fishes in cement pond pot
- Thread starter vishu1708
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If the cement has been cured other wise it can affect the ph. Fill the pot with water, get your water lily and a fresh water test kit for ponds. Check the ph of the water. Sometimes concrete will affect the ph. If all is fine, only put in a few fish, make sure you do not over stock it. Then also test the water for ammonia etc to know when to do a water change for your fish.
Welcome to our group!
Welcome to our group!
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I have never used cement, but did find this with a quick search on the net. Do a search in this forum I know others have talked about the use of cement in a pond
According the Sunset Book of Garden Pools, Fountains, and Waterfalls,
concrete ponds can be cured by filling the pond and let it set for 24 hours,
then drain the pool and then fill again. Repeat this four times and after
refilling it let is stand for 7 days. Then rinse and refill and let stand
for another 24 hours before adding fish. Before I added the fish I would
test water quality, which would give you an idea of its pH, etc.
You can treat with muriatic acid, but this is usually done when you plan to
paint the concrete surface. If you want to use the muriatic acid you mix 1
part acid with two parts tap water in a bucket. A gallon of this solution
should cover about 300-500 square feet. With the appropriate protective
wear you scrub this on to the concrete surface and stop when the area being
worked stops bubbling. Flush the acid from the pool. Then you can paint.
According the Sunset Book of Garden Pools, Fountains, and Waterfalls,
concrete ponds can be cured by filling the pond and let it set for 24 hours,
then drain the pool and then fill again. Repeat this four times and after
refilling it let is stand for 7 days. Then rinse and refill and let stand
for another 24 hours before adding fish. Before I added the fish I would
test water quality, which would give you an idea of its pH, etc.
You can treat with muriatic acid, but this is usually done when you plan to
paint the concrete surface. If you want to use the muriatic acid you mix 1
part acid with two parts tap water in a bucket. A gallon of this solution
should cover about 300-500 square feet. With the appropriate protective
wear you scrub this on to the concrete surface and stop when the area being
worked stops bubbling. Flush the acid from the pool. Then you can paint.
thank you for the "welcome" i m obliged to join this group . thanks for your reply hope it works . can u tell me average cost of fishes in US (betta , guppys , bloodfin tetra ,neons , cardinals, mollys , plattys) ? thanks again.
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Here is a link that might help with prices. I only have pond fish
http://www.petsmart.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=10794142&f=Taxonomy%2FPET%2F10794142&fbc=1&fbn=Taxonomy|Fish&f=PAD%2FpsNotAvailInUS%2FNo
http://www.petsmart.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=10794142&f=Taxonomy%2FPET%2F10794142&fbc=1&fbn=Taxonomy|Fish&f=PAD%2FpsNotAvailInUS%2FNo
Short answer...the most safe procedure, for any tank, pot container, no matter what material, is to add the plant and wait some period before adding fish. It just gives time for things that are going to react to complete those reactions and many things become more stable which is good for fish.
Long answer...
The concrete is already cured. "Cured" is a general term, but basically means "it's hard" or "ready for use". Concrete never actually stops curing, even 100 years later it continues to cure, but slower and slower as time passes. So people who work with concrete just pick some duration when they consider the concrete cured. One standard is 28 days. Another standard is whenever the concrete reaches its specified strength. That you purchased the pot would mean it is cured.
As part of the curing process the surface of concrete reacts with CO2 in the air forming a kind of rust called calcium carbonate. This process is called carbonation. This decreases alkalinity, meaning pH doesn't rise to the level of lime and why concrete doesn't dissolve in water. In the context of water features we could call concrete "cured" when a layer of calcium carbonate has formed on the concrete surface and greatly reduced the ability of lime to leach out of the concrete and raise water pH. For our purposes a concrete pot hard enough to be sold would have a sufficient calcium carbonate layer to be ready for water.
Acid burns off the layer of calcium carbonate and exposes uncured concrete and the carbonation process starts again on the surface. There is less CO2 in water so the carbonation process is slower. Therefore acid washing concrete is the worst possible thing a person can do to get concrete ready for a water feature. It is just one of the many, and very dangerous, myths repeated millions of times and gets people into deep trouble. The internet is a free source of info, doesn't always mean good info. Reader beware.
But rinsing out any container with just water is never a bad idea.
After adding a plant and water and as time passes decomposition of organic matter in the water will produce acid. That acid will react with the calcium carbonate layer, burning some off, and help keep water pH a little more stable which is good. This is called a "pH buffer". Calcium carbonate is not a great pH buffer because it's a bit slow to react, but better than nothing. If you keep the water pH up by other means, like baking soda, the acids produced will react with that instead of the concrete for the most part. Meaning if you keep the water at a very low pH, say 6, it will keep reacting with the concrete. But if you keep pH higher, like 8-9, the concrete won't react hardly at all. This is based on studies of concrete sewer pipes.
Where you choose to keep pH should be based more on whether the fish you choose can handle a given pH range. For example Mollies would be OK in 7.5 to 8.5, but most Tetras would prefer 5.5 to 7.5. So Tetras wouldn't be a good choice for concrete. Doable, but a bit more effort.
Long answer...
The concrete is already cured. "Cured" is a general term, but basically means "it's hard" or "ready for use". Concrete never actually stops curing, even 100 years later it continues to cure, but slower and slower as time passes. So people who work with concrete just pick some duration when they consider the concrete cured. One standard is 28 days. Another standard is whenever the concrete reaches its specified strength. That you purchased the pot would mean it is cured.
As part of the curing process the surface of concrete reacts with CO2 in the air forming a kind of rust called calcium carbonate. This process is called carbonation. This decreases alkalinity, meaning pH doesn't rise to the level of lime and why concrete doesn't dissolve in water. In the context of water features we could call concrete "cured" when a layer of calcium carbonate has formed on the concrete surface and greatly reduced the ability of lime to leach out of the concrete and raise water pH. For our purposes a concrete pot hard enough to be sold would have a sufficient calcium carbonate layer to be ready for water.
Acid burns off the layer of calcium carbonate and exposes uncured concrete and the carbonation process starts again on the surface. There is less CO2 in water so the carbonation process is slower. Therefore acid washing concrete is the worst possible thing a person can do to get concrete ready for a water feature. It is just one of the many, and very dangerous, myths repeated millions of times and gets people into deep trouble. The internet is a free source of info, doesn't always mean good info. Reader beware.
But rinsing out any container with just water is never a bad idea.
After adding a plant and water and as time passes decomposition of organic matter in the water will produce acid. That acid will react with the calcium carbonate layer, burning some off, and help keep water pH a little more stable which is good. This is called a "pH buffer". Calcium carbonate is not a great pH buffer because it's a bit slow to react, but better than nothing. If you keep the water pH up by other means, like baking soda, the acids produced will react with that instead of the concrete for the most part. Meaning if you keep the water at a very low pH, say 6, it will keep reacting with the concrete. But if you keep pH higher, like 8-9, the concrete won't react hardly at all. This is based on studies of concrete sewer pipes.
Where you choose to keep pH should be based more on whether the fish you choose can handle a given pH range. For example Mollies would be OK in 7.5 to 8.5, but most Tetras would prefer 5.5 to 7.5. So Tetras wouldn't be a good choice for concrete. Doable, but a bit more effort.
2011 average gross salary
India: $1,410
USA: $45,230
Different worlds.
India: $1,410
USA: $45,230
Different worlds.