Firestone PondGard Pond Liner

[Wiggles92]

Has anyone else lost fish for no apparent reason while having them in an indoor or outdoor pond that used Firestone PondGard pond liner?

I have now lost at least two fish to their so-called "fish safe" pond liner. I have had two Florida gar (12" and 17") die in my indoor pond that was lined with that liner; they displayed no signs of disease or trauma in the days leading up to their deaths. I'm also starting to suspect that it killed my mono peacock bass (13"), pinima peacock bass (16.5"), marbled pim (22"), common pleco (5"), and a goldfish (1"); all of these fish showed no signs of disease or trauma, too. Please note that all of these fish were not in the pond at the same time. The pond was cycled and aerated each time it was used, and I was doing frequent water changes to maintain good water quality.

So has anyone else had this problem?

 

[treldib]

Hmm....both of my ponds have Firestone PondGard 45mil EPDM Liner and I've had no problems. They have been running for about a year now.

1600G Pond - Beloved RTCxTSN, Blue Tilapia Brood Stock, 2 Koi

1500G Pond - Nile Tilapia Brood Stock, Mozambique Tilapia Brood Stock, One 2.5' Albino Channel Catfish.

Our 2 pet Ducks drink out of, and swim in, the 1500G pond on a daily basis so I would assume nothing is leeched into the water by the liner. At least nothing toxic.

Maybe something in the substrate or the decorations is killing the fish? What size pond? What's your filtration like? What are you feeding and how often? Is anything falling into the pond (leaves, etc. assuming its an outdoor pond)?

 

[Wiggles92]

Hmm....both of my ponds have Firestone PondGard 45mil EPDM Liner and I've had no problems. They have been running for about a year now.

1600G Pond - Beloved RTCxTSN, Blue Tilapia Brood Stock, 2 Koi

1500G Pond - Nile Tilapia Brood Stock, Mozambique Tilapia Brood Stock, One 2.5' Albino Channel Catfish.

Our 2 pet Ducks drink out of, and swim in, the 1500G pond on a daily basis so I would assume nothing is leeched into the water by the liner. At least nothing toxic.

Maybe something in the substrate or the decorations is killing the fish? What size pond? What's your filtration like? What are you feeding and how often? Is anything falling into the pond (leaves, etc. assuming its an outdoor pond)?

The pond didn't have any substrate or decorations; it was just a bare pond.

It was approximately 200 gallons and, for the most part, was only meant for temporary holding for the fish that it held on various occasions. I took extra care to ensure that appropriate temperatures and aeration were maintained. Filtration consisted of frequent water changes to ensure the best water quality. Water parameters were matched (minus the nitrates and other bad stuff) with each change in order to avoid any problems. This is the same water that we drink on a daily basis here at home, and it's been tested and has come back as safe to drink. It's from a well, so chlorine and other chemicals are not a problem, but I added the correct dose of AquaSafe just to be sure that it was safe. Feedings were every other day, and any food that was not eaten within a few minutes was removed to prevent the water from fouling. The fish were fed fish fillet (free of chemical additives) and Hikari pellets; in one instance, small goldfish were provided but were not consumed. The pond was inside my basement, so I know that nothing was falling into it that could potentially poison the water.

There were three separate cases of these deaths:

1. The first case involved the smaller Florida gar and the common pleco. The first gar spent almost two weeks in there without any problems but started to have brief fits of twitching that lasted for no more than one minute (seizures?). The first time, I thought that it had just ran into the side of the pond, but there were no signs of trauma, so I was puzzled. I observed it doing this once more that day before heading to bed; it was dead when I woke up. It had no apparent signs of trauma. The common pleco was in the pond with this gar and showed no symptoms, but it still died a week or so later. The pond was then drained and the liner was cleaned with hot water and rinsed.
2. The second case involved the larger Florida gar, the two peacock bass, and the marbled pim. Only the gar was meant to remain in the pond long-term; the other fish were to be moved within a few days. All of these fish minus the gar were found dead one morning after spending no more than three days in the pond; they had not showed any signs of trauma, heavy breathing, twitching, etc. I removed their bodies, tested the water to find everything good according to the liquid test kit, and then did a major water change just to be safe.
3. The third case involves the larger Florida gar and the goldfish. The gar had been in the pond for a close to two weeks, and it started doing what the first gar did (twitching) so I knew that something was up. However, I didn't get the chance to move it; it died before I got to move it to another container. As before, there were no signs of trauma or other problems. I also found one of the goldfish that was meant to be food dead; it didn't have any bite marks or signs of trauma on it. This goldfish was bred in one of my other outdoor ponds that didn't use this type of liner so it wasn't some dirty feeder fish.

Despite coming in a Firestone PondGard box, it may have been mixed up with one of the other EPDM products that Firestone offers that are not fish safe; do you think that this is possible? If this is the case, then I'm definitely concerned that they let this mistake slip past their quality control employees.

So what do you think? Might something be up with the liner or might there be another problem?

 

[Mavrick813]

My original pond design used this stuff and it worked well until my nephew threw a large piece of slate slicing the bottom. I then rebuilt my pond using some more of this stuff that I salvaged from a pond tear down. And this spring my new pond will be using some more of this stuff second hand. 3 Ponds, approx 10 years and never lost a fish from the liners.

Mike