Topic: Flooding - Disaster!!

[tricia]

Tremendous storms and flooding here last night. The drains couldn't cope and a mass of water came through into my patio garden completely flooding the pond with dirty water and debris. So far I have found five dead fish amongst the debris but more important I am afraid of losing the rest due to the high ammonia toxic reading.. I am desperately trying to empty the pond by shoving a hosepipe over the mouth of the waterfall and draining it into the already sodden shrubbery. I have just started to hose in tap water to try to dilute the ammonia. Is this the right thing to do or should I empty as much water as I can first?

Not having anyone to help is one of the disadvantages of living alone!

I am absolutely gutted at the sight of my lovely new pond. Leaves and debris are silted among the shelf plants and the water is a dirty grey. I have seen a couple of fish but they are keeping to the bottom for the most part.

This all happened because my window-cleaner left the gate open yesterday and I forgot to check it was closed. There is a board across the bottom of the gate to stop any debris entering if there should be a drainage problem.

Can anyone tell me if there is anything more I can do - other than gradually change the water.

Tricia

[Margaret]

Oh Tricia,i am so so sorry for you.It is the one thing I dread happening.Your ponds were beautiful and you worked so hard.I just hope more fish survived than you first think.I should imagine it is the pollution in general,what ever it may be, that has caused their deaths,as well as the ammonia.

Yes,all you can do is run fresh water in but dechlorinate it as well otherwise you will just add to the problems.I would certainly take out some of the water to further dilute it though.Is there nothing at all you can house the fish in on a temporary basis while you sort the pond out? Do you have any friends with ponds?

You should be able to net out the silt and leaves where possible and the one saving grace is that it is going to be cooler this weekend.Keep the pump running as well to provide much needed oxygen to the remaining fish.

I am sure we are all thinking of you and praying that the rest of the fish survive.Let us know how you get on.

[undercarriage plan]

You poor thing, that must have been devastating.  I hope it's not as bad as you think.  Best wishes.  Lottie

[tricia]

Thank you Margaret and Lottie for your sympathy!

Here is an update.

It has been a busy, back-breaking couple of days. You know, my friend Gordon who is 81 and me at 71 are a bit too old for this kind of caper, but the work had to be done :)

On Saturday afternoon Gordon cleaned as much of the gunk and debris from the paving and shrubs as possible. Bless him, :-* he made me stay indoors because the smell was really horrible!

Then Sunday morning we started to empty the pond. I had tried to get the ammonia reading down by doing a partial water change on Friday but it was still dangerously high and the water was so polluted that a complete change was necessary :( 

At least I was able to save tap water by using the water being pumped out to hose down the paving ;D My poor fish weren't too happy at being placed in a polystyrene container about 2 foot square and ten inches deep, but they managed to survive ;D

When there was not enough water left to be able to use the pump the really horrible work began >:(  In Gordon's wellies I was passing bucket after bucket up to him to throw into the bushes. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me that there could be fry lurking in the weed and murky water so I don't know how many were thrown to their certain deaths :'(  I found five when it got the stage of scooping up gunk and water with a large plastic jug. I was so thrilled to know a) that my fish have spawned this year and b) that if the five survive, they will make up somewhat for the fish I lost :) The final count was four found dead and three missing presumed dead :'( Sad to say that among them were three of my latest acquisitions - 2 golden orfe and a sarasa comet, sniff, sniff :'( Now I need to know how I should care for them. At present they are in a washing up bowl with a bit of weed for cover as I don't want to put them back in the pond till they are big enough to fend for themselves against the bigger fish. I tried to feed them with crushed fish food on Sunday and yesterday with frozen daphnia, but I'm not sure if they are taking it.  Anyone know what I should be doing?

After all the gunk had been removed - (and you wouldn't believe the stuff I found, cigarette ends being the less odious - I'm sure there must be someone in this area who cleans their ash trays by tipping them down the loo! Disgusting >:( and in my opinion panty liners should be banned :o) and the plants all sluiced down I used two of my waterbutts of rain water then tap water hosed in from a great height (to oxygenate the water a bit) to refill the pond. It was also treated with a dechlorinator and the grateful fish were placed once more in the home they had scarcely had time to become accustomed to before disaster overtook it. (The new pond was only finished in April!)

We held a bucket under the waterfall and switched on the pump and filter - but very briefly because the water was so filthy it was obvious a major cleaning of the filter was necessary. By this time - 8pm and not yet had supper - we were both just so tired it was decided the fish could do without the filter for one night.

Yesterday morning I spent a good hour cleaning the Fishmate 10000 pressure filter yuk! Hard to believe it had only been in operation for 3 months - ugh!
I had to clean everything in rain water, so I hope the various media haven't lost too many of the good bacteria.

There is still one big job to do and that is clean all the rocks of toilet tissue residue and debris still caught among them - a disgusting thought >:( but it will have to be tackled soon.

I hope I haven't bored everyone silly with this long post!

Tricia (I will post a link to some piccies later if anyone is interested)

[SpeedyMango]

What an awful thing to happen.

