FAQs on Treating Tapwater for Pond Use Related Articles: Treating Tapwater for Pond Use,  Related FAQs:

Aquatic Gardens Ponds, Streams, Waterfalls & Fountains: Volume 1. Design & Construction Volume 2. Maintenance, Stocking, Examples V. 1 Print and eBook on Amazon V. 2 Print and eBook on Amazon   by Robert (Bob) Fenner

Bob F: Thanks for chlorine discourse   7/4.5/11
...Though it offered little solace to he who returned from the family picnic to discover that he had left the hose running in the goldfish pond (+/- 1000 gal., 12 full-grown common/comets plus 1 yearling) for about 8 hours (at about 5 gpm), on a Sunday night before a Monday holiday, at that.
Screwed, in a word.
<Zow!>
Ben, one of our 5year-olds and the alpha F, floated in the skimmer, and Mnemeth, the yearling (my wife may actually be from Pern, but I digress) was barely alive. She moved him into the 20-gallon setup indoors, but he quickly succumbed.
The water was foamy. All we had handy was about 4 oz. of "Stress Coat," which only lists aloe as an ingredient, and almost all of a 26 oz. carton of Ammo Chips.
This morning, to my relief, there is no foam and there are no more corpses in evidence, although I can only see 9. I'm not despairing for the other 2 yet, even though the water is quite clear. There are lots of places for a fish to hide in our pond if it wants to. The ones I see are behaving normally, swarming for a feeding. They can wait.
Max Smith
<Sorry for your travails Max. BobF>
Re: Bob F: Thanks for chlorine discourse   7/4.5/11
Thanks. "Nobody's fault but mine," wrote the poet.
<Ohh, one of my fave refrains from the Zep's: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody's_Fault_but_Mine
Cheers, BobF>

Adding Tap Water to a Very Large Pond   8/10/10
I have a very large pond, roughly 50 feet in diameter x 3 feet deep. It has a natural bottom and is inhabited by a variety of fish (Koi, Shubunkins, goldfish, perch) frogs, etc. We are experiencing drought conditions this summer and I've lost over 1/3 of the water as the result of a feeder stream drying up. I'd like to restore add at least 6 inches of water from the tap (treated city water) to the pond but don't know how to treat the water; how much of what product to add nor precisely how it should be added to it. Can you help?
<I can. I would slowly... as in with a 3/4" ID hose pipe (garden hose) fill this as much as you like, w/o adding anything to counter the sanitizer (likely chloramine) in the tap/mains water. The amount added, particularly
at a slow (over a couple, three days fill) will not malaffect your livestock. Bob Fenner>
Thank you

Cycling a new pond... Water treatment for chlorine/amine, and very high pH    5/26/10
Hello Bob.
I am currently cycling a new 1,200 gallon Koi pond and I have two concerns, one regarding additives and a second regarding Ph. If I add Amquel or De-Chlor to each batch of 120 gallons of water I change, won't I eventually end up with a pond filled with hydroxymethanesulfonate (Amquel) or Thiosulfate (De-Chlor)?
<Mmm, no... these molecules are transient... break down...>
I know that "better" is always a relative term, but in real world terms how much better is it to aerate the water for 7-8 days to dispel the Chloramines naturally versus dealing with them chemically?
<I wouldn't sweat adding any such DeChlor(am)inators if you're only changing this amount... ten, twenty percent of the volume period. I change out a good third of my fancy goldfish water w/o any such additions. The sanitizer is complexed "enough"...>
Regarding Ph, at 10 Am today,
<Yeeikes! You need to find out the source here, and correct it...>
I tested the pond which has been filled since Saturday and the Ph was 8.4. Our tap water tests at 7.8 and the 200 gallon tub that I have our brand new quarantined Koi in, filled for 8 days, is 7.3. Why would an empty pond, still containing chloramines, go up?
<Something alkaline there... Likely a cementaceous product... Is there new concrete, mortar in contact with the water? Was it acid-washed, otherwise sealed?>
Our local Koi store has the same municipal water supply and has told me, basically that "the Ph is the Ph.
<... Okay, "idiocy is idiocy", your turn>
If you are going to try to change and buffer every gallon of water that goes in, you will become a mad (angry)
chemist and the water will become chemical sludge, both in short order."
<... I agree with the sentiment here, but this pH is dangerously high...
Many important biochemical reactions will work against you unless you can discern and correct the source/s of this high alkalinity. This is extremely important... Your fish will suffer, indeed all livestock here... and you will have REAL algal troubles if you neglect this/these actually, aspects of water quality>
What should I worry about and what should I not?
<... do worry. And read:
http://wetwebmedia.com/PondSubWebIndex/h2ochempds.htm
and the linked files above... I've got to pen a piece on pH and alkalinity for Ponds...>
Thank you in advance,
Allen
<Welcome. Bob Fenner>

