Will the fish be okay?

[MariaTeresa]

Our pump broke and the replacement won't be here, wired, and pond-safe until Tuesday. The water clarity has changed dramatically since the pump broke. It went from very clear, "fresh" looking to so green and scummy that you can't see the pots only an inch or two under the water! If you stick your hand in the water it comes out green! I do have an aerator going...which is making clumps of little green bubbles around the lily pads. Our weather is in the 90s right now, so perhaps that has also had an effect.

My question is, will the fish and tadpole be okay until Tuesday? Two adult goldfish, two babies from last year and a million and counting fry from this year (...some exaggeration...) survived the heron attacks and are still in the pond. This morning I could still catch a glimpse of orange and it seemed my two adults were happy, the one finally came out of hiding. Perhaps too happy, as I found orange scales on the rocks in the shallow section near some newly laid fish eggs. The poor female is going to have no scales left if they keep it up.

Would it be helpful or hurtful to add a bunch of water and let the pond overflow for a bit (...the only way I can do a water change right now)?

 

[Mmathis]

You will probably be OK with just the aerator. If you can, you might want to pull out any green goo that you can -- but that's just me -- just to keep it from totally taking over.

 

[MariaTeresa]

I tried skimming it...but it doesn't clump enough for that. It is almost just like water that is dyed and thickened a bit. I think it is only at the top of the pond though.

 

[Tula]

If it were my pond, I'd use some dechlorinator and let the hose run, till the water overflows for a while. Set a TIMER, you do not want to forget about the hose. I don't know how big your pond is, so that will make a difference on how long to let the hose run.

Can you buy another pump? It's always good to have a back up....even if all you do is place the pump near the bottom of the pond ( not on the bottom,) and shoot it upwards......you want to create some water movement.

Another reason to do this partial water change, is to flush some ammonia from the spawning activity. Hope this help!

 

[Lisak1]

They'll be fine. We know lots of folks who have garden ponds with goldfish and no pump, no aeration, nothing. Just fish, plants, and water.

 

[morewater]

Goldfish can survive gross conditions. It's not permanent, so don't sweat it. Once your new pump is up and running, you're filters will look after the green.

 

[MariaTeresa]

Thanks, everyone! I feel a lot better about the green knowing the fish should be okay. Hopefully if I can't see the fish maybe the heron won't be able to either!

 

[snoozer]

The green bothers us humans but the fish will be fine.

 

[Dave 54]

Goldfish thrive in green pea soup ponds quite easily as can koi for a while

Dave

 

[CometKeith]

Your pond sounds nice. The algae will help reduce your ammonia so it's actually a good thing. Once you get your pump running again the algae will go down if you have a biofilter. The beneficial bacterial in your biofilter will die off from inactivity after a day so its good to have a second pump. I always have two running for good water circulation and I know the second one can pinch hit if the one to the filter goes down.

 

[Beth_B]

They'll be fine. We know lots of folks who have garden ponds with goldfish and no pump, no aeration, nothing. Just fish, plants, and water.

I've had a pond with no nothing running to it - no electrical there - and this is my 8th year...one of my goldfish is an original. (I'd have more but I accidentally left a hose trickling into the pond for an entire day and killed most of them with chlorine, which I still feel horrible about.) I just have lots of plants. Occasional algae blooms don't seem to bother the fishies one bit.

 

[MariaTeresa]

CometKeith, so, since the good bacteria in the filter are dead, does this mean the cycle will have to start all over again?

I sure hope that AC pond pumps are more durable than DC bilge pumps! (We will be switching over as soon as we can get the electricity run down to the pond.) This pump got a pebble caught in its impeller and killed the motor. The previous one broke from the strain of pre-filtering. The one before that I'm not sure, but at least it got us through the winter!

 

[CometKeith]

I would recommend to do water tests on a regular basis and maybe stick to fall/spring (low protein) food until it recycles again to keep the ammonia down..I think sometimes good bacteria can be on pond liners, rocks, stc so probably it not like starting from absolute scratch but from what I understand the beneficial bacteria in a biofilter needs water running through it to keep it alive. If there is a way to borrow some filter media and put it in that would help jump start it. I use laguna pumps and have been pretty happy with them. They are energy efficient and are reliable. once I had one freeze up in the winter and it restarted as soon as I thawed it out.