You have added salt to your pond water because a friend of yours told you that he had read somewhere that this is a good cure for pond fish parasites. After a week or so nothing seems to have happened.
You do some research and discover that potassium permanganate is a great cure. Great! You now add the potassium permanganate to the pond, applying the correct dose. What you did not realize is that pond salt and potassium permanganate react together to form chlorine. This is highly toxic to Koi, goldfish and aquatic life, even in small doses.
Pond salt is also bad when used in conjunction with Zeolite. Zeolite is used in pond keeping as a means of absorbing ammonia, which as we know is produced by pond fish and decaying organic matter. Unfortunately when Zeolite is packed with ammonia and mixes with the pond salt it releases the ammonia back into the pond water, in high concentrations. Ammonia is a toxic chemical that will kill your pond fish in high concentrations.
Do not add chemicals to your pond unless you are absolutely sure you need to and you know what the consequences might be.
When Adding Chemicals To Ponds Consider The Following ...
- It is critically important before you add any chemical treatments to your pond to know the actual pond volume.
- Once you are fully aware of the volume then be sure that you add the correct dosage, following the instructions carefully. Be very careful of over dosing.
- When fish ponds are over dosed, usually through the instructions not being followed correctly or the pond owners not being aware of the correct dosage to apply, there can be some dire consequences.
- Malachite Green for example is a dye commonly used to treat Koi and goldfish parasites as well as fungus disease in fish ponds. An overdose of Malachite Green would more than likely kill the parasite or fungus! However it would also kill off the nitrifying bacteria, colonizing the pond biomedia, housed in your garden pond filter.
- If you insist on treating the whole pond then it is advisable to switch off the pond filter for an hour or so. Make sure that it is no longer than this as after 5 to 6 hours the nitrifying Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter bacteria, responsible for breaking down ammonia, will be totally wiped out!
The full article can be read at http://www.garden-pond-filters.com/garden-chemicals-beware.html ...
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