Adding Water, Plants And Fish To A Pond

[Meyer Jordan]

The best way is to toss only a couple or three food pellets in the pond and watch what happens. If a battle ensues as to who gets the pellets then the fish are hungry.

 

[carolinaguy]

Let me tell you my story that relates to two of those questions:

I top off my water with a constant trickle of new water that comes out an overflow. I put about 40 gallons a day into a 2500 gallon pond. I don't treat it for the chloramines that are in my water. I only treated the initial fill.

I completely avoided adding any fish I didn't want in the pond AND completely avoided ever seeing a bit of ammonia in the pond. How? I took a couple of sponges from an established container pond and placed them in the new filter's biological filter area. Then I added three 4-5" fish to that pond. Every week I added 3-5 more fish like that for 4-5 weeks. Like I said, I never had a bit of ammonia or nitrite in the water.

The two answers may be related, though. Treating for the chloramines put about 0.5 ppm of ammonia into the pond water. I waited until that went away before adding any fish. That took about a week.

So I took it slow. Today I have about 30 4-6" fish in the pond. They are still not near the support capacity of the pond, but as they grow in the next couple of years, they might be.

Very well thought out method of pond maintenance. Well done. The standard for treating for chlorine and chloromines is simple. If you add 10 percent of your total pond volume you do not need to treat for chlorine. Always spray chlorinated water into the pond. Don't just drop the hose in. Spraying does two things. It dilutes the chlorinated water quickly and can gas off some chlorine if the ph is low enough and the city uses chlorine gas to treat. Doesn't work with chloramines or hypochlorite treated water. You can find out which is used from the city EPA report on line. The math is simple. Cities treat to between 1.2 and 1.8 ppm of chlorine typically. The water report will tell you how much. The threshold for chronic chlorine damage to fish is 0.245 ppm in 96 hours of exposure. If you dilute 1.2 at 10 percent that drops the concentration to 0.12 ppm which is below the threshold so you are safe. But spray don't dump. Your most expensive fish will swim up to the hose and breathe the chlorinated water directly from the hose and die. Happened to me. And remember to turn the hose off. 35% of all fish deaths are caused by the owner forgetting to turn off the water.

 

[carolinaguy]

By the way, the trickle method is really smart. And chloramines in low dosages, according to aquaculture literature, is good for fish because it suppresses pathogenic bacterial populations. Not everyone agrees but if you are below the chronic exposure level, it makes sense.

 

[qclabrat]

well I started digging my pond this week and starting to plan for the start up
what are the folks here thoughts on starting some plants in a container and trying to start up the biosystem with some ammonia introduced into the whiskey containers? I do a lot of gardening but water plants have been oddly unsuccessful to me in the past, so much help needed here

Also where are good places to find plants? online or stay local
Plants to recommend for a beginner in the zone 6 climate?

 

[Meyer Jordan]

The primary iofilter for the pond should be in place with water flow before any ammonia-dosing is done.

 

[Faebinder]

I don't know where you are at to recommend plants but usually large plant nurseries got water plants you can use. I look up my plants and buy them online.

Are you trying to add plants to a margin or a bog? The inches of water above the crown matter. E.G. Creeping Jenny wont work in a margin cause it cant tolerate water over the crown (experienced the hard way) but it grows nicely in a bog when the crown is above water level and the roots are soaking in the water.

In a margin, you can place yellow flag irises, cattails and maybe obedient plants or lizard tails.

You should build a bog for your pond, so you don't have to worry about nitrates/ammonia/phosphates and do water changes constantly. The fish will be healthier and you wont an algae issue. Bogs are not hard to make.

Until you set up a good bog, place some floating water hyacinths, water lettuce and floating parrot's feathers. It will help reduce the nutrients. Assuming your koi don't eat them.

 

[qclabrat]

I don't know where you are at to recommend plants but usually large plant nurseries got water plants you can use. I look up my plants and buy them online.

Are you trying to add plants to a margin or a bog? The inches of water above the crown matter. E.G. Creeping Jenny wont work in a margin cause it cant tolerate water over the crown (experienced the hard way) but it grows nicely in a bog when the crown is above water level and the roots are soaking in the water.

In a margin, you can place yellow flag irises, cattails and maybe obedient plants or lizard tails.

