Hours of city water through garden hose.

[Herma]

Help, I am so worried about my koi. My kids accidentally turned on the garden hose at full blast for hours today. I was in the process of slowly filling my 1800-2000 gallon pond by spraying it into an arc in the full sun, for some reason the kids cranked up the faucet and threw the hose in the pond. It ran for hours like that. I had already put some water conditioner in but not enough for this much city water. I ran to Home Depot to get another bottle of water conditioner but that was hours later. In addition, the faucet water temperature is lower. How much lower, I do not know. I live in Oregon and the pond was not warm by any means. At the moment the fish are quite lively. If they are "shocked" beyond recuperation, what should I expect to see?

 

[Waterbug]

Chlorine isn't removed by the arc in sun thing...reduced maybe. Many cities today use chloramine which is even longer lasting. For future reference.

I wouldn't worry about the temp difference. It's not enough difference to matter.

Any damage to the gills would have already happened. I assume the new water conditioners, which I hope is actually dechlorinator, has already been added. That's all you can do.

 

[Herma]

Help, I am so worried about my koi. My kids accidentally turned on the garden hose at full blast for hours today. I was in the process of slowly filling my 1800-2000 gallon pond by spraying it into an arc in the full sun, for some reason the kids cranked up the faucet and threw the hose in the pond. It ran for hours like that. I had already put some water conditioner in but not enough for this much city water. I ran to Home Depot to get another bottle of water conditioner but that was hours later. In addition, the faucet water temperature is lower. How much lower, I do not know. I live in Oregon and the pond was not warm by any means. At the moment the fish are quite lively. If they are "shocked" beyond recuperation, what should I expect to see?

 

[Herma]

Yes, I got beckett Chlorine and Ammonia remover enough to basically treat the 1800 gallons. What behavior does a koi show with damaged gills? How much damage is deadly?

 

[Waterbug]

For future reference...
A chlorine test kit can help you understand what's going on. That improves your understanding of your pond and how your tap water effects the pond. That can greatly reduce your stress.

For water changes and topping off a much safer way to add water is a slow drip into a waterfall or skimmer. 5-10 gal per hour, or less if you like. The chlorine/chloramine is diluted so it doesn't harm fish. The other thing is chlorine/chloramine highly reactive with organic stuff, which is why the city uses it. Guess what your pond if full of...organic stuff. So the the chlorine/chloramine goes away very fast when dripped into the pond.

Dechlorinators are a problem because if you test ammonia right now you will probably freak out and add more chemicals to make the ammonia safe. Don't. The dechlorinator has chemicals to make the ammonia safe. But now you can't tell if ammonia is safe or not without a special test kit. See, it gets to be a whole complex mess. It doesn't have to be.

Here's a video that explains it. Starting at 7:30 minutes in, but it's all good. Yes, we all aren't raising show fish like Andy Moo, but the info is still useful for all pond keepers.

 

[Waterbug]

Yes, I got beckett Chlorine and Ammonia remover enough to basically treat the 1800 gallons. What behavior does a koi show with damaged gills? How much damage is deadly?

The damage varies so the behavior varies.

Little damage they could just act slow.

Little more damage and you can see gasping at the surface a lot, like staying at the surface, not just once in awhile.

More damage and they'd already be belly up.

Over the next few days extra mucus can cover the damaged area making respiration more difficult. So you could see health decline but I would not do any treatments. People will suggest all kinds of stuff, salt, slime coat stuff in a bottle. These can make things worst. I'm a little concerned about what was in the "water conditioner". Many of these increase slime coat by irritating skin. Not really something I would want to do to raw gills.But what's done is done and that's that.

Swimming around actively is a better sign than belly up. New water often excites fish toward spawning behavior, or they just plain like it. But active swimming can mean they don't like the water. That can induce jumping out of the pond. You can net the pond if you wanted. If these are expensive fish I would net the pond to be safe. I've never heard of like entire pond full of fish jumping out. Normally one or two, but always seems to be the fav or most expensive fish.

