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Safely Adding Water To Your Pond A Club member recently reported an almost total loss of fish in his pond after a automatic filling valve in a swimming pool-size pond stuck in the open position, allowing City water to flow into the pond for at least 24 hours. Most of the koi in the pond were dead or dying by the time the problem was discovered. The following article will explain the process, and give you some choices to help keep your pond safe when adding water. The first step in safely adding water to your pond is to know what type of water you are using. If you use water from a municipal source, your water will contain some form of chlorine. You should check with your local water company to find out if they add chlorine or chloramine to your water. The other main source of water is using your own well water. In general, you can safely add potable water from any of the above sources to your pond as long as you add it slowly. Most experts limit this to less than 5% of your total pond volume per day, added slowly over several hours. In other words, if you leave a trickle of water running into your pond, you will in most cases not have a problem while adding water to your pond. Having said this, it is still recommended that you use a timer to prevent overflows, and treat any water you add to your pond. City Water Containing Chlorine If you use water containing chlorine, you can easily correct the problem. Chlorine will gas off quickly by adding the water in a vigorous spray. You can also remove chlorine using a simple and cheap pond water conditioner based on sodium thiosulfate. This may be purchased in liquid form at any fish store, or you can buy the crystals in bulk from one of the major pond equipment dealers who advertise in this newsletter and make your own. This water conditioner should be mixed into your City water in a separate container before being added to the pond. This is the safest way to use it, but you can also mix this water conditioner along with the water you are adding directly into the pond. City Water Containing Chloramine If you use water containing chloramine, then you have a more serious problem. Chloramine is a combination of chlorine and ammonia. Yes, ammonia! This is added to help keep the chlorine in the water for a longer period of time. As a result, it’s harder for the fish keeper to safely add water. If you use a sodium thiosulfate based water conditioner, this will break the bond between the two chemicals, and will remove the chlorine. Bit it will leave all the ammonia, which in one Club member’s water supply was tested at 4.0 ppm. If you make a major water change of 25%, you will be placing your fish in water containing at least 1.0 ppm of ammonia, which could easily damage or kill them. There is another water conditioner based on sodium hydroxymethanesulfonate and other chemicals. One example of these is Amquel. This conditioner will instantly remove chlorine and convert the ammonia to a safe state, but it is much more expensive to use. In addition, water treated with this conditioner cannot be accurately tested using any Nessler’s type test kit. The water conditioner should be mixed into your City water in a separate container before being added to the pond. This is the safest way to use it, but you can also mix this water conditioner along with the water you are adding directly into the pond. But, even with the chlorine gone, this still leaves you with a large dose of temporarily converted ammonia that must be removed. If you have chloramine in your City water, you must have some form of biofilter to remove the ammonia with nitrifying bacteria. Well Water For those of you who have a well with potable drinking water, you have it easier. The only real problems with well water is that is usually contains very little or no oxygen, and that the temperature may be drastically different from your pond water, especially in our hot Florida summers. This water should also be sprayed when added to the pond. The Whole House Water Filter One solution to the problem of safely adding water to your pond is to use a whole house water filtration system with a carbon filter. These are sold at home improvement stores for under $20, and the two for $8 filter cartridges are rated for 15,000 gallons. The carbon filter cartridge is said to remove both ammonia and chlorine, but you should check to make sure. At least one type of whole house filter system sold locally has a 3/4 inch threaded opening on both ends. You can install this inline to your automatic water lever line, or with a simple converter, hook it up to a water hose. Even while using this system, to be sure that you are safe, add the water slowly, spray it over the pond, set a timer to prevent overflows, and use a good test kit to be sure the water you are adding to your pond is actually safe. Tests for both chlorine and ammonia should read zero Reprinted from Pond Droppings; Florida West Coast Koi & Water Garden Club. |
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