Thanks for all the help so far. I just came home from work and will look
over the responses and see what I can do tonight.

Here are some of the details I left out.....

125 gallons
Fish roll-call:
1 Fat comet (original from four years ago about four inches long)
2 Smaller comets (inch long,babys from a comet that was taken by Heron)
1 comet (about two inches)
1 Ghost Koi (about two inches long)
Plant roll-call:
1 half gallon mexican magnoila (from what I'm told)
1/4 gallon Iris
1/4 gallon grass
1/4 gallon grass
I treated the plants with AgSafe Aquatic-Tabs (Pond plant food) last week
Filter:
BioFilter 500
Pump (don't remember)
Small 80 gph pump for added cirulation
The pump is part of the fountain system

I'm not sure what more information is needed. I have images, but they are
on my work computer.

Thanks for any more help.

Kris KAuker




"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

I'd like to know what your buffering is, which requires a KH test or
testing the pH at dusk and dawn.

A swing over .4 means you don't have enough buffering, and as mentioned,
you can use simple baking soda to bring this up. Unstable pH will cause
fish to hide, flash, jump out of the pond.... and many other stress
indications, the worst being disease and death.

Bring the pH slowly, add 1/8 to 1/4 cup wait several hours and check pH, if
it has barely changed you'll have an idea how much you can add safely. Big
change reduce, little change add more. You want your KH to be about 100 ppm
(you will need a test kit to find out what it really is.) ~ 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


On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 18:32:58 -0400, "Julia Kauker" wrote:

Thanks for all the help so far. I just came home from work and will look
over the responses and see what I can do tonight.

Here are some of the details I left out.....

125 gallons
Fish roll-call:
1 Fat comet (original from four years ago about four inches long)
2 Smaller comets (inch long,babys from a comet that was taken by Heron)
1 comet (about two inches)
1 Ghost Koi (about two inches long)
Plant roll-call:
1 half gallon mexican magnoila (from what I'm told)
1/4 gallon Iris
1/4 gallon grass
1/4 gallon grass
I treated the plants with AgSafe Aquatic-Tabs (Pond plant food) last week
Filter:
BioFilter 500
Pump (don't remember)
Small 80 gph pump for added cirulation
The pump is part of the fountain system

I'm not sure what more information is needed. I have images, but they are
on my work computer.

Thanks for any more help.

Kris KAuker




"Kris Kauker" wrote in message
. com...
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