As far as I know the main source of pollution in my pond is air pollution. My water source is heavily treated and constantly tested, I use 'drinking water safe' hoses to fill with, but that's not to say there aren't toxins that I'm not aware of. I don't live near any industrial company, they're all downwind! But in winter we do get some nasty inversions trapping the air in the valley and prompting heath warnings and temporary wood burning bans. Normally they only last a couple days but some have gone for weeks. The snow gets a brown tint to it, and that's what's going in the pond. And I usually don't do water changes in winter because the hoses have all been disconnected, sometimes I think the water must be bad but I don't feed in winter either. I don't really do anything in the depth of winter to the pond other than monitor it. What else could I do? Whatever precip we get goes in the pond.
This years bug population forced me to spray several toxic chemicals around the yard, to no avail it would seem, but always watched for the pond when doing so. I've had several good pond years now, sorry don't own a test kit for quite awhile now but I'm getting a renewed interest in my pond now I see a quality test kit in my future. Is there a test for specific toxins we backyarders should look for? Pesticides ect. I must say I've been a lazy ponder lately. But still the fish live and the water runs clear.
