Welcome....

Thank you for stopping to check on my new "ponding" blog. I will try to keep this blog both entertaining and educational. Wednesday's weather marks the end of the 50 degree weather we've all been enjoying. Harry (my husband and avid deer hunter) is cheering, but the fish are definitely not. The outside fish, while not displaying any severe cold stress reactions are moving rather slowly. Pond has been holding at about 49 degrees for about a month now. I'm sure the impending 16-17 degree forecasted lows will send that plunging. I saw ice on my ponds for the first time this past week, but fortunately it melted off quickly with daylight. A couple weeks ago, in preparing for winter, we took the big pond down to within a couple feet and made sure we got all the leaves and walnut sticks out. All but the largest waterfall pump are pulled and stored for the winter. This past Monday, Harry did another water change out and we will continue to do them through the winter as best we can. As some of you know, I hold 13-9 to 12 inch fish in my 1200 gallon tank in the basement. They've been there since the end of October and all has been going well with them until this past weekend. One of the first things I do in the AM is check on my babies in the basement. Friday morning, I got up and as soon as I opened the basement door, I could hear the filter was not on. Air was still on, but the fish seemed a little squeamish and were not their usual friendly selves. I figured it was just because the filter was off. The filter is on a auto-shutoff mercury switch, which for some reason was off. I'm thinking maybe a fish hit it or something, I simply flipped the switch and the filter came right back on. I tested the water and ammonia and nitrites were still OK. I constantly drip water through the tank anyway to help with filtration and that had not stopped either. I check on them later in the day(per usual) and they are all OK, but still not quite right. So Saturday AM I get up and by gosh the filter is off again! But this time the fish are all down and huddled in the bottom corner of the pond. Nobody came out to say "feed me, feed me" or anything. As a side note: the night before a babysitter had babysat for my 3 grand kids at my house as the whole family of adults went to a Whitetail banquet. Well, when we came home the entire house was full of natural gas!! She or one of them had accidentally flipped my stove top burner on and fortunately we got home before the whole place blew up!! Anyway, I left windows open all night to air the place out. It was that bad and very scary. So, back to the fish in the basement. Could my aerators have picked up some of the gas? Or was it just because the filter was off again. The water was already a little hazy, but no ammonia or nitrites. I flipped the filter on again. Now, I know it has to be a water quality issue so I did a half tank water change. I'm wondering if I didn't do it all myself by simple starting the filter without first back flushing it. Shut down filters can quickly turn toxic and produce CO2 or hydrogen sulfide. Did I inject that into my water by simply turning on my filters? I decided to test for CO2. Well it has a 2 drop system and after the first goes in then you count the drops of the second bottle till the water turns pink in order to get the reading. My water turned pink with the first bottle's drops. It isn't suppose to do that! Now what? Does that mean it is really really full of CO2??? I have no idea. Maybe it's just out of date. So, what now? Filter clears the water quickly, so it looks good. For what that's worth. I know something is wrong. I add a little salt, just for good measure. I watch my babies all day hoping they will respond to the water change. Not much change. Sunday, I wake up at 4:00 am and start worrying about the fish. Can't sleep and I know I'm going to go to the basement and find them all dead. (That has actually happened in some long long ago koi experience)so might as well get up and check on them. Hours can make a difference if they are all up sucking for air or something. So at 4 AM I'm up to check on the fish. I open the basement door....well at least I can hear the filter running this morning. And, actually the fish are out of the corner and swimming a little. They still retreat back to it once I get to the tank side, but I'm felling relieved enough to at least go back to sleep. When I get back up at 8, I do another half tank water change. By afternoon, the fish are responding much better. They remain a little skittish for the remainder of the weekend, like they are mad at me for trying to poison them! This morning they were back to their normal selves and feeding again for the first time in 4 days. I feel like I dodged a bullet. I bring them inside to save them from the toxins of winter and almost killed them myself. Moral of the story? Natural gas, maybe, I have no way of knowing. Turning on filters with out back flushing first, probably and I for sure will not ever do that again.