I need help!
I have a preformed pond that I have had for a couple of years.
After the winter I cleaned it and started filtering and added a concrete waterfall feature. The pond is only 120 gallons with a smaller 100 gallon pond elevated above with a spill over into the larger one.
My problem is that the larger pond accumalates a lot of bubbles on the walls and shelf of the pond. I tested the water and everything seems normal except the alkaline is a little high.
I lost one Koi yesterday and the others are not eating and staying on the botton of the pond.
I moved the remaining fish from the pond until I can figure out what to do.
I did a water change of about 30% and within 8 hours or so the bubbles were back.
I called the local pond supplier and they had not heard of anything like that.
Any advise on what to look for?
Thanks

Sounds like gas bubble disease. There is too much gas (N2/O2) dissolved in the water. Signs of gas bubble disease would be bubbles in the eyes/fins/skin of the fish. Gas bubble disease can also cause "pop-eye", which is exactly what it sounds like - one or both eyes pop out of the eye socket.

The fish are trying to compensate for the gas by seeking the deepest water possible.

The waterfall is the cause of the problem. Reducing the flow should help the situation.

Gas bubble disease is common below some reservoirs where the design of the reservoir outflow causes too much gas to be dissolved. I do a lot of work at Red Rock Lake in Iowa, gas bubble disease causes frequent fish kills there.

Thank you so much, I put the waterfall on a timer and it does seem to occur when it is running.
I stopped the waterfall when I moved the fish last night to see if that would help and this morning I didn't see any bubbles so I think you hit the nail on the head.
You are awesome to help me.
Thanks again.

Another pondmiester strkes again.

"Gas bubble disease" Sounds like the cowboy campfire scene from Blazing Saddles.

I did not know that. Way to go, csteffen. Are you the guy that went to SDSU and will be attending MSU?

Confused and concerned.
I stopped using the waterfall and I am still getting bubbles all over the pond walls. I found another fish in distress so I moved all the fish in to another fresh pond, I didn't want to do that but they seem to be fine for now.
I shut down the filter and spitters , pulled the plants, still growing bubbles.
Any more thoughts on this, I am getting desperate.
Should I pull this a part, clean and start fresh.
I am willing to do whatever to save my fishies!

I think my next step would be to go to an aquarium store and get a water test kit. You want to check pH and nitrate/nitrite levels. They may offer some suggestions as well.

Thanks Jersey,
I bought a test kit but it is one of the 5 way test and I am not sure how acurate they are.
according to the test everything is ok, the alkaline was a little high in the evening but I read somewhere that it's normal for it to rise when the sun is up and the water warms.
I called a pond and hydrophonics supplier and they said they had never heard of anything like this before, because the bubbles are sticking to the sides of the pond and not floating on the top.
I am going to see if I can find somewhere to test the water, I am on a well free of chemicals but you never know.
Anything anyone can think of I am willing to try.

This is just crazy,

see the bubbles, what the heck is it!

It reminds me of co2, like when you pour a glass of soda, the bubbles all stick to the glass.

Here is a link to something I found on high carbon dioxide.
http://www.ag.auburn.edu/fish/AQUANIC/documents/468fs.pdf

I dont know if that could be it, but worth a look.

I'll throw my hat in the ring as well. It is dissolved gasses, I had the same problem years ago when I had aquariums. If you didn't have this problem last year, and the only difference is the concrete waterfall, then the waterfall could very well be the culprit. Maybe something in the concrete is dissolving in the water and causing part of the problem. After a day or 2 of not running anything, do the bubbles still accumulate?

Do you have fish or plants in the top pond? Is there a filter in the top pond?

I do have a few small gold fish in the top pond and plants.
the top pond does not have a seperate filter.
I stopped using the concrete water fall and I still have the bubbles. Someone told me to put a chlorine heavy metal inhibitor thinking it had metals in the water and I cleared all the bubbles and did a 30% water exchange, started the filter system and the bubbles are starting to form again when I checked this morning.It seems that the bubbles get worse when it warms up in the afternoon.
I removed all of the fish as well as the plants to see if that would help.
The fish are doing better since I moved them, no dead fish this morning YEAH!
One of the buckets that I have plants in is also getting the bubbles in it with no fish or anything in it, no filter or fish and it was fresh water from the hose.
I have umbrellas over it to keep the sun from heating the water to much since they are small but it does seem to get worse when it warms up.
Thanks to all for helping me, I love sitting out there and now I am also in distress over it

I wonder if I should take the pond apart and clean everything and start fresh.I am not sure what I should use to make a clean sweep of whatever is causing this problem.
I am so glad I found this site, I didn't know where to turn and I have plans for a bigger pond, that is where my fish are now in a 300 gal rubber made but it is not put in the ground yet.
I love fishies!

