Pump filter - necessary or not?

[Meoww]

Our pond is about 100galls. Black plastic liner, 40 percent coverage
with plants, rocks in the bottom etc

In it are 13 fish. A mirror carp, a ghost carp, three red goldfish,
five orange and black goldfish and three golden tench.

The pond is crystal clear and the fish are very heatlhy. (they all do
push ups and play five a side football each evening). In the pond is
a pump which pumps water up to a filter and, from there, back through
a copper pipe which empties into an old 'stone' shell shaped object
which collects the water and allows it to drain out via several holes
back into the pond from a heaight of eighteen inches or so.

The problem is that the pump blocks up every couple of days and
drastically reduces the water flow. At the pump inlet is a small
piece of plastic foam (presume this is quite normal) and this block of
foam gets jammed with green slime and gunge.

Can I remove this block of foam at the pump inlet and rely on the
filter box doing the job by itself. This box contains a lots of
pieces of plastic tube cut into 40mm lengths and on top of these are
two further pieces of foam, one blue in colour and knobbly, the other
is black and, well, smooth really.

If I can do this and ensure a continuous flow of water, we can go away
for more than two days at a time. The wife really could use the
holiday, so please help!!

Patrick

[Nedra]

Of course I think you are terribly _overstocked_ !! I
wouldn't count on the oxygen level staying up with 13 fish
inhabiting 100 gallons.
Why this is less than 10 gallons per fish. I think I'd ask
some friends to take some fish off my hands before leaving
for any amount of time.
Also I always thought copper was Bad for fish .....??

Nedra
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pines/4836
http://community.webshots.com/user/nedra118

"Meoww" > wrote in message
om...
> Our pond is about 100galls. Black plastic liner, 40 percent coverage
> with plants, rocks in the bottom etc
>
> In it are 13 fish. A mirror carp, a ghost carp, three red goldfish,
> five orange and black goldfish and three golden tench.
>
> The pond is crystal clear and the fish are very heatlhy. (they all do
> push ups and play five a side football each evening). In the pond is
> a pump which pumps water up to a filter and, from there, back through
> a copper pipe which empties into an old 'stone' shell shaped object
> which collects the water and allows it to drain out via several holes
> back into the pond from a heaight of eighteen inches or so.
>
> The problem is that the pump blocks up every couple of days and
> drastically reduces the water flow. At the pump inlet is a small
> piece of plastic foam (presume this is quite normal) and this block of
> foam gets jammed with green slime and gunge.
>
> Can I remove this block of foam at the pump inlet and rely on the
> filter box doing the job by itself. This box contains a lots of
> pieces of plastic tube cut into 40mm lengths and on top of these are
> two further pieces of foam, one blue in colour and knobbly, the other
> is black and, well, smooth really.
>
> If I can do this and ensure a continuous flow of water, we can go away
> for more than two days at a time. The wife really could use the
> holiday, so please help!!
>
> Patrick

[Gale Pearce]

You have a lot of fish for 100 gals, but yes, I would remove the foam or
sponge and either run without it or replace it with a more porous material -
furnace filter or plastic scouring pad type of material
Gale :~)

> Our pond is about 100galls. Black plastic liner, 40 percent coverage
> with plants, rocks in the bottom etc
>
> In it are 13 fish. A mirror carp, a ghost carp, three red goldfish,
> five orange and black goldfish and three golden tench.
>
> The pond is crystal clear and the fish are very heatlhy. (they all do
> push ups and play five a side football each evening). In the pond is
> a pump which pumps water up to a filter and, from there, back through
> a copper pipe which empties into an old 'stone' shell shaped object
> which collects the water and allows it to drain out via several holes
> back into the pond from a heaight of eighteen inches or so.
>
> The problem is that the pump blocks up every couple of days and
> drastically reduces the water flow. At the pump inlet is a small
> piece of plastic foam (presume this is quite normal) and this block of
> foam gets jammed with green slime and gunge.
>
> Can I remove this block of foam at the pump inlet and rely on the
> filter box doing the job by itself. This box contains a lots of
> pieces of plastic tube cut into 40mm lengths and on top of these are
> two further pieces of foam, one blue in colour and knobbly, the other
> is black and, well, smooth really.
>
> If I can do this and ensure a continuous flow of water, we can go away
> for more than two days at a time. The wife really could use the
> holiday, so please help!!
>
> Patrick

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

>On 18 Aug (Meoww) wrote:
>Our pond is about 100galls.
>In it are 13 fish. A mirror carp, a ghost carp, three red goldfish,
>five orange and black goldfish and three golden tench.

Oh my, I hope they're all very tiny.

>a copper pipe

Regarding copper, watch your pH, keep it above 7.5 so the copper doesn't
precipitate off.

