fish dying
 

thought i would draw on the collective wisdom of this group.

i have a 300g inground pond with a 45 mil liner that has been running
since april of this year. it has a 950g/hr mag pump with the discharge
split into a venturi and a bioforce 1000 bio-mechanical filter. it has
been home to 6 - 5 inch comets during this time with no probs. been
doing 10% wcs monthly and did a 20% wc 3 weeks ago when i cleaned the
filter pads (rinsing the pads in water taken from pond for the wc). i
use amquel+ for water top offs and wcs (treating the water taken up in
30g plastic containers and aerating before adding to the pond). the
pond sits under a patio cover in the back yard and is shaded
throughout the day.

the prob:

i lost 4 fish in the last 12 hrs. with no signs of flashing or
abnormal behavior. the four started going belly up within hours of one
another. as i saw signs of them struggling to hang on (swimming
erratically, etc, as dying fish do) i placed them in a 30g container
with freshly conditioned water and a powerhead for circulation. they
died hours apart. ran tests at first sign of distress:

nh3- 0
no2 - 0
no3 - 10
pH - 7.8

i keep fresh and salt tanks and know losing fish sometimes happens.
but i only lose 1 every so often - never a fish kill like this. i
think i've done everything right (including adding a large bag of well
rinsed activated carbon to the return of the pond last night to
remove possible pollutants). i just looked in on the remaining two and
they're swimming around fine - no signs of distress.

i know this is long but am hoping to get some possiblities of what
happened.

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 13:49:31 +0200, "Happy'Cam'per" wrote:

snip

thanks for the response.

Adding a bag of freshly activated carbon to the mix probably sucked all your
oxygen out of the water, you need to pre-soak this stuff b4 use. Do you have
a waterfall? Hows your surface agitation? Your water parameters sound fine
(how old are your test kits?) so oxygen depletion is the only thing that
springs to mind.

carbon was well rinsed and soaked (in ro/di water) for about an hour
as i do with all carbon additions. the kill started before i did this.
the remaining two are swimming fine after the addition. i know the
carbon didn't do it.

for aeration, i have the pump discharge going to a venturi and using
an urn for a return (about 1 foot fall).

test kits are reliable.

seep pics in sig:

positive vibes, rasta
http://rynholland.tripod.com/
http://rynholland.tripod.com/pond/id2.html
http://rynholland.tripod.com/pond/id1.html

"rasta" wrote in message
...
thought i would draw on the collective wisdom of this group.

i have a 300g inground pond with a 45 mil liner that has been running
since april of this year. it has a 950g/hr mag pump with the discharge
split into a venturi and a bioforce 1000 bio-mechanical filter. it has
been home to 6 - 5 inch comets during this time with no probs. been
doing 10% wcs monthly and did a 20% wc 3 weeks ago when i cleaned the
filter pads (rinsing the pads in water taken from pond for the wc). i

Adding a bag of freshly activated carbon to the mix probably sucked all your
oxygen out of the water, you need to pre-soak this stuff b4 use. Do you have
a waterfall? Hows your surface agitation? Your water parameters sound fine
(how old are your test kits?) so oxygen depletion is the only thing that
springs to mind.
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**

rasta wrote:
i lost 4 fish in the last 12 hrs. with no signs of flashing or
abnormal behavior.

It's a long shot but has anyone sprayed any pesticides around lately? I
lost my fish last year when a neighbour sprayed for wasps.

Cam

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 13:49:31 +0200, "Happy'Cam'per" wrote:

"rasta" wrote in message
.. .
thought i would draw on the collective wisdom of this group.

i have a 300g inground pond with a 45 mil liner that has been running
since april of this year. it has a 950g/hr mag pump with the discharge
split into a venturi and a bioforce 1000 bio-mechanical filter. it has
been home to 6 - 5 inch comets during this time with no probs. been
doing 10% wcs monthly and did a 20% wc 3 weeks ago when i cleaned the
filter pads (rinsing the pads in water taken from pond for the wc). i

Adding a bag of freshly activated carbon to the mix probably sucked all your
oxygen out of the water, you need to pre-soak this stuff b4 use. Do you have

WOW! I did not know this. Thank you for that info!

I thought activated charcoal only removed impurities that could hurt
the fish, not actually hurt my fish.

thanks,

tom





a waterfall? Hows your surface agitation? Your water parameters sound fine
(how old are your test kits?) so oxygen depletion is the only thing that
springs to mind.

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Most likely this isn't your problem, but last year I lost some fish
(GF) just before my pump died. I suspect that it overheated/cracked
and leaked something into the water. After it quit and I replaced
the pump with a new one, fish seemed to survive fine. If your pump
is still running fine, I'm not sure how you might check it though.

