Conditioning Water with Auto Fill System

[Hilltop16]

Hi Everybody!

I've had my pond for almost three years, but still feel like a newbie. I just added two four-inch gold fish and biological filtration media to the system. I have an auto-fill, but I'm worried about exposing the fish to chlorine from the city water source. Can I simply add water conditioner on a regular basis to counter-act the chlorine and other chemicals coming from the auto fill? If so, how often?

Or should I turn the auto fill off and only add water when I can simultaneously add water conditioner?

I live in Salt Lake City, Utah. It gets 95+ degrees here in the summer and is VERY dry; second driest state in the country. My pond is about 60 - 70 gallons, 8 square feet of surface area with a rather fast-moving waterfall stream. Any ideas about how much evaporation might be normal?

Glad I found this forum. Thanks for letting me join.

Hillary

 

[don't ask]

hmmm... good question Hillary and I am not well versed in that topic but i will suggest what i think may work and others are sure to comment... perhaps find a way to mark the inside of your pond to give you an idea how much evaporation happens in a week.. guesstimating so many inches equals so many gallons of water.. i would do this with the auto fill turned off... after a week or perhaps sooner depending on how far level has dropped and use hose and inside meter to give you amount of gallons to fill back to top level or use a 5 gallon bucket and then you can add dechlor while doing that... or perhaps collect rain water and use that to refill your pond but that may be time consuming and not efficient.. i might guess that around 3 or 4 gallons of tap water going in a week may not compromise the health of your fish

 

[sissy]

They were jut talking about that same thing today on here and waterbug post on here about using a drip irrigation system that you use to water house plants

 

[don't ask]

was just about to mention that too sissy... hillary you could use a drip system but not sure how low of gallons per hour you can do without possibly setting up an overflow relief

 

[sissy]

It was posted on vacation food sight

 

[Hilltop16]

Thanks for all the feedback about evaporation and keeping my pond filled.

Regarding my auto fill.... It's plumbed right into my irrigation line and hides inside the buried filter/pump reservoir. I like the convenience having it, but don't want to harm the fish with excessive chlorine, chloramine and other harmful things. Since it is so hot and dry here, the auto fill comes on daily and adds water quite rapidly. Certainly more rapidly than a drip system or constant flow feedline as described in other posts.

I ran across The Pond Pill Dechlorinator Biosphere today and wondering if it might be my solution. Supposedly it is a slow-release dechlorinator that lasts about a month. It would sit right inside my filter basket which is where the new water from my auto-fill enters. Have any of you had experience with this or have any information or words of wisdom to share? http://www.naturesaquatics.com/home/naq/page_195_93/dechlorinator_biosphere.html

Thank you!

Hillary

 

[j.w]

That sounds pretty neat Hillary and bet it would work just fine. Didn't know they made such a thing. I don't need any tho as we have a well here but sure sounds like a good thing to use in your circumstance.