Water Quality, Salinity and Panty Hose

I've been watching the tadpoles.  There aren't many of them and they seem to be two distinct sizes, so I probably have two families growing up here.  Not a single frog sighting in about a week!  I also noticed that the plants aren't doing all that well.   So, I gathered some water samples for the nice folks at the pond store, Hill Country Water Gardens, to test for me. What did I find out?  First, I found out that my well water has way too much salt in it, which sometimes happens to well water in times of drought.  Normally, I replenish the pond with a combo of well water and bottled water.  Since the well water put salt in the pond, when the  the water evaporates,it leaves the salt and the poor pond has been getting saltier and saltier every time I add water.  This is really bad for everyone involved who wants to swim and live there. I found out that I also have dangerously alkaline water - to the point where it can kill fish.  The good news, however, is that the water samples revealed  that the water that comes from my water purifier in the house (a reverse osmosis system - "RO") is awesome, super, salt-free, perfect 7 alkalinity and clear as a bell.  The expert pond dudes simply thrilled with my RO water!   Pond dudes were worried, however, about me changing out the water too fast because any sudden change in alkalinity can kill my little fishies.  So, they advised me to scoop out water a couple of gallons at a time and replace with my nice clear purified house water.  I was worried I would be scooping out tadpoles, so they advised putting some pantyhose over a bucket when I scoop.  Wow, that works great!  I have replaced about 4 gallons so far (about 10% of the pond right now, at its low point) and will wait a day or so to replace another 10%. Gradually, the pond will be less salty and alkaline and hopefully, my froggy friends will come back.  (Although the pond dudes said that the frogs really don't care all that much about salinity).  Goldfish actually like a little bit of salt.  It helps them form a little mucous layer that repels bacteria and helps them fight disease. Too much is bad though and the salt is terrible for the plants.

I've also noticed that the garden and around the house is oddly bug-free.  Weird.  Normally summertime is a wonderland of creepy crawlers here in Texas.  Hmmmm, I'm having Silent Spring thoughts. I might have to pick up that wonderful book by Rachel Carson that I never did actually read.  I'm told it helped launch the environmental movement and is a "must read".