Hi
Bet there's not a person who has kept a pond that has not done that lol One thing you can do to prevent it happening again is either a mechanical or electric shutoff
valve . Will autonaticly shutoff after a preset time .
Sorry to hear about your fish, about the only thing you CAN do is start over?? You can get the mechainical ones for under 10 bucks at the box stores Good luck gary

Backyardmamma, Gary nailed it right there!
A great number of pond keepers have gone through some traumatic event with our ponds and the loss of the inhabitants.
I have lost all of my fish and my ponds turned into mud baths, on three occasions to a raccoon feeding frenzy.
It leaves you feeling totally stunned and devastated for sure. I now have an electric fence around the pond to keep the raccoons away.

As Gary said, you just have to start all over again and learn form the bad situation. An auto top up valve is your best bet, but be sure, as suggested, you have it timed so a little water goes in at one time and the pond can be checked on as it fills.
Plus, and this is very important, always treat the water with a chlorine/chloramines, neutralizing treatment, as you top up or refill your pond. Do the top ups and treat the water over a few hours period to give the conditioner time to work.
"Horton"

Backyardmamma,

Boy I know how horrid you and your husband must feel. And, like any other grief, we just have to keep going on, going through the stages of grieving. I also know what it feels like to just want to give up, fill the pond in or give it all away.

However, I also know what it feels like down the road to be happy again with the pond and fish, so I encourage you to persevere and find that place within.

I don't know if this will help, but I use a clorine filter that is made for campers. It is about $20 and claims to remove the clorine and cloromide (or whatever they put in city water). I fill the 20 gal blue tubs with the filtered water and I also use Stress Coat. I wait for the water to get close in temperature to the pond then siphon it in. This may be overkill, but I feel better doing it this way.

Anne

So sorry for your loss, backyardmama. Its true, we've all made a mistake like that at one time or another. And we've all lost things too, and know that overwhelming grief.
As Anne said, you will get to the point in time in the future where you are happy with your fish and your pond again.
Maybe this is totally inappropriate of me, but when I suffer some loss like this, I try to put it in perspective.......like "it wasn't the loss of my husband or children." It helps me focus on what I DO still have.
I hope you can comfort yourself and move ahead to replacing some of what you've lost.
And try to distract yourself from the sadness. Time heals alot of wounds.
((((Hugs))))

Thanks, everyone. I think it was the shock of it all that was so overwhelming. It was the last thing I expected.
Catherine, you're comments are not inappropriate. Like I said, I just returned from a trip to Kenya and believe me, I know just how blessed that I am to have a home, husband, job, food on the table, etc. to come home to or for that matter, enough treated water to fill a pond up with. I am deeply saddened and upset, but I know Bill feels even more badly.
It wasn't the first time I lost fish, and I'm sure it won't be the last time...because, we all know, I won't be filling it in.

I had been planning on putting in an automatic water level monitor and am glad to know there is a chlorine filter I can use. I will be looking into both of those. We are also considering putting in a well strictly for irrigation. The water has a heavy iron content. Would the iron be harmful for fish?

I'm sorry for the loss, too and I understand you reluctance to continue but you have had so much pleasure from the fish I hope you do reconsider. If it was me, I would take it slowly when restocking. Don't go out and get new fish right away. You might want to leave the pond unpopulated for some time until the shock is not so painful. One day you will come across a particular fish that seems to say, "I'm just the one for you".

Iron water can be just fine for fish within limits. The worst problems are from odor and discoloration. Some of that can be reduced by using Activated Carbon.

Backyardmama- I can empthize with you and your situation as I have had the same thing happen to me. The loss is great and devastating. I replaced mine with trotline goldfish from the bait shop and now I have some of the prettiest Koi and beautiful goldfish I have ever seen. Yes, there were a lot of small koi in the bunch from the bait shop. They sell them by the pound not each and you get a lot for your $. If you have a large pond as it seems you do, go this way. You will find yourself becoming just as attached to these soon.
The clorine filter is the way to go. I had a leak and was topping off a lot and adding declorinator (which was getting expensive). I posted here on the forum and one helpful member to me as Anne told you to use the drinking water filter from Camping World. This is around $20 and really does take the worry away. I bought two, one for each hose at my pond. Now there are no screwups. I set a timer by my outside mosaic table, a timer on my microwave and check the fill in one hour increments. Thankfully, my handyman and myself have finally found the leak and repaired it. I now only have to top off what evaporates.
Good luck, keep your chin up and give hubby a hug for thinking of checking on your pond in your absence. You are very fortunate to have some help that cares. Hope all is better for you.
Carol

I am sorry for your loss. The fish did not die from the iron in the water. If you have city water they died from the chlorine in the water and if you have well water they died from the lack of O2 in the water or poisonous gases that are in it.
The best product that I have found if chlorine or chloramines are in the water is a product called a Pondbiz. It screws on the end of a garden hose or outside facet. The manufacture says it is good for a year. I have a pond shop and we use these on all our fish vats. On our fish vats the water is changed automatically. We change 10% of the water year around. The two vats that have had these devices on them the longest are 600 gallons and devices have been on for over 3 years. So that is 60 gallons per day 365 days per year for 3 years or 60x365x3=65,700 gallons of water. My city water has chloramines in it and it still tests zero for chlorine or ammonia. This year one of my employees made a mistake and went home for the day with the hose filling our outside pond running full force. It is a 800 gallon pond and about 8,000 gallons of water went into that pond without a single fish, tadpole, snail, or frog being hurt. Yes it was a waste of a lot of water but no animals being hurt. During the pond season I have a vat that we keep tadpoles in. Because we keep a lot of tadpoles in it we change about 95% of the water twice a week without treating the fresh water other then this devise and they do great. I am talking about a 100 gallon vat that will have anywhere for 200 to 2000 frog tadpoles in it at any given time.
Mike

Sorry about your fish! It is true that most of us have left the hose on, or forgot something very important and we all feel bad about it.

On a side note the product Mike il posted about sounds like it could save many of us grief. I am going to google it now.

Lisa

Oh gosh, so sorry for your loss.

Mike,
I can't find any product called "pondbiz". Can you provide the manufacturer name or specific product/model name. Sorry, but google is letting me down.

-Chris

I bet he meant this:
http://www.pondbiz.com/home/pb1/page_16_32/garden_hose_chlorine_filter.html

When I fill my pond I always use my 5 gallon fish only buckets or a 10 gallon garden tote (grass dirt allowed no chems). That way when I *do* forget the water is on I only spill it outside the pond.

Sorry for your loss. We all loose fish, but that doesn't make it hurt any less.