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

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

If all your fish are dead, I'd pump it out and then
clean it out and get ready for the coming season.
That way the pond will have a chance to mature and be
ready for the fish when the weather is stable. This
way you'll look forward to the coming season and not
the past Winter.

--
Bonnie
NJ
http://home.earthlink.net/~maebe43/

So sorry, Maureen, about your pond problems this winter. Sometimes even Mother
Nature can't save her ponds with the kind of weather you've been having. You
really put up a fight, though!

I agree with Bonnie.
Start over, get some plants in when it warms up,
give them a head start so they can handle the fish before your filter kicks in.
Take it slow and easy. Add just a few fish at a time. Nice they are coming from
your sister's pond.
good luck!

k30a

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!

Ditto what everyone else said, dump all the water and start anew. Sorry
about your loss. :'o( ~ 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

Thanks everyone. I'll dump the water I suppose, I don't think it is salvable
anyway, I am not a chemical girl. The elodea is still green but haven't seen
anything else looking alive.

I'll keep you up to date on this mess. I am looking forward to the next
season.....

Maureen

I just read this thread. Good Heavens, Maureen, you sure have
had a horrible experience. I wonder if you'd had a couple
of 1500 watt De-Icers - if they would have been able to melt thru the deep
ice and snow.

My thoughts are with you ....

Nedra
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pines/4836
http://community.webshots.com/user/nedra118

"Mosfunland" wrote in message
...
Thanks everyone. I'll dump the water I suppose, I don't think it is
salvable
anyway, I am not a chemical girl. The elodea is still green but haven't
seen
anything else looking alive.

I'll keep you up to date on this mess. I am looking forward to the next
season.....

Maureen

I LIVE UPSTATE,I STARTED OUT THE SAME WAY,WITH POTS OF HOT WATER.THEN I BOUGHT
THE DEICER AND IT KEPT AN OPEN HOLE EVEN IN 10 BELOW TEMPETURES.I HIGHLY
RECOMEND IT.THE ICE IS THAWING OUT AND ALL OF MY FISH(20) SURVIVED.

Maureen,
That's a shame you didn't make it through the winter on a positive note.
I live just outside of philly and didn't have any problems at all. I did
have a bubbler going, but there was quite a bit of time the pond was
frozen solid. I thought for sure that all would be lost. Imagine my
surprise when the big thaw came this past weekend, 12 fish swimming
around with no apparent problem. I just can't wait to get out there to
clean up all the muck. Good luck to you this season. BTW where do you go
for your supplies? I have found a reasonable place in Morgantown that
has a very wide assortment of plant and other supplies for ponds. If you
need more info let me know.

Rich K
Montco.

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

Thanks for your sentiments, nothing worked this winter, and hopefully I can get
it back up and running. It is strange not seeing anything swimming
around....and not seeing the frogs drag their sleepy selves out of the muck...

Maureen

In article ,
(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

I had the same problem, I had all my Kois died, 21 of them. I have them
for 7 years.
I livee in Illinois and we had an awful winter, the ice on the pond was
very thick.
I never had this problem before. also the water just turn very green, any
idea???.
May be I should empty the whole pond. By the way the pond is about 3.5
feet deep.
Thank you.
Cesar

My water is bright green today. The sun has been beating down on it, and I
suppose with all of the decaying "stuff", the pond is nutrient heavy. The
algae will flourish. The pump is circulating the pond water, it doesn't smell
brackish any more. I can actually see a hint of lily??? starting up. I plan
to recycle the water, by diverting the filter into a pool, cleaning out the
stuff...relocating the lotus, which took off and grew throughout the pond last
summer. It is outta here....might salvage a tuber or too, but it is just too
invasive for me to keep up with, and it was in a HUGE tub. Then I'll add most
of the water back, top it off with new water, and let it cycle for a couple
weeks again.

Maureen

how big (gallons) is your pond?
what is your filter setup?
what are your water parameters?
what did you use to keep a hole in the ice?
Ingrid

(ROMERO) wrote:
I had the same problem, I had all my Kois died, 21 of them. I have them
for 7 years. I livee in Illinois and we had an awful winter, the ice on the pond was
very thick. I never had this problem before. also the water just turn very green, any
idea???. May be I should empty the whole pond. By the way the pond is about 3.5
feet deep.
Thank you.
Cesar

What is your freeze line (How far down does it freeze in your area)? Your
pond is about the same depth as mine and Long Island is considerably warmer
than your area.

wrote in message
...
how big (gallons) is your pond?
what is your filter setup?
what are your water parameters?
what did you use to keep a hole in the ice?
Ingrid

(ROMERO) wrote:
I had the same problem, I had all my Kois died, 21 of them. I have them
for 7 years. I livee in Illinois and we had an awful winter, the ice on
the pond was
very thick. I never had this problem before. also the water just turn
very green, any
idea???. May be I should empty the whole pond. By the way the pond is
about 3.5
feet deep.
Thank you.
Cesar