So the other day my wife calls me at work. Says Chris something is
wrong with the pond. It's close to empty and there are pieces of fish
everywhere. I asked if the pump was off and it was. The pump has a
float the automatically turns the pump off if it drops to low.
Anyways I get home later to check out the scene and my 2 biggest gold
fish (about the size of small potato's) decided to try and swim through
the impeller of the pump and are now just chum stuck in the exit of the
waterfall --- I use 2" PVC connected in a loop with a slit cut in it
so the water sheets out. Looks nice when there is not fish pieces
clogging it up.
So anyways they were my two oldest and biggest fish, Realy pretty tail
fins and I think another smaller one decided to follow too. I just got
off working my night job 12 hr shift then onto my other PT job for a
few hours and didnt have time to work on it so it had to wait till
morning.
Next day I have to totaly disasemble all hoses, pump, filters, etc
clean everything and start from scratch. All fish are dead now by the
way. The couple that were still alive died I guess from toxic shock or
something. The water was disgusting with all the crap in there. So I
get it all back up and running and let it go for a few days then go to
petsmart and get a few comets to test with and would'nt you know one
decides to try the pump run himself and meets the same fate.
I just got this pump a little over a month ago and its a 1200gph and I
guess its just soo strong that if they get to close it sucks them in.
So I went to Lowes to look for a bag of some sort I could put the pump
in and still allow plenty of flow and keep the fish safe. I ended up
buying 1 gallong paint strainers.. worked perfect, it slipped right
over the pump and I placed some rocks around it to hide the pump and
seems to be working fine now.
Still sad I lost those fish

By the way I released my two Red Eared Sliders into the pond also. We
got them as babies about 2 years ago. They were about the size of
quarters when we got them and now are about 3" in diameter and doing
great. I know I know they were illegal to buy... found out a few months
later when we went back to see of we could get more and the person told
us they almost got shut down for selling them.. It was one of those
little karts at the mall that sells the hermit crabs where we got em.
But oh well they are doing great and now love the freedom of the pond


Regards,
Chris