|
|
Post by rowanberry on Sept 23, 2019 18:05:47 GMT
Well, that's just great. I discovered today that I now have about 3,600-ish litres of toxic water sitting out in my garden. 
I thought I could simply drain the pond, clean it, refill it, give it 48 hours or so for the chlorine to dissipate... but then I thought I should double-check that info online, just in case.
I discovered far more about UK tap water than I EVER wanted to know.
There is something now added to our water, (since 2003? can't determine that for sure- it's all a bit sketchy) called chloramine. It's basically a combination of chlorine and ammonia, (I'm trying to keep this simple... chemistry and I never gelled.) It's used because it's cheaper than plain old chlorine.
I could link to all the sites I found discussing it, but I won't- it's confusing.
Basically, all those things made for aquarium enthusiasts which remove chlorine do NOT work on chloramine. The ammonia gets left behind, and it will poison fish, reptiles, frogs, newts... any and all aquatic creatures because they absorb it through their skin.
I've now had to order something to counteract the chloramine, but it was more complicated than I at first realised. Neutrilising the chloramine isn't enough... it's the ammonia that needs to be neutrilised, and not all the water-treatment chemicals made for aquariums will do that.
For anyone else facing the same problem... the one I got is made by a company called Seachem, and they do several different types. The Seachem Pond Prime is for koi carp ponds, so I opted for their Seachem Prime- which should work for a small wildlife pond. I hope. 
In the meantime the newtlets are still in their temporary tank in the shed... I've had to order daphnia for them to keep them going until the water treatment arrives and neutrilises the pond... and I'm cutting up little earthworms for them until the daphnia get here.  Lots of fun. (They do seem to like the earthworms, I have to say.)
So, that was my 'giving nature a home' lark today- out in the rain, turning over rocks in search of earthworms small enough for 1-inch newts to eat.
|
|
|
|
Post by Tringa on Sept 24, 2019 15:50:24 GMT
My post here is purely anecdotal so might be a load of tosh.
The last time we cleared our pond was well after 2003. We had loads of sludge and lots of frogs and had to work fairly hard keeping them out of the emptied pond.
We refilled the pond with tap water and the 'kermits' hopped back in within a few hours.
The water went green but eventually it cleared and the frogs and other pond life returned.
I have no idea if the composition of the pond would have been better if we had used rain water, but it seems to have survived.
Dave
|
|
|
|
Post by Harold Smith on Sept 25, 2019 9:01:37 GMT
My post here is purely anecdotal so might be a load of tosh. The last time we cleared our pond was well after 2003. We had loads of sludge and lots of frogs and had to work fairly hard keeping them out of the emptied pond. We refilled the pond with tap water and the 'kermits' hopped back in within a few hours. The water went green but eventually it cleared and the frogs and other pond life returned. I have no idea if the composition of the pond would have been better if we had used rain water, but it seems to have survived. Dave It is possible that your water supplier was not using Chloramines to treat water in 2003. My water provider, Severn Trent, is not. It is still using Chlorine according to their web site. As Rowanberry has discovered there is a lot of information about Chloramine, much of it confusing. I came across this 'www.fbas.co.uk/Cmines.html' which I think it explains it in a way the layman can understand. Harold. |
|
|
|
Post by Tringa on Sept 25, 2019 15:43:44 GMT
My post here is purely anecdotal so might be a load of tosh. The last time we cleared our pond was well after 2003. We had loads of sludge and lots of frogs and had to work fairly hard keeping them out of the emptied pond. We refilled the pond with tap water and the 'kermits' hopped back in within a few hours. The water went green but eventually it cleared and the frogs and other pond life returned. I have no idea if the composition of the pond would have been better if we had used rain water, but it seems to have survived. Dave It is possible that your water supplier was not using Chloramines to treat water in 2003. My water provider, Severn Trent, is not. It is still using Chlorine according to their web site. As Rowanberry has discovered there is a lot of information about Chloramine, much of it confusing. I came across this 'www.fbas.co.uk/Cmines.html' which I think it explains it in a way the layman can understand. Harold.Sorry Harold, I should have said that my water supplier (Thames Water) does use chloramine. Although the pond is looking good(ignoring there are too many plants) I can't, of course, know what it would have been like if it had been filled with rain water.It is now quite a few years since we emptied it so I'm guessing the chloramine will have dissipated by now.Dave |
|
|
|
Post by rowanberry on Sept 26, 2019 18:45:43 GMT
Thanks for that link, Harold- interesting the things we learn as we go along! Without a wildlife pond, I never would have known all that.
Update on the pond- I have now treated it, (yesterday) let it stand over night and put the hornwort back in this morning. I then fed the newtlets and dragonfly larvae in their containers, (bloodworms) and left them for an hour to eat. The cascade has a little pool at the top end of it, so I filled that with rainwater I'd been collecting and positioned some rocks to provide hiding places, along with some small bits of hornwort.
The newts were released into that, while the dragonflies went into the main pond... I tipped what was left of the daphnia into both sections.
I've done all I can do, (I think) and now all I can do is hope I've given them a good chance at survival.  |
|
Lots of fun. (They do seem to like the earthworms, I have to say.)
