disinfecting pond

Paddles

i have a small pond (4ft diameter) I keep a few goldfish in it, along with a waterlily. and a small fountain.

i don't have any filter in it, and until recently never had a problem with it, my fish were healthy, the water clear etc. once in a while when I felt it needed it I would partialy empty it, give a quick scrub with a hand broom (Kept specificaly for that purpose) and refill. I had the same fish for the two years that I've had the pond. then one morning they were dead. all of them overnight. I emptyed the pond cleaned it, left it empty a day or 3 to let the sun get into it, refilled it, left sit a week for the water to settle, and restocked. a week later they were sick then dead. I repeated testing the water etc, they died overnight again (I saw them the day before and they seemed fine. they had plenty of hiding spaces etc.


Now I've emptyed the pond, scrubbed it with soap (Pure soap) rinsed several times, scrbbed the fountain etc, but my query is, can I spray with something like vinigar to try to disinfect it more? will the residual vinigar cause problems? what else can I do? what about the plants, on the assumption that it is disease, can will the plants carry it? I can rinse the plants easily enough, but obviously can't scrub them, would I have to dump the plants?

any other suggestions?

It's not the fish stock whats the problem, I have another small pond, that was set up recently with stock from the same place and they are fine.

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Mortalis

Though its not bonsai related I still do know the answer.. use just one quart of normal bleach. Its just chlorine after you empty the pond and fill it let it sit for 3 days to be sure the chlorine has had time to evaporate. As for the plants use a solution of the bleach 1cap full of bleach for a gallon of water.. soak for 15 min then soak again in pure water. They can not actually carry the disease but it may stick to their surfaces so to speak.

Hope it helps.

TreeBay

Most fish disease wouldn't impact the fish so quickly. I suspect there is something else at work, like a chemical poisoning. Over time, ammonia can build up in the wate r and reach toxic levels, or maybe you're in an area that has chloramines in the water, and you topped-up the pond one evening? Or they were spraying in your neighborhood with malathion or something similar that is very toxic to fish?

Regards,

Matt

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Paddles

I honestly don't know what killed all those fish, but since I scrubbed it out, and left it sitting empty in the sun for a couple of days, then refilled and treated as normal, I haven't lost any fish. (Well I lost from another pond, but I know why with them) I'm still working on constructing my new pond, which will be larger and better etc, but I'm taking it easy as with current water restrictions, I wouldn't be able to fill it.


There was some concern that whatever killed the fish could have contaminated the plants, but that does not seem to be the case so far.


I am having a lot of trouble with water quality atm, having to keep a close eye on it. new pond will have a superdooper filter with all the gadgets.

saru

Test your pond for ammonia and nitrate. The fish produce these two toxic chemicals in there waste. It may not be a infection at all just deadly amounts of these to silent killers. A good bio filter can keep these effects down. Before the fish died were they acting funny; gasping at the serface or just hanging around at the bottom of the pond ?

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ElGringo

Degergents are highly poisenous too. Remember that with minimal water surface movement, your fish could easily have suffocated, especially as they grow larger and demand more dissolved oxygen. Scrubbing the pond out is not a good idea, the silt at the bottom harbours bacteria that help detoxify ammonia, which fish release from their gills as well as urine. Ponds can take months or even years to develop an equilibrium.. As a rough stocking guide have 1 inch of fish per 6 litres of water. So one 3 inh fish (not including tail) would need 18litres of water space to thrive.


Excessive plant growth can use up oxygen, as plants need it too to survive. In the night when they're not photosynthesizing it can be a problem. Remember that clear water is not neccessarily clean! Please please invest in a filter, with a sponge to remove solid particles (you can clean this with tapwater) and crushed lava rock to provide a habitat for varies species of de-nitrifying bacteria (wash the rock in a bucket of pond water once a month- not tapwater as this will kill the benefitial microbes) which oxidize wastes in a series of stages (ammonia>nitrite>less harmful nitrate). Anearobic bacteria in the silt at the bottom of the pond will then reduce the nitrate to nitrogen gas, which harmlessly floats away...

Some filter come with magnets ond UV lights, these are used to kill floating algal cells which cloud the water green, they dont kill filamentous algae (blanketweed). If you get this, try shading the pond and feeding less.

Feed the fish once a day, spring and summer. A 6 inch goldfish only needs a teaspoon of pellets a day, remember they get most of their food from foraging in silt and tiny bits of algae on the sides of the pond.

Hey and if you see white spots on the gill covers of some fish, it's not a disease, it indicates that they are breeding, and in full health. A healthy fish is always looking for food as well - and should approach your hand if you put it in the water.

I hope this helps, can you guess my hobby before i got into bonsai? Good luck!

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Richard