>The problem is that the pump.
>
>Can I remove this block of foam at the pump inlet and rely on the
>filter box doing the job by itself. This box contains a lots of
>pieces of plastic tube two pieces of foam.

Yes, your pump should be safe removing that block of foam.
~ jan

See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

[Meoww]

"Michael Grossman" > wrote in message news:<Oom0b.148059$cF.55340@rwcrnsc53>...
> You could always put the pump in a small mesh plant basket filled with lava
> rock. And i'd give away some of your fish.....you are overstocked.
>
> Mike
> "Meoww" > wrote in message
> om...
> > Our pond is about 100galls. Black plastic liner, 40 percent coverage
> > with plants, rocks in the bottom etc
> >> >
> > Patrick

Thank you all for your assistance. Please stop worrying, the fish
aren't overcrowded - I hope! Pond size is 8 x 4 x 2(feet). Just
guessed at the gallons, sorry :( How many gallons to the cubic foot
anyway?

[Theron]

On 19 Aug 2003 09:56:37 -0700, (Meoww) wrote:

>"Michael Grossman" > wrote in message news:<Oom0b.148059$cF.55340@rwcrnsc53>...
>> You could always put the pump in a small mesh plant basket filled with lava
>> rock. And i'd give away some of your fish.....you are overstocked.
>>
>> Mike
>> "Meoww" > wrote in message
>> om...
>> > Our pond is about 100galls. Black plastic liner, 40 percent coverage
>> > with plants, rocks in the bottom etc
>> >> >
>> > Patrick
>
>Thank you all for your assistance. Please stop worrying, the fish
>aren't overcrowded - I hope! Pond size is 8 x 4 x 2(feet). Just
>guessed at the gallons, sorry :( How many gallons to the cubic foot
>anyway?


If 8x4x2 is an accurate measurement of the the pond, you have about
480 gallons.

[K30a]

Theron wrote >>If 8x4x2 is an accurate measurement of the the pond, you have
about
480 gallons. <<

Okay. With Theron's estimate you have a better
idea of your numbers.
Rule of thumb on rec.ponds is 20 gallons per smaller fish, goldfish, etc.
1,000 gallons to begin with for koi, then 100
gallons for each fish.
The more water per fish the more forgiving your pond will be and the less
stress on the ponder. Understocking is always better than overstocking.


k30a
and the watergardening labradors
http://www.geocities.com/watergardeninglabradors/home.html

[Meoww]

~ jan JJsPond.us > wrote in message >...
> On 19 Aug 2003 09:56:37 -0700, (Meoww) wrote:
>
> >Thank you all for your assistance. Please stop worrying, the fish
> >aren't overcrowded - I hope! Pond size is 8 x 4 x 2(feet). Just
> >guessed at the gallons, sorry :( How many gallons to the cubic foot
> >anyway?
>
> If a perfect rectangle w/straight sides, flat bottom, you'd have 478.72
> gallons. Still too small for growing out 13 adult fish.
>
> If removing the foam doesn't extend the time between cleaning of the
> filter, removing some fish or enlarging the filter could be considered....
> and/or than there is always digging the next pond.... larger. ;o) ~ jan
>
> See my ponds and filter design:
> http://users.owt.com/jjspond/
>
> ~Keep 'em Wet!~
> Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
> To e-mail see website

HI. Thanks all for your responses which are extremely interesting.

The fish in the pond are as follows. 3 x 3 year old goldfish which
are now approximately four inches long. 2 x 2 year old carp, a ghost
and a mirror. The mirror (or is it the ghost) is now 10 inches in
length (started at 4 inches) and the other one is approximately half
that size after starting at about 3 inches in length.

In the spring we introduced five more gold fish (well, yellowy gold
with black markings). They were all tiddlers when we put them in and
they're now up to between 2 and 3-1/2 inches in length.

The last edition (made last week) are three golden tench, about 1-1/2
inches in length.

We feed twice a day in summer and obviously a lot less in winter. The
pond is not continuously circulated (partly because of the blocked
filter problem) but is circulated/filtered for approximately half the
time.

The water is crystal clear and the fish are amazingly healthy looking.
Bright eyed, bushy tailed and very lively. We have two water lilies,
a healthy spear plant and some other green stuff growing in the water
which occupies approximately 50-60 percent of the surface area
depending on the season.

Frogs and tadpoles are regular visitors.

We live next to a small dam (about half an acre) and we are
considering saying goodbye to the large carp next summer and placing
it in the dam. The fish in there grow to about 8 pounds in weight and
there are dozens of them.

Until I posted here I thought we must be doing something right. Now
however, you've all got me very worried. If I'm going to get
problems, what should I be looking for and when do you reckon they'll
start to manifest themselves?

Best regards

Patrick