Managing Parents' Pond In Minnesota

[TMF89]

Hey guys, I'm a student at college, and while I'm home for the summer I'm setting up my parents' new pond. They bought a new house over the winter, and have no experience with ponds. it's about 5-6' across and pretty circular, and only a few feet deep. It hasn't been running yet, so I'm trying to get it figured out. Look forward to to talking to you guys.

 

[j.w]

TMF89
Hope to get to watch you fix the pond up w/ you posting pix of the progress.........Happy Pondering :nono:

 

[fishin4cars]

Hey, welcome aboard,! I think someone can point you in the right direction.

 

[CometKeith]

Hi TMF89, Welcome. If it's under 1000 gallons I recommend you stick to goldfish.

 

[koiguy1969]

welcome to the group TMF89...good to have you with us... thats a pond made for goldfish, especially if your new to ponds. if you really want koi, it can be done.. but you may have to thin the herd as they grow, depending on their numbers.. koi are less hardy than goldies. and are considerably more messy..prolific poopers, and plant destroyers, more so as they grow larger. maintainence on the pond will be increased, and partial water changes more frequent.

 

[TMF89]

I definitely don't plan on koi, I have extensive aquarium experience, and I'm all about not putting an over-sized fish in too small of a aquarium/pond. I was thinking just a few shbunku (I'm sure I butchered that lol) or comets. I actually have a "build" thread going in the equipment forum here, please feel free to come give me advice, right now I'm just trying to figure out how to go about draining/cleaning the pond out.

 

[koiguy1969]

yeah, you butchered it...its shubunkin! sarassas are nice as well...

 

[CometKeith]

HI TMF, You probably want to go easy on the draining/cleaning. Just scoop out whatever you can, do a bunch of partial water changes, and get the your pump/biofilter and waterfall features if any running. I also use an airstone. Cleaning it too good will get rid of the beneficial bacteria. Re comets and shubunkins , I have both. They get along well together. Good luck with the pond!

 

[addy1]

Welcome to the group!

 

[Malak]

Welcome! I have the same exact size and shape. So you can probably follow my trials, although I do have an usual issue of well water at a pH of 8. I'm also avoiding koi, going for catfish. :-D

 

[TMF89]

Malak, what kind of catfish do you plan on having in there? And sounds good on the partial changes, now I'm just trying to figure out how to hook the pump up so it'll get the water out! Again I posted the link in an earlier message to my thread in the equipment forum where I have more details and pix, so please check it out there! Thanks guys!

 

[Malak]

Channel cats. I now have 5-6. Picked-up 4 more today.

 

[sissy]

welcome tmf89 and it's great you are helping your parents with there new pond .