best way to change water

Question
Help!!! My husband and I live in the Caribbean (St. Maarten) and have a pond at home with now only four koi. We discovered a leak in our liner and lost one fish after the water level got too low and the pump stopped working which helped aerate the water/waterfall. We are now keeping the water level correct by running water into the pond to counter the slow leak that we have. We have ordered a new liner but it won't get flown into the island for at least a week or so. The fish seem to be OK now and not stressed but I'm so afraid of what we will have to put them thru when the new liner comes. Where do we keep them while we replace the pond liner, etc. We figure we should slowly pump the existing pond water into whatever type of container we will hold them in temporarily and just keep them in that container for several hours before we put them pback into the newly lined pond. Can we use something like a 55 gallon plastic container for a short period of time? We really would appreciate some help.

Answer
I'm sorry about your fish loss.  It must be nice in the Caribbean.  I've never traveled.

Do you have any large non-toxic containers that can hold water?  Kiddie pools, stock tanks, Rubbermaid storage tubs, bathtub even, etc.?  I don't know if you have places like WalMart or Home Depot that sell large storage containers.  Fill the temporary containers with the pond water.  A 55 gallon plastic container would be fine.  Be sure not to use anything that previously held chemicals or toxins.

Once you change the liner and get things back, fill it with new water.  Add dechlorinator if you have chlorine in your water.  If you have a well like me, you may not need it (I add it to deal with heavy metals anyway).  You might also want to add some pond salt at about 0.05%.  It helps with a variety of things.  Put in as much of the old water as you were able to save and aerate it very well, at least an hour or two before putting the fish back.  Fresh tap or well water is usually low in oxygen and high in carbon dioxide.  Aeration is needed to fix that, or the fish can suffer from low oxygen or gas bubble disease (where carbon dioxide comes out of solution in their bodies).  So, aerate well.

Good luck!