Removing Chloramine Inexpensively 2/2/09 Hi, <Hello Ed> Thank you for your comprehensive website. It is a HUGE resource for all things aquatic. <Welcome> I have a large pond, about 15,000 gallons, with several large Koi and many goldfish. The pond is well planted with 2 very large bogs acting as biofilters, roughly 5 cubic yards of stone total. It's spring in Houston and therefore time to clean the muck off the bottom that's accumulated over our 2 month winter and I'm preparing to change 10 to 20% of the pond water weekly and will continue until next winter. I'd like to add a dechloraminator similar to Amquel, which is 100% Sodium hydroxymethanesulfonate. Also known as Hydroxymethanesulfonic acid, and Formaldehyde sodium bisulfite. Buying the volumes that I will need at a pet store will be very expensive. I was hoping I could buy this chemical in bulk to get the price down. Do you foresee me causing any problems for my fish if I do this? <Mmm... well, not likely... In fact, if it were me, mine... even an expensive service account, I might well just skip using a dechloraminator en toto... introduce new water slowly (automatically), through/over the falls or a bio-filter area... Unless your municipality periodically "pulses" a higher titer of chloramine, there's not much risk of toxicity from the sanitizer... However, if you want to keep using a dechloraminator... This Kordon product is sold in 5 gallon carboys at a considerable discount. You might want to contact one of the larger etailers like DrsFosterSmith.com to see what sort of deal they might work... or a LFS in the area to see what they might do. Making it yourself? Mmm, not impossible to do... Do you have much chemistry background?> I don't expect this would be all that different form buying lab grade sodium Thiosulfate in bulk and using it as a dechlorinator. <Ahh, for those good old days... "Hypo" for pennies a pound... a pound or two to make a "drop a gallon" dechlorinating solution...> Appreciate your thoughts on this. Ed de Alba Houston <Bob Fenner>

Stupid dechlorinator question, Mmm, not so, ponds    6/24/07 Hello. First of all I'd like to say thank you so much for helping me out with my last problem, it helped save my two sick koi fish! <Ah, am glad you were able to do so> The following may seem like silly questions, but nonetheless my dad and I can't reach an agreement on the matter. Let's say you have a 1,000 gallon pond, and do a 20% water change. Do you need to add only enough dechloraminator to the pond to treat 200 gallons, or 1,000 gallons worth of the stuff? <The former> If you add only enough to treat 200 gallons to the pond, will it dilute to the point it won't be able to find and detoxify the chloramine/chlorine in the added water? <Mmm, no> And can adding too much dechloraminator be harmful? <For almost all products, not harmful in the least> Cause we just replaced about 10% of the water in our 1,000 gallon pond. I added enough to treat 100 gallons (which wasn't really necessary anyway), but I think when my back was turned my dad added another cup to treat all 1,000 gallons. Also, when exactly do you add the dechloraminator to the pond, before you add the new water or after? <Before is best> Or do you need to dechlorinate the water in a bucket before adding to the pond? <Before...> Sorry, neither the instructions on the bottle nor any articles I've found are very clear on this matter. Perhaps because it is so simple! Thanks for your patience! <Your questions, comments are insightful. Thank you for sharing. Bob Fenner>