Jerry

"rasta" wrote in message
...
thought i would draw on the collective wisdom of this group.

i have a 300g inground pond with a 45 mil liner that has been running
since april of this year. it has a 950g/hr mag pump with the discharge
split into a venturi and a bioforce 1000 bio-mechanical filter. it has
been home to 6 - 5 inch comets during this time with no probs. been
doing 10% wcs monthly and did a 20% wc 3 weeks ago when i cleaned the
filter pads (rinsing the pads in water taken from pond for the wc). i
use amquel+ for water top offs and wcs (treating the water taken up in
30g plastic containers and aerating before adding to the pond). the
pond sits under a patio cover in the back yard and is shaded
throughout the day.

the prob:

i lost 4 fish in the last 12 hrs. with no signs of flashing or
abnormal behavior. the four started going belly up within hours of one
another. as i saw signs of them struggling to hang on (swimming
erratically, etc, as dying fish do) i placed them in a 30g container
with freshly conditioned water and a powerhead for circulation. they
died hours apart. ran tests at first sign of distress:

nh3- 0
no2 - 0
no3 - 10
pH - 7.8

i keep fresh and salt tanks and know losing fish sometimes happens.
but i only lose 1 every so often - never a fish kill like this. i
think i've done everything right (including adding a large bag of well
rinsed activated carbon to the return of the pond last night to
remove possible pollutants). i just looked in on the remaining two and
they're swimming around fine - no signs of distress.

i know this is long but am hoping to get some possiblities of what
happened.

no no no no no no no

ponds sit for a year before you put fish in. You don't have to faff around
with chemical this and that, you let the pond just sit there for a year (at
least) to sort out its own chemistry


"rasta" wrote in message
...
thought i would draw on the collective wisdom of this group.

i have a 300g inground pond with a 45 mil liner that has been running
since april of this year. it has a 950g/

May I respectfully suggest a year is way overkill. That's almost like
saying the best way to enjoy your next sex is to wait a year. In both cases
I am sure this would work, but what a price to pay. I doubt that most
people are willing to go to the potentially back breaking work of digging a
pond, put out the investment, gather the plants, get everything set up and
then say I think I'll wait a year before I enjoy any fish. Someone
suggested on a couple of fish, particularly given the season. This makes
sense. Waiting till spring and your biofilter is up before doing any slow
quarantined stocking. This makes sense. I am still in the tail end of my
first year. Personally I would be ****ed if I found out later that I missed
a whole year of the immense enjoyment I have gotten from my fish, just to
err on the side of caution. Yes I have had a few problems and very
unfortunately a few fish died. But 5 or 6 months into it everything was and
is pretty much stable, clear and healthy. This group, I think can guide many
or most people rather than just sitting a waiting a whole year. We may
never know whether rasta did everything perfectly and it was just a chance
event that has caused his problem. The same thing could happen a year from
now, if it is not a balanced pond issue. So I say yes, go slowly and
carefully particularly at first, but not that slow.
Bill Brister - Austin, Texas

"Oxymel of Squill" wrote in message
...
no no no no no no no

ponds sit for a year before you put fish in. You don't have to faff around
with chemical this and that, you let the pond just sit there for a year
(at
least) to sort out its own chemistry


"rasta" wrote in message
...
thought i would draw on the collective wisdom of this group.

i have a 300g inground pond with a 45 mil liner that has been running
since april of this year. it has a 950g/

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 17:11:35 +0100, "Oxymel of Squill"
wrote:

no no no no no no no

ponds sit for a year before you put fish in. You don't have to faff around
with chemical this and that, you let the pond just sit there for a year (at
least) to sort out its own chemistry


???????????

did you look at pics of my pond in my sig? it's a "formal" pond - not
a farm pond where you may wait for grasses to cultivate to achieve a
natural form of filtration.

the pond has never been dosed with chemicals. the only chems ever
added has been to remove chloramines at wcs.

positive vibes, rasta
http://rynholland.tripod.com/
http://rynholland.tripod.com/pond/id2.html
http://rynholland.tripod.com/pond/id1.html

On 10 Sep 2004 06:11:32 -0700, "Cam" wrote:


rasta wrote:
i lost 4 fish in the last 12 hrs. with no signs of flashing or
abnormal behavior.

It's a long shot but has anyone sprayed any pesticides around lately? I
lost my fish last year when a neighbour sprayed for wasps.

Cam

pesticides are a very real possibilty. i live in a suburban area -
very close to neighbors. also being in zone 9 and near the coast the
county sprays for mosquitoes. don't know if any sprayings from either
source have happened recently. again, don't know if the addition of
carbon is what helped the other two survive but could be an
explaination.