You should build a bog for your pond, so you don't have to worry about nitrates/ammonia/phosphates and do water changes constantly. The fish will be healthier and you wont an algae issue. Bogs are not hard to make.

Until you set up a good bog, place some floating water hyacinths, water lettuce and floating parrot's feathers. It will help reduce the nutrients. Assuming your koi don't eat them.

for now, let's say both

what size should the bog be in relation to the pond?
can just add a bog to my waterfall feature?

also margin plants should I have them in pots and which varieties do not require winterizing?

 

[qclabrat]

any reason this this isn't a good bog design?
considering placing this between the pond and deck
the bog will only be about 8 inches above the pond surface so as to not obstruct the view

 

[Mmathis]

There is a bog-to-pond ratio......something like 30% of the surface area of the pond.

 

[qclabrat]

my fish are still in the garage, and the water temp is currently 54 degrees
I'm hoping to finish my pond in 3 weeks and begin cycling the bog filter
when do I know the pond is ready for fish?
is there a minimum time I'll need to wait?

Just trying to calculate time vs water temps
at some point the fish are going to want to eat and I'd rather them start when in the pond
is it possible to believe it can be ready in 5 weeks?
if not, I'll need to accelerate the pond build

starting to become Mr Anxious

 

[qclabrat]

i forgot to mention that I will getting some water from a neighbor who has a koi pond
Hopefully that will get the bacteria started faster

 

[Faebinder]

That looks like a bog to me. Not sure your bog surface area to the pond surface area ration but yeah many suggest one third.

If you are planting in those you can plant all sorta things. See the bog thread for plant choice. If this was my bog I'd plant: yellow flag irises, obedient plants, cardinals, and pitcher plants. Maybe a creeping jenny to fall over the waterfall as it grows.

Really your list is very big.

 

[sissy]

Oh I love that filter .The filters never have to be deep

 

[Mmathis]

-- My iPad [external] keyboard is acting up and is not allowing me to copy or cut & paste.....so having to rely on memory to quote posts. Grrrrrr!! --

@qclabrat Are you planning to do a "fishless" cycle, using ammonia? Otherwise, as @Meyer Jordan mentioned in an earlier post, you DO have to have fish actually in the pond in order to get the pond cycling started. It's the ammonia produced by the fish that feeds the bacteria. You just have to take it slowly and add fish gradually. Do water tests to know how/when things are progressing. Also, I wouldn't add water from another pond as it's not necessary. The bacteria are going to find your pond -- the bacteria aren't so much in the water anyway, since they colonize on static material within the pond (such as filter media, or gravel, in the case of a bog). Again, I think the pond to bog ratio is around 30%, (or 1/3 as someone else mentioned). But since you have koi (and most of us here with bogs have primarily goldfish....), I don't know if that ratio needs to be higher -- koi produce a lot more waste than GF do.

And, if that picture is an example of what your bog will look like.....that's an awesome design!

 

[qclabrat]

-- My iPad [external] keyboard is acting up and is not allowing me to copy or cut & paste.....so having to rely on memory to quote posts. Grrrrrr!! --

@qclabrat Are you planning to do a "fishless" cycle, using ammonia? Otherwise, as @Meyer Jordan mentioned in an earlier post, you DO have to have fish actually in the pond in order to get the pond cycling started. It's the ammonia produced by the fish that feeds the bacteria. You just have to take it slowly and add fish gradually. Do water tests to know how/when things are progressing. Also, I wouldn't add water from another pond as it's not necessary. The bacteria are going to find your pond -- the bacteria aren't so much in the water anyway, since they colonize on static material within the pond (such as filter media, or gravel, in the case of a bog). Again, I think the pond to bog ratio is around 30%, (or 1/3 as someone else mentioned). But since you have koi (and most of us here with bogs have primarily goldfish....), I don't know if that ratio needs to be higher -- koi produce a lot more waste than GF do.

And, if that picture is an example of what your bog will look like.....that's an awesome design!

not that nice as an end project, but can always aspire
I actually don't have koi, only 10 GF and shubbies

How long should I wait after starting the pond can I begin introducing fish?
I am thinking to add 2 fish every 2-3 days after when the water is considered ready for fish