backyard pond fish die off

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Thank you for your answer. Will collect all the info and get back....
We no longer have the box but husband said pump is "powerful"
Test results this AM-NITRATE (NO3) 0
" (NO2) 0
HARDNESS 25
ALKALINITY 0-40
PH 8.0-8.5
Pond is 2ft 4inch deep, 8ft long, 4ft wide
Fish ranged in size from 3-5 inches
Did not quarantine Koi
I am finding the fish dead in the morning.
Will try to include a photo of the guy I found this AM
 
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It sounds like a number of factors; overstocked, too much cleaning of the pond, possibly not enough water circulation or filtration, not treating city water before refilling.

When you clean a pond too thoroughly, you can remove some of the bio-film that is responsible for the nitrification cycle that processes the waste that your fish produce.

When you don't treat your city water before you expose the fish to it, chlorine and/or chloramine will damage the fish's gills which will affect their breathing.

If you are finding dead fish mainly in the morning, it could be because they died from a lack of oxygen during the night, this could be from overcrowding plus any damage to their gills.

When you can provide the information that others have asked for, we can come up with what would be best to do from here.
We no longer have the box but husband said pump is "powerful"
Test results this AM-NITRATE (NO3) 0
" (NO2) 0
HARDNESS 25
ALKALINITY 0-40
PH 8.0-8.5
Pond is 2ft 4inch deep, 8ft long, 4ft wide
Fish ranged in size from 3-5 inches
Did not quarantine Koi
I am finding the fish dead in the morning.
Will try to include a photo of the guy I found this AM
 
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I couldnt have put it any better myself Keith you touched on all the points I wished to make and hopefully this will be taken on board by the poster himself.
But keep in mind the areomonas bacteria when cleaning or your gong to loose fish hand over fish so to speak

Dave
Thank you, Dave
 
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Puckerup, sorry about your fish. It sounds like your bioload got too high. Typically dead fish in the morning is a clear sign of oxygen deprivation. I always go really slow in the spring. i don't over clean and just net the bottom for leaves. It's the worse time to introduce new fish or anything new because the immune systems of your fish are very low coming out of winter. You don't want to add anything that will add stress. Also i barely feed until my pond has cycled.Once it has cycled I know it will convert the fish wastes to inert substance but before then I go really slow. There are a number of "experts" that say pond cleaning should be done in the fall because your fish have built up their resistance and will not be as suseptible to bacteria that may get unleashed when you start cleaning. I know it's natural to do "spring cleaning" but it makes a lot of sense to wait.
Thank you for the sensible advice, Keith.
 
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We no longer have the box but husband said pump is "powerful"
Test results this AM-NITRATE (NO3) 0
" (NO2) 0
HARDNESS 25
ALKALINITY 0-40
PH 8.0-8.5
Pond is 2ft 4inch deep, 8ft long, 4ft wide
Fish ranged in size from 3-5 inches
Did not quarantine Koi
I am finding the fish dead in the morning.
Will try to include a photo of the guy I found this AM
Unable to add photo, could you pls walk me through it?
 
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If you can get the picture on your computer desktop, you click and drag it from there into the box that you use to reply here.
 
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Based on your dimensions your pond is around 550 gallons, not 280. 20 goldfish in 550 gallons is not really overcrowding. I suspect the un-quarantined fish brought in a disease and the rigorous cleaning restarted your cycle. Especially with a "0" nitrate reading. If you are only suffering from a re-cycle then time will fix it, if the koi brought in a disease then you have a whole new set of problems.
 
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Did the OP say the die offs began in early April, preceding the addition of the new koi, two weeks ago?
 
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Went back and reread, you're right @MitchM , fish began dying at the end of April and since koi were not introduced till two weeks ago, it seems the die off began before the koi arrived.
 
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End of April, after cleaning the pond, fish started dieing.
Koi were added end of May.
Despite the kind of problem this is, why don't ALL the fish succumb at once? Why this slow, one-at-a-time agony?
 

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