Safe for sprinkler runoff to enter my watergarden???

by Joe Canino
(Parker, CO)

I am fairly new to water gardening. I installed a small 60 gallon water garden in my yard last year with much success. I stocked the pond with 8 'feeder' fish from a local pet store in hopes of keeping mosquito larva from becoming adults. I brought the now full grown gold fish in for the winter in fears of them dying over the cold winter months in Colorado. This year I got a head start on the traditional 6 weeks of time suggested for healthy bacteria to grow in the pond before reintroducing the fish to the pond about 3 weeks ago. about 2 weeks ago my pond experienced an algea bloom like I have never seen before. Not wanting to use chemicals I cleaned the bio filter weekly with no visual results. Now as the nights are getting warmer I have turned my sprinkler system on which includes a drip system for the annual and perennial flowers that surround my pond. Last year the drip system not only watered the flowers, it replinished the water in the pond that tends to evaperate at the rate of 5 gallons per day in the hot dry climate I live in. Anyway, since I have turned on the sprinklers the water has cleared up signifigantly. I can only assume that the chlorine that is added to the tap water here is killing the algeae and making for clearer water in my pond. Although I had the same set up last year and didn't have the algeae problems and didn't lose any fish,

I am wondering if the chlorine that makes its way into my pond will have a negitive effect on the fish and plant life as I have read many articles on this subject saying that any water introduced into the pond needs to be de-chlorinated.


Doug says that if you add a significant amount of chlorine to the pond water (or use a lot of fresh cholorinated water at any one time) then yes, your fish are going to have a problem. A bit at a time isn't going to kill them but will indeed help with killing off algae. So the bit of water coming from overhead via the sprinkler system likely isn't going to really bother the fish unless you're a really really serious irrigation person.

Water that has hit the ground and runs into isn't likely going to be a problem unless there's a lot of it. If you have runoff then you're applying too much water in your irrigation and should dial this back until you have no runoff.

Hope that helps