Hello Creek Master,
I was at the point that I had to test the water for Ammonia. I followed the instructions of the kit and waited the 15 minutes to compare to the chart. It seems that for whatever reason, the pond had an increase in ammonia from what I can tell at .1 ppm or maybe greater. I went to a pond specialist location and he agrees with the local pond guy that I empty,clean and start again with fresh ingredients and sold me the temporary pond container, and bacteria once the new pond gets put back together. I have treated the old water with Amquel plus so as to allow the fish to survive till tomorrow morning when they will be transferred to the temp container and then the work will begin. He also confirmed that the 5 or 6 inch younger fish are more at risk than the larger ones- six more gone today.I just wish I had a handle on this much sooner. No, there was not that much rain to quench the run off in my yard and introduce fertilizer or other stuff into the pond.
I will let you good folks know how a make out and I will double my effort to be able to test water quality often plus probably add a water fall.
