Last year I lost alot of fish..I have found out it is my water. Everytime I put fish in there they would die within minutes....after doing PH test I found out everytime I add water it woul lower my ph level to 6..When I put baking soda in water it makes it ok..I have three fish I have kept all winter...I know it is getting time and my pond needs cleaning but I am scared to put any tap water in it..I don't even drink or cook with my water..just bath in it..
so what can I do??? I don't want to kill my little fishes!
I noticed it looked like they were spawning a couple weeks ago so I don't want to kill the eggs...It has alot of leaves in it...can i just scoupe most the leaves out of it and not change the water??Thanks for your help!

Water changes certainly help ponds but they aren't a requirement. I have well water so I can't really do water changes on my 1800 gallon pond. I do add water once or twice a week to top it off. I mostly net out debris. If you add an appropriate amount of baking soda with water changes or top offs, it should be ok. I suggest testing the pH again of your tap water (a sample before and after aeration since that can make a difference) and your pond water. You should know how big a difference it is. You can then pre-treat any new water with baking soda or other buffers so it is closer to that of the pond water. How big is your pond? For smaller ponds, you could fill a kiddie pool with tap water, add baking soda, maybe some pond salt, aerate it, let it sit for a day or so. Then, test it before using that to change water in the pond.

You can certainly manually remove most of the debris and leaves. If your fish have spawned (where do you live?), then some eggs or newborns may be among the debris that you might remove. It's a hard choice since there are probably many eggs if they spawned but you don't want to deliberately get rid of any. You could set up a temporary kiddie pool or pond and put the removed debris in there. If there are fry, you would then see them on the surface within a few weeks. Add Bt bacteria to prevent mosquitoes from enjoying it though.

Good luck!

Is your water chlorinated?? If you don't de chlorinate your water it will kill your fish.

I do do have chlorinated water but I add something to the water to treat that..I live in Mississippi..Our city water is not good...at all .I am scared to drink it..if it kills fish within a few minutes I don't fill like it is good for humans to drink..I have reported it but they say the PH is fine...I am scared I will kill my fish again..but when I test do a ph on it it shows a 6.0 which is way too low..

Have you ever had your water professionally checked for the full range? It could be within standards at the treating plant but go nutso by the time it gets to your neighborhood. It just depends how old your pipes are and in what kind of shape they're in. Just a thought, tho maybe a pricey thought. :( Local collages come in handy for testing. From there you can compare your stats to your cities statistics.

I did get the city to test it but they said it falls in the range of being ok..But hey what else can they say? I don't hink they will tell me the water is bad...Our pipes aren't but 4 years old...so they should be ok...i would think...
I just don't see how if the fish die in it and frogs how it can be ok to drink...

I our area we can get the County to test our water. Sadie is right about Colleges testing water too. I would call your local Community College and see if they will test it for you. Companies that sell water softener's also have to ability to test water for a fee I am sure. I would think that the expense to have it checked would be well worth your peace of mind.

Good luck. :)

You say when you add water to your pond it drops the PH level in your pond to 6 which indicates that the PH level of the water you are adding into the pond could be quite lower. What percentage are you changing? What is the PH of the water you are adding? Koi/ gold fish are best kept at a range of 6.8 to 8.0 but stability is KEY. I would make small water changes and monitor it closely. A good source for info on water chemistry for ponds is at this site. http://www.richdeer3pondsupplies.com Go to articles, then pond water chemistry

Good luck, FM3