Thanks for the article, it does sound like this is what is going on.
YOU ROCK!

You have doubled the water and added more load (fish and plants) without increasing the filtration. Do you have a bio filter to go with the mechanical, you may need to get a larger filter system to take care of the extra load.

I have bio filter that is suppose to filter up to 1000 gallon capacity so I didn't think I needed to add another filter and my pump is rated at 185 ph. do you think I still need to add anotherer filter system? my total water is only 220 gallons with both ponds so I didn't think I would need another filter but I will give it try to see if it helps.
Thanks again for the responce.
I appreciate your help.

It sounds like that filter should handle it.

Here is another link with some great information, in the ph section it talks about concrete water features and the sealers that should be used.

http://www.pondsystems.com/testing.html

Just a thought. Sometimes deep water springs are supersaturated with nitrogen. Basically, you have to find a way to let the excess nitrogen escape. I suggest you try turning your waterfall back on and set up some sort of surface to "splash" the water before it hits the pond. Maybe some concrete blocks or other similar surface. It would be best if you could do this with the well water before it entered the pond. Not sure if this will help, but it might be worth trying.

I got frustratedd and pulled everything apart.
I found a black sludge covering everything so I cleaned with salt water and let it dry before I put water back in.
I did add another filter to the smaller pond and plan to run them seperate to see how it goes.
My fish will stay in the 300 gals for a while, they are doing well and even the fish that was in distress is eating and looking much better.
I am planning to re-introduce the plants in first to see how that goes before putting the fish back.
I shortened the return hose from the filter so it is splashing and when I filled the pond I let the water splash and so far no bubbles, I am going to introduce the plants first and let it run to see if the adittional filter helps.
Thanks for all of your advise.
I was so stressed.

I hope that does the trick.

Even though it was stressful and not good for the fish, most bad situations are a great oppourtunity to think and learn. Update us on how things work out.

Gone for a couple days and this thread explodes. Too bad it wasn't as simple as shutting down the waterfall.

High gas pressure persists for weeks in the river we study. In fact most of the fishkills occur about a month after the high flows that created the high pressure end. The flow slows down and the depth of the river decreases. The high gas pressure remains, but the fish are not able to get deep enough to compensate for it.

It doesn't seem like it could persist for so long in a 300 gallon tank though.

I guess I'm on the "its coming from the well" bandwagon now. I know fish hauling trucks have some sort of mechanism for removing excess gases (CO2 mostly) from hauling tanks. Maybe there is an expert here that could explain that?



No, I am an Iowa State fisheries grad. I did attend grad school for a while at MSU though. TJSTUBBS is probably the one you are thinking about. The fisheries world is pretty small-TJSTUBBS almost rented the same house I lived in while in Mississippi (another fisheries grad student beat him to it). Small little house with a pack of scurvy dogs and 2 ponds to fish, what more could a person need?

The picture reminds me of when you first put water into a new aquarium and all the walls of the aquarium are covered along with the rocks and other things. I think I recall seeing it in a new backyard lined pond years ago. However, they bubbles all seem to dissipate after a couple days.

csteffen: You hang out anywhere else in IA? I'm in SE corner and (used to) fish Coralville a lot. Don't remember ever seeing this type incident up there, but it makes sense...just curious as there aren't all that many Iowegians on here.

Born and raised in Northwest IA, in Cherokee to be exact. Been all over the state. I worked two summers collecting lake water for a professor at Iowa State. We would sample from about 6 am until 3 or 4 pm and then use the boat to fish. We sampled 130 of the biggest lakes around the state. As of two weeks ago I have now fished 108 of them.

For the fulltime job I have now I was at Coralville last wednesday shocking fish. That is an incredible lake. So much fish diversity and pretty also. The outlet structure is different at Coralville and they rarely if ever have a gas supersaturation problem. Most of my work is on the Des Moines River (including Saylorville and Red Rock Lakes). Shocking fish on those two lakes is not 1/10 as interesting as Coralville.

We saw a lot of white bass/wipers at coralville in the 10 inch to 5 lb range. Flatheads up to a couple pounds are everywhere. We rarely see large ones though because we are in shallow water. We also shock the river below the lake, it is a quite a site when we pull the shock boat up to the low head dam at the Iowa Power restaurant in downtown Iowa City.


I agree there needs to be more Iowegians on this forum. We are probably the last stronghold of the majestic bullhead.

Funnee...only use I have for them is flathead bait!

I've always thought it would be cool to see guys shock bigger waters and lakes. IDNR used to come to Columbus Junction every year (River Junction Function) and shock the Iowa and Cedar Rivers for "show and tell". All the area kids showed up for that...

Saw a 4.5 lb walleye brought up RIGHT NEXT to the dang boat landing. Literally, hanging out right on the concrete pad. Really cool...great field to be in.