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How to use chemicals in your garden pond

Vol:  405 Date:

Mar 24th 2004  Special

The Water Gardens Gazette SPECIAL

1. Important awareness ... testing pond water is DANGEROUS

2. Permission To Publish and Admin section

1. So Important ... AVOID testing pond water and DO USE biofilters and UV's.

I received this email request for help today and it is like many I get ... with Spring rapidly approaching I thought I must immediately share my strongly held views on water testing with my readers .... everyone will be testing their water soon and I believe they should NOT in the vast majority of cases.

Here is the readers email ....."Recently we cleaned out our 300 gal pond, and added the stuff that makes the water blue to prevent algae.  After about 2 weeks, I came home to find my goldfish in serious distress.  I tested the water and found the pH was so high it wasn't on the chart.  I made fresh water in a container to temporarily house the suffering fish, only to discover my tap water pH is just as high.  I have an inside aquarium I transferred the fish to, 5 of the 10 died.  It's been 3 days and I can get the pH down in the pond. I have tried vinegar and a chemical from the pet store to lower the pH.  It is a vinyl lined free form, with a filter and a fountain on it.  Oh and the stuff to prevent algae? Didn't work.  Any ideas?"

The changes made above were done with the very best of intentions ... they just caused more problems.

I presume the "stuff" referred to was Copper Sulphate from the blue description ... in very very low concentrations it is probably not dangerous (however totally ineffective of course at such low concentrations) but if dosage is even slightly excessive it is deadly poisonous to fish. Of course at higher concentrations it will kill algae and everything else too.

My plain simple message ... do NOT add anything to your pond unless you know WHY and WHAT BENEFIT you will get. Rarely does adding anything to a pond help the pond water or the fish. Pond algae cannot be controlled permanently by adding chemicals ... do not believe the sales talk or what it says on the bottle without a full understanding.

Even when the chemicals seem to work they become exhausted and more of the chemical has to be added the following week. Pond chemicals are sold to make money for the manufacturer and retailer .. they are NOT sold to help pond keepers.

I know this sounds cynical but in 99% of cases there is absolutely no need whatsoever for any of these chemicals ... I know I used to sell them. Here I am talking about water conditioners, chlorine removers, ammonia removers and on the list goes.

Coming back to the email I received .... It is almost certain from what is described that the test kit used for testing pH was not working or the method was not being followed in the correct manner possibly.

But there is a much bigger point ... the reader took action based upon an incorrect result and this created more problems ... putting stressed fish into fresh tap water with no air is going to stress the fish even more. What these fish needed more than anything else at the stage of stress was oxygen (air) and a partial water change. As much as 50% even. Tap water has very low levels of oxygen in it. The waterfall and fountain should have been run continuously and faster if possible to get more air into the water. An air blower would have been ideal.

Now why the fish became stressed in the first place remains a mystery because I do not have the information but it was probably the result of lack of biofiltration (therefore ammonia was high) and lack of dissolved oxygen in the water which has a double effect .. fish gasp for air and biofilter bacteria also die which creates a worsening ammonia situation.

A kind of double whammy.

Putting the fish in the aquarium caused other problems like overloading the aquarium filter ... luckily the aquarium fish did not die .. and more stress (almost certainly different temperature)

This situation occurs to a lesser or greater effect in almost all ponds as they come out of winter and the water temperature increases and people start to feed their fish again

I can say that the test kit was probably wrong based upon the observation that tap water was also off the chart ... this is almost impossible.

Vinegar was added to the pond which could be the correct way to lower pH if the pH was high in the first place ... but if was not high then a cycle of events was started that will create other problems. In any case how much vinegar was added and how was this amount calculated?

pH is a very complex variable in pond water and it also varies depending upon time of day and with other factors ... I can guarantee that measuring pH will cause more confusion and problems for the vast majority of pond keepers than not measuring it.

