the kind you put in
aquariums), a "sucker fish" to clean up the sides of the pond, two
snails and a flag lily. There are two small pumps drawing water
through filters and one of them sends the water through a spitter to
help with aerating it. I had just done a forced water change of about
half the pond water in the week before the last koi died; one of the
pumps got bumped and pumped half the pond water out into the garden.
I replaced the water over several days; each batch of water I added
to the pond sat out 24 hours before adding it. It also rained heavily
the day before the last fish died.

I feel so bad about the koi and don't want to get any more unless I
can keep them healthy! Thank you for any advice you can give me.


In addition to what K connover said

You say that the water is too acid. That is low pH, not high. PH
down would make that worse. Try to get the actual pH number.

The sucker fish can be a bad mix with koi, not always, but sometimes
they will attack. The algae on the sides of the pond is generally
considered good, I'd take the sucker fish out. Floating algae and
green water algae are considered undesirable.

Bad news about the leak, but it looks like you handled it properly.

You may have just gotten two bad fish. I spend a lot of time at a
local water garden shop, we've had several fish deaths which we can
attribute only to them being sick when we got them.

The pond at 50 gallons would make a good home for two goldfish.


--

- Charles
-
-does not play well with others