Existing pond, HELP me!

Hi everyone;

I bought a house last Fall and acquired a beautiful koi pond to go with it. I was told not to feed them over the winter and just worry about things when Spring approached.

Well, being in NC the weather is getting pretty mild so I took a sample of the water to a local fish store recently. The water tested well but the PH was a little high and there was a great deal of tanin? in the water, thus giving it the lovely tea color. But everything else checked out okay.

So, I had a company come out and do their spring cleaning. Well, today I have learned a few things...first being I have 4 KOI! YAY!

I was worried about them leaving the fish in the cooler because the water was getting warm and the pond was cold. But he said they would be fine and dumped them back in. Hopefully they are okay.

So, they left about a foot of water in the bottom as they pressure washed the insides of my concrete pond and took out the fountain and basically cleaned everything. They put it back together added cholorine stablizer since I am on city water but the water is still very brown. They said that was normal because they wanted to leave some of the original water in the pond and when they pressure washed the inside all of the scum made the water more brown in color.

He then took apart my filter and pressure washed those and told me to rinse them once a month. I do not think they had been cleaned in years! Very nasty!

He suggested adding rocks but because of the cost, I declined for now. Was that a mistake?

So, tell me something...from having fish tanks and having the general rule of thumb to be not to replace the water but rather use a skimmer, etc. Should I invest in a nice water vac and just skim the pond every month to avoid having a 90% water replacement? Is this bad for my fish?

Also, how do I determine how many gallons my pond is? It's 8 ft in diameter *it's a circle pond* and about 3 ft deep?

Also, I have 2 potted lillies but he suggested adding more plants? What kind?

I want to make sure I stay on top of things and am doing the proper things to enjoy my pond, now only if I could see my pretty fish...he said it would take a week for the water to clear.


fourkoi

tannin will not hurt the fish. If your filter is a bio-filter your should not be pressure washing it (the medium) but gently washing in a bucket or you will lose the good bacteria that clean your pond. Rocks seem to be a pain to clean if they on the bottom and they trap debris and mulm. I use a pondovac 3 and yes it's better to vacuum the bottom regularly and then top off. 90 percent water change is excessive unless there is a big problem. Water hyacinth, iris, purple stemmed taro, water lettuce, duck weed, pickerel are some options for plants. Good luck with the koi!! Enjoy.

Also, the ph being high is generally not an issue, it is big changes in the ph that cause problems.

forgot about the dwarf papyrus... love that plant

Thank you for the suggestions but...
How do I determine how many gallons my pond is? It's 8 ft in diameter *it's a circle pond* and about 3 ft deep?

Thanks!

Area = Pi * radius squared * 3 = total cubic feet or 150.7963
cubic feet * 7.5 = gallons = 1130.9 gallons