New Pond Keeper needs help

hotpepper wrote:

Forgot to say - got back from work today after being away for a few
days and hence not been messing with the pond. The water is crystal
clear all the way to the bottom. I can see all the fish which has put
me at ease, the Orfe are darting around like mad and the tench are
slowly moving around the bottom - one even came to the top to eat! I
can now see the shape and layout of the pond so probably wont drain and
clean it.

I switch of the pump while cleaning it and for some reason sediment
started to stir up, is this normal? Why does this happen?

I'd guess your pump is moving water to some point above the water level of
the pond. When you switch it off, all the water in the pipe runs back down
into the pond, through the intake - which one assumes is near the bottom of
the pond - and stirs up the remaining sediment.

If there's any chance at all that the pipe could spring a leak that would
cause water to leave the pond, you should try to raise that intake up a few
inches, so that a catastrophe still leaves enough water in the pond for
your fish to survive!
--
derek

Our toilet valve refills as we get evaporation. We drain the barrels
and the berm ponds annually to dump the muck form the pond. That does
actually mean turning over 1000 of 4000 gakllons. That is an annual 25%
change over...staged. We have monitored the water chemistry and it does
not seem affected by the low change rate. My observation is that the
pond does a good bit of topping up, which should be concentrating the
minerals.

Jim

~ jan JJsPond.us wrote:
On Wed, 14 Sep 2005 06:34:35 -0500, Phyllis and Jim Hurley
wrote:


We have not changed
out our water in the seven or so years we have had the pond.


Not even 10% water changes? ~ jan

hotpepper see: http://www.vcnet.com/koi_net/finalnet.html#waterchange

Our toilet valve refills as we get evaporation. We drain the barrels
and the berm ponds annually to dump the muck form the pond. That does
actually mean turning over 1000 of 4000 gakllons. That is an annual 25%
change over...staged. We have monitored the water chemistry and it does
not seem affected by the low change rate. My observation is that the
pond does a good bit of topping up, which should be concentrating the
minerals.

Jim

Is this a water garden w/koi?

Your last sentence confuses me, as the reason it is recommended 10%/week is
to keep heavy minerals, pheromones and other pollutants (that most
hobbyists can't test for) diluted and to add necessary minerals, vital for
the fish.

If a koi only pond, they usually need to do them for the nitrate build up
also.... something we rarely have to worry about in a water garden plus
koi. ~ jan

Hi Jan,

Our pond system has 3K gallons in the main pond and 1K gallons in the
berm ponds and barrels. The pond has about 10 koi, full sized, and
about the same number of goldfish. The berm plants do a great job of
handling the muck...growth like crazy and clear water. We have not done
any regular water changes. The toilet valve does replace the
evaporation on a regular basis...MS is very hot. The koi don't seem to
have suffetred any particular problems from the lack of changes. They
have grown like weeds and are 20 to 28". The ratio of koi per gallon is
pretty good. That may help.

Jim

~ jan JJsPond.us wrote:
Our toilet valve refills as we get evaporation. We drain the barrels
and the berm ponds annually to dump the muck form the pond. That does
actually mean turning over 1000 of 4000 gakllons. That is an annual 25%
change over...staged. We have monitored the water chemistry and it does
not seem affected by the low change rate. My observation is that the
pond does a good bit of topping up, which should be concentrating the
minerals.

Jim


Is this a water garden w/koi?

Your last sentence confuses me, as the reason it is recommended 10%/week is
to keep heavy minerals, pheromones and other pollutants (that most
hobbyists can't test for) diluted and to add necessary minerals, vital for
the fish.

If a koi only pond, they usually need to do them for the nitrate build up
also.... something we rarely have to worry about in a water garden plus
koi. ~ jan

Phyllis and Jim Hurley wrote:
Congratulations on getting hooked. Have you posted any pics of your
pond? (Our pondsite below shows ours.)


What is this, I show you mine, you show me yours?

hotpepper wrote:
I inherited a pond about 2 years ago in my new house in the south of
England and although it was a nice feature I ignored it until very
recently. Its about 3000 ltrs (650 gals) 2m X 3m X 0.7m and I think
its many years old, I think its made of concrete and has some very
attractive stonework around and in the pond, the sides look like stone
bricks. Someone obviously spent a lot of time on it so I thought I
should do something with it. It's in a very shady spot but does get
some direct sunshine in the middle of the afternoon.

It was not filtered and everything was overgrown, it basically looked
like a swap. I started by clearing all the overgrown vegetation and
have left a decent sized patch of Lilly's in the middle with some
oxygenators and reeds.


Then (I didn't now about pond vacs at this point) dredged the bottom
with my bare hands then a coarse net, then a fine net. So now I have a
thin layer of sludge at the bottom. I then added a good quality
filtration system with a small water fall, UV clarifier, an air ball
and some lighting.

I already had three largish goldfish, I've added 3 Tench, 3 Commits,
3 Goldfish, 3 blue orfe, 3 Sebunkins, all are quit small 3in.

Everything seems fine expect I can't see the Tench but I assume they
are ok. The water was very murky but after a few days it has started
to clear (you can see the rocks at the bottom of the pond) and is no
longer green.

My questions a

1 - Have I done the right thing in terms of setup and cleaning?

2 - I have had mixed advice on this but should I drain and clean the
pond and does this need to be done every year?

3 - Can I keep Koi in this pond?

4 - Is there anything else I should do?

5 - How many fish should I keep in the pond?

5 - Where have the Tench gone?

Sorry for the long story but I didn't want to leave anything out but
needless to say but I am now totally hooked!!!

Thanks in advance for you help.


You have got some pretty good advice from this group . All I can add is
..... stick with it !!!! To sit by a pond with a loved one and a bottle of
wine as evening falls is a pleasure beyond price.

John