This morning I was all ready to move the stock tank to it permanent location in the new garden. I drained the tank, moved the water lilies and fish into two temporary makeshift ponds for the morning.
All was going well. I cleaned the stock tank and lifted it up on its side and rolled it into my new garden. I leveled it using one of the 2 x 3 boards (I bought these to make a vertical trellis in Project 802) and a level.
After a few minor adjustments, it was ready to fill. I filled the tank with water from the city supply and treated it with Aquasafe.
After I few hours I move the fish into the pond. Now I know I should have waited a few days for the pond the settle in and dissipate the Chlorine and Chloramine . I thought the Aquasafe would do the trick. It didn’t and within 10 mintues all of the fish with the exception of one larger goldfish, immediately died. It was so sad to witness and I tried as fast as I could to remove the fish and put them back in the temporary pond. There was nothing that could be done except to watch them one by one turn on their sides and float to the top.
Lesson learned. Be patient and wait for the water to dissipate the Chlorine and Chloramine. The big goldfish is back in the temporary pond, with an aerator for the next day or two. Hopefully this one goldfish will survive. Incidentially, this is the same fish that I found at the bottom of the abandoned pond after two years. It was the only fish I found in there.
I repotted the water lilies and the pond looks perfect in its new home, minus the fish. I’ll pick up a few more little goldfish in the next few weeks. Hopefully things will go better.
