Bleach in pond
 

My aunt has a 1250 gallon pond with a skimmer and UV light.
Apparently her UV light went bad and her pond turned into
pea soup. All of her fish died, I suspect from lack of
oxygen; but they assumed it was the algae. My well meaning
but misguided uncle poured a gallon of bleach in to kill off
the algae (at least he took the plants out first.) It
worked, not a hint of algae in the pond, LOL. What will
have to be done to make this pond fish safe again? Will it
have to be completely drained and scrubbed? Would a couple
of near total drainings and refills followed by
dechlorinator work? Ideas?

Robin
http://community.webshots.com/user/robinandtami

"Robin" wrote in message
news:nq2qe.40919$xm3.27198@attbi_s21...
My aunt has a 1250 gallon pond with a skimmer and UV light. Apparently her
UV light went bad and her pond turned into pea soup. All of her fish
died, I suspect from lack of oxygen; but they assumed it was the algae.
My well meaning but misguided uncle poured a gallon of bleach in to kill
off the algae (at least he took the plants out first.) It worked, not a
hint of algae in the pond, LOL. What will have to be done to make this
pond fish safe again? Will it have to be completely drained and scrubbed?
Would a couple of near total drainings and refills followed by
dechlorinator work? Ideas?

I suspect a single near draining of the water will be enough, combined with
a few days of running whatever water circulation to let the remaining
chlorine evaporate out. and of course some dechlorinator would be enough.
You didn't say if this was liquid chlorine, like the kind used in pools, or
chlorine bleach for laundry use.

A gal of pool chlorine is a higher concentration, it might take a few
drain/refill cycles. The biggest thing to remember is time, aeration and
water circulation to let the chlorine evaporate out.

"Snooze" wrote in message
...
"Robin" wrote in message
news:nq2qe.40919$xm3.27198@attbi_s21...
My aunt has a 1250 gallon pond with a skimmer and UV
light. Apparently her UV light went bad and her pond
turned into pea soup. All of her fish died, I suspect
from lack of oxygen; but they assumed it was the algae.
My well meaning but misguided uncle poured a gallon of
bleach in to kill off the algae (at least he took the
plants out first.) It worked, not a hint of algae in the
pond, LOL. What will have to be done to make this pond
fish safe again? Will it have to be completely drained
and scrubbed? Would a couple of near total drainings and
refills followed by dechlorinator work? Ideas?

I suspect a single near draining of the water will be
enough, combined with a few days of running whatever water
circulation to let the remaining chlorine evaporate out.
and of course some dechlorinator would be enough. You
didn't say if this was liquid chlorine, like the kind used
in pools, or chlorine bleach for laundry use.

A gal of pool chlorine is a higher concentration, it might
take a few drain/refill cycles. The biggest thing to
remember is time, aeration and water circulation to let
the chlorine evaporate out.


It was regular household bleach. Thanks for the advice ;)