Pump filter - necessary or not?

~ jan JJsPond.us wrote in message ws.com...
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