Pond pH & GH... RMF's regrettable advice... TAKE CARE!    3/29/06 Hi crew <Howdy> I am writing to you from Athens, Greece. I have 3750-gallon concrete pond (3 years old) with a self- built compartment filter and a massive UV to keep the water clear. For the moment the pond houses a group of wild caught fish (Common carp, Chondrostoma nasus and Leuciscus cephalus) and 6 goldfish. The pond is filled up with well water which is extremely hard pH > 8.5 and GH > 40. Although this is not the best option for the fish present, they have acclimated rather well since I never had any loss (not even during the 5 hour transport by car in mid-summer @ 40o C) <Have been to Athens... is very hot during the summer!> during this time and the fish are feeding well and have never been diseased. Anyway the next step is to breed these beauties, but as you might think they have never spawned with this alkalinity around. I was thinking of adding some peat in the filter, but I don't know if this is going to work in such a volume of water (besides the obvious drawbacks). <Yes... a mess> Do you have any suggestion of a cost efficient way to bring the alkalinity down? (Treated tap water, DI or R/O not an option for the time being). Thanks <The easiest and least-expensive is not the least dangerous. But I will mention it here... with tacit warnings. Use of an inorganic acid, like HCl... usually available as 3 molar Muriatic Acid... can be employed, OUTSIDE the system... as in batch-processed new water to be gradually placed in the main system with water changes... USE an alkalinity test kit, ascertain about the amount of acid to use per whatever volume water you are using/changing, mix and store for a day or more before applying. DO this carefully, taking pains to not spill the Muriatic on you, your clothes, to AVOID breathing the fumes, rinsing down the deck, plants that may have the acid spilled on them. Bob Fenner>
Re: Pond pH & GH - 03/29/06 Thanks for your immediate reply Bob. <Welcome> I agree with you that the addition of an inorganic acid is an option, not the best but I didn't leave you much slack... One last question though. As a marine biologist nothing would make me happier than tackling the alkalinity problem biologically if possible... <Can/could be done... there are plants in particular that absorb a good deal of alkaline earth material... Ceratophyllum, Myriophyllum species... Cattails/Tules, family Typhaceae mainly... even Nymphaeaceans...> Are you aware of a freshwater or an extremely euryhaline marine organism (possibly sessile invertebrate) that provided it is kept in "substantial numbers" takes up decent amounts of Ca salts? <Mmm, yes... there are some "pretty" rapidly biomineralizing invertebrates... but none that will likely make "much of a difference, timely..." Do you have another good-sized basin (hundreds of gallons) where you might culture some Thallophytes? Any local candidates that seem to become "scruffy" in the wild? Perhaps even recruited corallines could be put to use here. Bob Fenner> Thanks again.  
Re: Pond pH & GH  3/30/06 Once again thanks for the advice Bob. <Most welcome> I will look into the "plants scenario" a bit more thoroughly (sounds terrific) and will inform you about the outcome. The certain thing is that I have to extent the pond (special compartment of some sort) because plants and carp don't mix well... <Many possible experiments for you here... Exciting to consider and execute. Thank you for sharing. Bob Fenner>

Automatic Dechloraminator 7/10/03 I have a top off system on my pond (1200 gallon) that is supplied by the local municipal water system. I would like to add a automatic dechloraminator. Do know of a supplier I can contact? Thanks Lee <do a keyword search on the Internet (or seek other resources like Thompson's Registry, etc) for Aquaculture supplies/suppliers. Places like "Area, Inc" in Florida that supply fish farmers with such equipment. Best regards, Anthony>

Aquatic Gardens Ponds, Streams, Waterfalls & Fountains: Volume 1. Design & Construction Volume 2. Maintenance, Stocking, Examples V. 1 Print and eBook on Amazon V. 2 Print and eBook on Amazon   by Robert (Bob) Fenner