Another thing that's pretty safe is to add an air pump. That's just going to be good, damage or not. It maybe speed healing and increase immune system, maybe help over the next week.

I really would resist adding stuff (chemicals) to the pond. Especially if you test ammonia. That may have to be dealt with but freaking out and doing more water changes adding ammonia binders will make things worst. Better to assume the ammonia is already bound and see if it goes down over the next week which it should, but I don't know your water temp.

There's a kind of Catch-22 with this stuff, if you have to ask people what to do you really shouldn't be doing those things. Fish are very tough. It's cool to learn about this stuff when these events happen but more for the next time. Hearing something and then doing that thing and then learning what it is you did is not good. Very common, but not good.

Because the fish aren't belly up, you're not seeing any clearly distressed fish yet, my money is on the fish being fine. The can take some damage and still appear normal, just like us.

 

[Herma]

Thank you so much for all your input so far. The pond store in my town is closed, so I can't test the water until tomorrow morning. Clearly, the pond water is very clear right now, as I was battling spring string algae before this all started. I have 2 aerators in action, albeit, they are not strong. I also used the skimmer pump (since there is nothing to skim right now) to create more aeration. See image. I don't wanna wake up tomorrow and find my koi floating on the surface. So far, no koi are gasping.

 

[addy1]

Beautiful pond! Hope all turns out well for you. Good advice above^^

Welcome to our group too!

 

[sissy]

wishing you luck and hope all turns out well .It really is a nice pond .You could put a timer on the hose as long as your children do not remove the timer you are safe no matter what .They sell for about 30 dollars .I have no children at home but I use one and I have a well ,but better safe than sorry

 

[Priscilla]

That is one gorgeous pond! Love the lighting!

I hope it works out okay for you. Sounds like your fish are going to be okay, if something was wrong I think they would start acting up by now. Fingers crossed and positive thoughts!

 

[Tula]

Beautiful pond!!!

 

[RobAmy]

Best of luck. Beautiful pond

 

[haver79]

Pretty pond and hopefully your fish are ok.

 

[Waterbug]

Some small points kind of related to the current event...

Clearly, the pond water is very clear right now, as I was battling spring string algae before this all started.

Algae is a great bio filter. It is so good at removing ammonia it can suppress the growth of ammonia converting bacteria. I don't want you to freak out, seriously, but, this could make things more difficult. The issue is knowing how much toxic ammonia is in the pond. Because of the dechorlinator the Total Ammonia test can't tell you. I don't think there is any question that the dechorlinator bound all the ammonia that was converted from the chlorine...that's handled. What I don't know is if your pond already had an ammonia problem, or will have because the algae was removed. So what I'm saying is I think we just have to assume whatever ammonia level you have is OK. But if the ammonia level increases over the next few days we would have to start considering adding more ammonia binder like Ammo-Lock (they're all the same, but just ammonia binders, nothing else in the bottle). Ammonia and burned gills are extra bad. But just adding ammonia binder "to be safe" can hurt fish too so I hate to just dump it in.

I have 2 aerators in action, albeit, they are not strong. I also used the skimmer pump (since there is nothing to skim right now) to create more aeration.

Good gas exchange (aeration) is all about moving water from the bottom to the top. Air pumps are good just because they move a lot of water for the lowest cost, and do provide some limited gas exchange. But their main benefit is moving water, creating a current from bottom to top and top to bottom. So pointing water pump output toward the bottom does the same thing.

I don't wanna wake up tomorrow and find my koi floating on the surface. So far, no koi are gasping.

I don't expect you to have any problems. Just don't let the store dude talk you into adding some fix in a bottle.

 

[Fishylove]

Excellent Waterbug.... Herma I know your worried and want to do something right now that will fix this, but please listen to him, take a deep breath step back and just watch your fish. You'll know if something is wrong if you know your fish and their behavior I personally do not use chemicals if at all possible, and no dechlor, I just trickle into the bog.
Good luck hun...