Not sure what to do about the pollutants, but isn't there any way you can re-route/disconnect the pump or plumbing that feeds your waterfall? To pump out the water faster?

Oh, and if the fish are sticking to the bottom, then maybe the water is cleaner there - so don't have the pump at the bottom, where it is removing the cleaner water! Put it nearer the surface, and keep topping up to dilute the remainder. Tap water as you probably know is not ideal, but if you can't treat it fast enough to remove chlorine etc, then it's surely better than the polutants that are already there...

Good luck!

Thanks HissyFit.

Using my heathrobinson method I managed to drain over a third of the pond, but then had nowhere more for the water to drain to - everywhere being so sodden - so I'm
filling the pond with tap water today and will try to catch the remaining fish and put them in a holding tank filled with rainwater overnight. Tomorrow I will test for ammonia again and take it from there. I'll have a friend to help me tomorrow - he will also help me to clear the debris from the shrubs and patio. Oh! what a mess, but I'm a lot better off than a lot of people here in Torbay where there was widespread flooding overnight.

Tricia

Hi Tricia
I really sympathise with you as a similar thing happened to me last year
Torrential rain, drains couldn't cope and water poured down the drive into the garden. Also had sewage bubbling from manhole covers.
I couldn't change the water in the ponds as the garden was flooded to a depth 1ft higher than the ponds. (My garden is lower than my neighbours)
However, as the ponds are netted no fish 'escaped'.
I would just leave your fish in the pond, add a dechlorinator to your 'topping up' water and keep an eye on them as they will probably be OK. Better than causing more stress by moving them.
My ponds were swamped with extremely dirty water and I had to wait 24 hours for this to go down before I could do a water change.
I expected to lose a lot of fish......but nothing happened!! They didn't seem 'phased' at all.
Best of luck
Sue

PS Thunderstorms forecast here tonight!! (fingers crossed)

I think you are doing all you can at the moment but for the future perhaps you should consider raising the edges of the pond to keep it above any likely flood level. This would also offer you the oportunity of enlarging the pond for appreciably less work than a full scale re-dig. My plant pond was dug 18" deep, the 6" levee built from the spoil doubled the volume, increase the depth to almost 2' and took the surface area from 8'x4' to roughly 10'x10'

Sue good luck for to night, perhaps I should say break a leg.

Oh dear Tricia, sorry to hear about your flooding! Hope it gets settled back soon, and hopefully we won't have rain like last night for awhile.

Take care,

Really sorry to hear about the flood Tricia... hope you and your friend manage to get things sorted over the weekend.

I dont want to add to your distress, and theres no way to make this easy, but Ammonia isnt your main probelm, flood waters carry just about everything thing, fertilisers, oils, chemicals and raw sewage the lot, everything that has been put on the surrounding lands, and therfore enough has probebly ended in your pond to make it an health risk to your fish, you need to get rid of every drop of the pond water and replace it quickly, I am sorry for your distress, hope this doesnt add to it to much :(

Tricia
How did the weekend go? Are things looking any better?
Sue

Thanks everyone for your advice and support.

I hear we are in for more storms and heavy showers in the next couple of days Chippewacat, so keep your fingers crossed for me! Here is an update on the weekend's work. 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 yesterday 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 so needs must.

At least I was able to save tap water by using the water being pumped out to hose down the paving. 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.

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 last night but there were no takers. 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) 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...

Gordon sounds like a gentleman even if such a word is possibly out of date.
At 71 there is still plenty of life left in you gal, my mum has just turned 90 and she still potters about in the garden when she isnt bending my ear over what ever she think I have done wrong (EVERTHING I do on her bad temper days).
Re the fry, depending on the size, there is a liquid food for live bearers available from fish shops or daphnia or blood worm and mosquito larvae. Realistically if there is plant cover I would shove them back in the pond.
Re the toilet paper etc your local chemist probably stock latex or vinyl gloves sold in boxes of 100 or less, they are useful, vinyl are stronger than latex and I generally use vinyl over latex for fiddly cementing jobs.

What a horrible job for you and Gordon to have to do--and in all this heat! From your first descriptions, I thought it was the storm drains that were not coping, but you got sewage...has Southwest Water been involved? (We pay them enough!)

That was quite a storm, so hopefully the next ones will be a little less spectacular.

Best wishes, and keeping my fingers crossed.

Chip

I also thought it was the storm drains not being able to cope, as it was in my case. Although we did have 'some' sewage, your flooding sounds much dirtier!
Sounds as if Gorden is a 'gem' and you obviously work well as a team.
I hope everything is soon back to normal and you can start enjoying your pond and garden again.
Best wishes to you both.
Sue