Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Jun 13, 2010 5:15 pm Hi Fu - I've tried looking on the Powerfeed website and the bottle - but do you know if it's safe to use near ponds? I installed a new water garden today - half wine barrell, pond liner and rain water from a concrete tank. I put in the water plants and some fish. I acclimatised the fish to the water by leaving the bag in for about 20 min before releasing them. They were swimming around fine for a few hours and then BAM - dead I figure I need to get a water testing kit to try and see what's happening. I half filled the water garden yesterday - then watered the garden with a powerfeed + seasol spray pack and some likely went in. Topped the garden up with tank water this morning before adding the plants. I feel so bad - I took live fish and killed them After 4 years - we're in! Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 2Jun 13, 2010 5:38 pm NO NO NO sorry I think you did kill them. Fish need acclimatising with water conditions and temperature too. If the temoerature in the bag was 22C and in the pond 10C there's another problem. Test water for PH, CHlorine, Ammonia and Nitrates as a minimum. Test kits are usually under $30 Keep all fertilisers and insecticides/weed killers well away from fish ponds Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 3Jun 14, 2010 12:06 am Well there sure as hell isn't anything in the seasol and there is negligible amounts of nutrients in powerfeed. It is a fish based compost product and the seasol is seaweed based. It isn't going to be salty so it most likely would have been coincidence while something else is the cause. Seasol can be bought to feed to animals as a supplement from commercial resellers. Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 4Jun 14, 2010 9:16 am Thanks all - I'll pick up a water testing kit in the next few days. After 4 years - we're in! Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 5Jun 14, 2010 10:09 am Sc, what was the source of the water you used? I know you said a concrete tank but is it new concrete...or was the water added to this tank from the town supply? If it's town supply then it is probably loaded with chlorine which is deadly to fish, you can either buy 'Water Ager' and add to a bucket of water then mix before adding to the pond...or you can use rainwater from a poly tank/bucket. Lastly what type of fish? Comets are best suited to a garden pond and are extremely hardly....mine were retrieved from a garden pond when my house sold recently, put into a glass tank for a few days, then into a polystyrene (broccoli) box lined with a plastic bag, this went into the car for a 3 hour drive, lifted out and put aside for them to settle for another week while I prepared the glass tank and waiting for the water to age naturally as I didn't have access to rainwater, only town supply. Unfortunately I lost two fish but feel they starved because although feed was available none of them were feeding, but after another week or two started eating again and now all are OK, it was very disappointing to lose those two because they were the larger ones and really beautiful with long flowing fins. Lastly, take note of the colour of your fish...if they are comets, the orange colour will be almost red if they are in good condition and not stressed but as soon as things change their colour starts fading (temporarily). Hope this helps? Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 6Jun 15, 2010 5:10 pm HappyCamper - it's new concrete (pre-fab tank) and water has come from our roof (it's been filled by rain, then emptied with watering a new lawn. The recent downpours in Sydney filled it again). I wonder if something could be coming off the concrete? I got the goldfish from a water garden centre (Austral Watergardens in Cowan north of Sydney) and she said they'd be fine with cold water. I also bought some tiny ones starting with P (terrible that I can't remember - about the length of a 5c piece) I bought a water testing kit and the pH came out about 7.6-7.8. I compared town water and water out of our water filter and the results were all the same. I'll try ageing the water a bit and then test with a few more fish. Do I need to bring the pH down? I added some pond bacteria as well just in case (bought a bottle from the aquarium store). After 4 years - we're in! Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 8Jun 15, 2010 9:47 pm dadandsue - they didn't have a test for it at the pet store - I put some pond bacteria (that is supposed to remove any nitrates present) in just in case After 4 years - we're in! Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 9Jun 15, 2010 10:34 pm Give it a week to work. Never get nutrients of any kind into a pond. Any bacteria, fungi or algae feeding from the nutrients will suck oxygen clean out of the water. If you don't have an aeration system try getting one. If anything I would say you could have a Dissolved Oxygen issue to go with nutrient overload. Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 10Jun 15, 2010 10:40 pm A pump and a Grow bed will work wonders... and will add DO dissolved Oxy and reduce Nitrite, nitrate and ammonia. Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 12Jun 15, 2010 10:52 pm We've put seasol in with our aquaponics system which made the fish healthier - they were getting some rot. You don't mention any aeration. Do you have an air pump? That would help heaps... Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 13Jun 15, 2010 10:58 pm Power feed will boost ammonia. Based on Eagles(BYAP) aquaponics system is all concrete and he had no issues with pH or co2 I don't think concrete is the issue.IMHO Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 14Jun 16, 2010 11:48 am yeah but there is bugger all in it? From what I can tell from the post it was only lightly over sprayed. I have used it around ponds and frog ponds before with nothing happening? Then again Onc, you woulkd have far more knowledge on that stuff, I heard you know some stuff on aquaponics Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 15Jun 16, 2010 11:54 am maybe just a tad Seasol is fine in small doses, power feed is not good for fish. Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 16Jun 16, 2010 12:44 pm no pump but it looks like I will have to get one. would a small solar pump that only runs during the day be sufficient? I think the tank was well cured - it came pre-fab from the supplier on the back of a huge truck. Then it sat in the ground for about 3 months before they started filling it with water from the roof. I didn't intentionally spray any seasol/powerfeed in the pond - I tried to stand up wind when watering plants around the pond but some spray may have drifted over. So I don't think much went in at all. After 4 years - we're in! Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 17Jun 16, 2010 10:52 pm Something I thought of today is that seasol is quite alkaline. That could have an effect but like I said nothing ugly has happened when I've used it and sprayed some around a pond. Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 18Jun 16, 2010 11:48 pm Seasol should be ok in small amounts. Fish can take quite a bit of organic nutrient loads before it bothers them. Its when the nutrient feeds third parties that use the oxygen up or the amonia increases to toxic amounts that knocks them asunder. (Other than that its temp shock, ph or toxins)
What about leaves getting into the water from deciduous plants or gum trees or litter in the tank originating elswhere? Gum trees can leach toxins (tannins can be toxic) and rotting leaves use up dissolved oxygen which is why our rivers are being cleared of them. The Bacteria that eats them up use quite a bit of oxygen. Other than that I can see no other obvious reasons other than DO. Solar is ok but air pumps don't use much energy +/- 20 watts and are reliable. DO issues would see them gasping at the surface. PH would result in burning of the gills (they turn white or blue red) and fungi attacks their skin. Its slower to cause symptoms and sometimes too late before you notice. Usually the gills "run" with mucus which doesn't help them. It's one way to tell. PH would have them resting on the bottom before turning belly up. Temp shocks produce a similar result but they do gasp for air if its warmer than 25 degrees. Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 19Jun 16, 2010 11:54 pm I would be thinking about temperature shock too. If the fish came from apet shop they were probably in 20-24C water and your pond is possible 10-12C. Fish need a decent long time to get used to temperature change. The shock could kill them Re: Powerfeed/seasol safe for use near ponds? Dead fish 20Jun 17, 2010 10:12 am redman - I did find one of the dead gold fish covered in clear mucus - so pH it must be! no change in gill colour though. I have some powder that came in the pH testing kit to lower the pH - perhaps I'll put some pond water in a bucket and test how much I need to add to bring the pH down before doing it to the whole pond. After 4 years - we're in! Thanks for letting us know. The programmer will have a look at this later today. 2 6685 Block of two storey townhouses requires painting on the roof. A brick parapet wall separates each unit and extends above the tiled roof. The parapet walls require sealing… 0 3502 Our standard double-glazed window is tested to achieve, Rw 34, and can be glazed to suit Rw 39. The price is good too... 3 9472 |