On 17 Mar 2003 19:45:08 GMT, (Mosfunland) wrote:

Well I thought it was dead, and it is indeed DOT (dead on thaw)....I battled
the ice all winter, it won, despite a bubbler, one of those 100 watt things and
another defroster thing.....the ice was too thick I suppose. I drilled holes
till my shoulders hurt. I scooped out the dead things I could find, others
must be down in the muck.

Anyway, the water is brackish, I was thinking of siphoning the water into a
pool, to clean out the bottom of the pit.....should I reuse any of this water,
or let the pump run for a couple weeks to clean it up? It's a hard thing to
look at, breaks my heart, but I want to get it fixed. My sister said she
would donate some of her fish (from my fish originally), but that is the least
of my problems.

Any suggestions welcome.
Thanks
Maureen in Phila
Maureen,
So sorry to hear of your loss. I'm afraid that this is the situation
I'll find myself in IF my pond ever thaws. I too fought the ice in
vain this winter, when it got too thick to drill through, we ran pots
of boiling water back and forth every 2 hours,and it's still about 14
inches thick in the center of my 32 in deep pond. I tried to turn the
pump on this weekend, and found a crack in my flexpipe. (I found it
the hard way, with a face full of freezing mucky water! LOL) I'm
worried, not only about my 14 goldfish, but the 5 bullfrogs that moved
in last summer.The edges are thawing though, and it appears that the
water celery has survived. I'd be glad to share some with you if you'd
like. Just E mail me.
As for the water, I'd start over. If you have to drain it and scoop
out the muck anyway, so as not to leave any decaying critters, (uch!)
then I dont think there's much benefit to re-using the brackish water.
Keep us posted.
Laura
Long Island, zone 7- feels like zone 5!