Not having anyone to help is one of the disadvantages of living alone!

I am absolutely gutted at the sight of my lovely new pond. Leaves and debris are silted among the shelf plants and the water is a dirty grey. I have seen a couple of fish but they are keeping to the bottom for the most part.

This all happened because my window-cleaner left the gate open yesterday and I forgot to check it was closed. There is a board across the bottom of the gate to stop any debris entering if there should be a drainage problem.

Can anyone tell me if there is anything more I can do - other than gradually change the water.

Tricia

Good luck!

Using my heathrobinson method I managed to drain over a third of the pond, but then had nowhere more for the water to drain to - everywhere being so sodden - so I'm
filling the pond with tap water today and will try to catch the remaining fish and put them in a holding tank filled with rainwater overnight. Tomorrow I will test for ammonia again and take it from there. I'll have a friend to help me tomorrow - he will also help me to clear the debris from the shrubs and patio. Oh! what a mess, but I'm a lot better off than a lot of people here in Torbay where there was widespread flooding overnight.

Tricia

PS Thunderstorms forecast here tonight!! (fingers crossed)

Take care,

I hear we are in for more storms and heavy showers in the next couple of days Chippewacat, so keep your fingers crossed for me! Here is an update on the weekend's work. You know, my friend Gordon who is 81 and me at 71 are a bit too old for this kind of caper, but the work had to be done.

On Saturday afternoon Gordon cleaned as much of the gunk and debris from the paving and shrubs as possible. Bless him, he made me stay indoors because the smell was really horrible!

Then yesterday morning we started to empty the pond. I had tried to get the ammonia reading down by doing a partial water change on Friday but it was still dangerously high so needs must.

At least I was able to save tap water by using the water being pumped out to hose down the paving. My poor fish weren't too happy at being placed in a polystyrene container about 2 foot square and ten inches deep, but they managed to survive.

When there was not enough water left to be able to use the pump the really horrible work began. In Gordon's wellies I was passing bucket after bucket up to him to throw into the bushes. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me that there could be fry lurking in the weed and murky water so I don't know how many were thrown to their certain deaths I found five when it got the stage of scooping up gunk and water with a large plastic jug I was so thrilled to know a) that my fish have spawned this year and b) that if the five survive, they will make up somewhat for the fish I lost. The final count was four found dead and three missing presumed dead. Sad to say that among them were three of my latest acquisitions - 2 golden orfe and a sarasa comet, sniff, sniff! Now I need to know how I should care for them. At present they are in a washing up bowl with a bit of weed for cover as I don't want to put them back in the pond till they are big enough to fend for themselves against the bigger fish. I tried to feed them with crushed fish food last night but there were no takers. Anyone know what I should be doing?

After all the gunk had been removed - (and you wouldn't believe the stuff I found, cigarette ends being the less odious - I'm sure there must be someone in this area who cleans their ash trays by tipping them down the loo! Disgusting! and in my opinion panty liners should be banned) and the plants all sluiced down I used two of my waterbutts of rain water then tap water hosed in from a great height (to oxygenate the water a bit) to refill the pond. It was also treated with a dechlorinator and the grateful fish were placed once more in the home they had scarcely had time to become accustomed to before disaster overtook it. The new pond was only finished in April!

We held a bucket under the waterfall and switched on the pump and filter - but very briefly because the water was so filthy it was obvious a major cleaning of the filter was necessary. By this time - 8pm and not yet had supper - we were both just so tired it was decided the fish could do without the filter for one night.

This morning I spent a good hour cleaning the Fishmate 10000 pressure filter. Hard to believe it had only been in operation for 3 months - ugh!
I had to clean everything in rain water, so I hope the various media haven't lost too many of the good bacteria.

There is still one big job to do and that is clean all the rocks of toilet tissue residue and debris still caught among them - disgusting thought but it will have to be tackled. But - not today. I hope I haven't bored everyone silly with this long post!

Tricia (I will post a link to some piccies later if anyone is interested)

That was quite a storm, so hopefully the next ones will be a little less spectacular.

Best wishes, and keeping my fingers crossed.

Chip