Let me be straight on this... test kits in the hands of garden pond keepers are dangerous. They often produce wrong results and action is taken based upon wrong result. Retailers love to sell test kits ... they are quite expensive and an opportunity arises to sell refills periodically.

Serious koi keepers will test water and monitor it over years but they will use the very best test kits available, check trends not once off results and use experience and fish behaviour to confirm probability of result being accurate.

Here's my summary of suggestions to bear in the front of your mind as spring approaches and water warms up ...

Do not test unless you really must .. and make sure test result is accurate and reliable and you know what it means. pH is especially difficult to measure and understand.

Make sure you have a biofilter ... you must have heard me say this countless times. Yes it is important, very important if you keep fish. See link for the very lowest cost effective biofilter units I have come across ... and if you do have a pond filter already make sure it is cleaned out (use pond water) and that water flows through it 24 hours per day. A biofilter works very sluggishly at lower temperatures so spring problems can be expected or anticipated almost .... which is why rest of the points below are important.

Biofilters between 1,000 galls and 5,000 gallons capacity are claimed (no UV included) with Alfagrog (called SUPRA in USA) 3 different sizes . Shipping was free and I think still is but check

click here BIOLOGICAL POND FILTER .... up to 1000 galls pond

click here BIOLOGICAL POND FILTER .... up to 3000 galls pond

click here BIOLOGICAL POND FILTER .... up to 5000 gals pond

Do use a fountain or preferably a waterfall 24 hrs per day to add oxygen to water

Do not feed fish when water temperature is still very low and when you do start feeding the fish do it very gradually .. ie a tiny little bit only.

Do install an UV if you can afford it .. see links for very low cost and effective biofilter and UV combination. You will never regret it. This is the best thing that ever happened to pond keeping

Biofilters between 1,000 galls and 5,000 gallons capacity are claimed  with Alfagrog and UV included for algae free water 3 different sizes 

Consider this low cost effective product click here

In my honest opinion the only products worthy of consideration for adding to a pond are biologically friendly mixtures which under correct conditions can help the biological activity in the pond without causing any other problems are those produced by Microbe Lift ... they must always be used as recommended otherwise they are a waste of money. Here's the link

(Microbe-Lift bacteria to keep ponds healthy).

Copyright (C) 1995-2002 Jeffrey Valjean Cook

Reprinted with permission from Jeff Cook March 2004

Maintained by: Jeff Cook.

Last updated: November 15, 2001

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Recommendations Worth A Look

Biofilters between 1,000 galls and 5,000 gallons capacity are claimed (no UV included) with Alfagrog 3 different sizes . Shipping was free and I think still is but check

  click here BIOLOGICAL POND FILTER .... 1000 galls

click here BIOLOGICAL POND FILTER .... 3000 galls

click here BIOLOGICAL POND FILTER .... 5000 gals

Biofilters between 1,000 galls and 5,000 gallons capacity are claimed  with Alfagrog and UV included for algae free water 3 different sizes  then click here to read review

MORE REVIEWS BELOW ... don't buy any new pond equipment until you have read these

  Pond Professor Price Intelligence Reports

Find out why EPDM flexible rubber liner is best for water gardening and ponds

  Looking for large floating pond aerator fountains?

  Discover fiberglass rock water fountains

Its called bioaugmentation .. Microbe-Lift bacteria to keep ponds healthy

  Go here to select the correct pump for your own pond or waterfall

For any purchase from KRUPPS note following .... | 5% discount at Krupps.com- Just enter Rebate code: cj3579 and you will receive 5% off your next order at Krupps.com

3. Permission To Publish and Admin section

Bona fide web masters and web site owners who have a genuine interest in helping people succeed in pond keeping are welcome to publish articles from these Gazettes subject to one simple condition. Please include in the opening to the article the following link. All you need do is copy these 2 lines of code and paste into your HTML

"http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/"

All you need to know about water gardens, ponds, pumps, bio filters and UV lights

This code will show as follows on your web page .... All you need to know about water gardens, ponds, pumps, bio filters and UV lights

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