I know it's far too late now, but when this happened to my folks (their back garden and utility room covered in sewage due to a backed up drain during a storm) the council and local water company paid for a professional clean up! You should at least get compensation, surely?

 

[Margaret]

Hi again Tricia.Thanks for the update.I have been thinking of you,knowing all the hard work you would have to go to to restore order.Not pleasant.How many fish have you ended up with? if you have plenty of weed in the pond you may stand a better chance of the fry surviving in there than leaving them in a bowl.A tank indoors would be preferable as you don't then get the extremes of temperature which can be a killer. It is also very easy to overfeed fry which soon pollutes the water.Good luck with them anyway.

As regards the filter having to be cleaned ,you could always get some filter food and that would kickstart it into action ,but as your pond is not now sadly overloaded with fish ,you should be ok as long as you don't overfeed them.

[tricia]

Speedy Mango - thanks for the info. but I've already tried the water company and they say my claim would have to go through my own insurance, who would then claim on their insurance! This would mean my premium would be hiked next time around, so it's a no-win situation I think.

Margaret - I composted a great deal of the weed because it was so gunky and yucky. I cleaned sufficient for the fish to hide under and there are several large lilypads too, but I wouldn't like to lose these tiny fry to the other fish. Sounds like a good idea to bring them indoors. How long do they take to grow to a non-food ;D size? Two of the fry are not much more than 1/2" long, two more are about 3/4" and the biggest is probably 1 1/4" long. They really are cute - and very lively.

There are only 11 fish left and I figure to wait till the week-end before buying a couple more. Gordon also wants to buy me one  :-*, so the count could reach 14 or so ;)  The pond holds about 350 galls. and there is currently in the region of 40" of fish - difficult to judge. I was surprised how small the dead ones were that I found.

Tricia

[Deleted]

Hi tricia

So sorry to hear of your flooding disaster - how upsetting. What a treasure Gordon is though. Good luck with it all.

Dawn

[dibberxxx]

Tricia so sorry to hear of your flooding after all your hard work, i do hope all will be well , and sound look Gordon is a gem , its  time like this you need a good friend, just wish i lived closer i would have certainly given u a hand , good luck

[tricia]

Thank you for your thoughts Dawn and Dibber. This nasty experience will all soon be in the past and we'll be saying "Do you remember when....................."

Margaret - I forgot to say that I gave the pond a dose of Medifin last night since it was clean water again -even though they had a dose less than a week ago. Hope I did nothing wrong ??? I know you give your ponds a monthly dose and I have noticed that by doing this small wounds have healed quite quickly. Do you turn the UV off when you give the pond Medifin? I don't think I can do that since pump and filter are wired together.

I appreciate all your advice Margaret :)

Tricia

[Margaret]

Hi Tricia.Actually i only dose with Medifin in spring and only then if the orfe are looking a bit weak after the long winter.They are getting old now and need a pick me up.I certainly do not recommend ever dosing on a regular basis with anything.But no,there is no need to turn off the UV.

I once raised about 30 fry in a tank.I kept them right over the winter and put them back in spring.You could try this but you need a small filter and a reasonable size tank.This you could probably pick up second hand.It would certainly give you an interest over the winter.You will need gravel at the bottom and a few live plants,or silk ones if not.Feed very sparingly with fry food until they grow a bit bigger.

One more word of advice.I would honestly recommend you do not go and buy any more fish.The pond  filter will take some time to get back to being as fully functioning and mature as it was.The fish will be stressed after their ordeal as well as the big change of water conditions.You could well tip the balance if you add yet more fish,which will by the very nature of moving them,also be stressed. 

Aim to raise the little ones which will give you the thrill of seeing what colour they are,and then you can put them back next spring which will swell the numbers.By then more fry will be born ,and your present fish will have grown.

Lastly i would though buy some more oxygenating weed or you may start getting problems with algae.

Hope you don't mind me saying all this,it comes from my experiences of which some were good and some were bad but you learn from them don't you?

[tricia]

Hi Margaret,

I certainly don't mind you giving me your opinions - that's what I asked for! I value your advice. This is only my third year ponding, so I'm still at the bottom of the learning curve :).

This evening we had more torrential rain which caused local flooding again. Luckily, no water came in off the street, but the drain at the end of the downpipe from the roof couldn't cope with the volume of water so I'm afraid more water from the paving got into the pond. I wasn't home at the time, so don't know just how flooded the garden was. There is a lot of silted soil against the rocks though, so I fear the worst. Have taken a pH reading. It's okay at 7 but the ammonia level is high again at somewhere between 0.25 and 1.5mg/l on the chart. I'm at my wits end with worry. I'll have to do a partial water change tomorrow, but my garden is so sodden I'll have to go and buy a long length of 1 1/4' hose (at least 20 metres!) so that I can pump it out into the street gully. This whole business is becoming so expensive, I'm beginning to wonder if it is worth it. More heavy downpours are forecast for tomorrow too.

I'd like to raise the fry, but it would be costly to buy a tank, filter and pump just for five tiny beings.

It's all soooooooo depressing - I'll sleep on it!

Tricia