approx 900g pond build in RI (pics of course)

[Cilyjr]

what about a place for fish to hide when one of the many new england fishing birds come by? maybe a 5 gallon bucked cut in half with rock over it???

 

[taherrmann4]

I have both goldfish and 3 18" koi in my pond. The koi only eat my water lettuce, they leave my lillies alone but I feed them once everyday. To keep the koi from eating my water lettuce I made a koiguy floater planter ring, instructions in the diy section. This has worked out very well for me.

 

[taherrmann4]

what about a place for fish to hide when one of the many new england fishing birds come by? maybe a 5 gallon bucked cut in half with rock over it???

I have a clay strawberry pot in the bottom of my pond for the small fish to hide early in the season, but once all the lillies start growing half the pond is covered with them.

 

[addy1]

View attachment 6463


I stuck with goldies and shubunkins, my slant is more of a water garden, wanted to have plants without the fuss of protecting them from the fish.

Goldies and shubunkins can be beautiful. They are more forgiving then koi and don't poop as much. But koi get huge and pretty too.

You might want to make your plant shelf a little deeper if you can, that will help discourage the predatory birds, esp if you have herons. They like water down to around 18 inches to stand in to fish.

 

[koidaddy]

At that size and depth I would not do koi. They need room to swim and grom to be healthy. Atleast 3', 4-5' would be better. You can, and people do it all the time but Shubunkins would be a better choice.
I love you reef tank.

 

[sissy]

btw love the little dog in the hoodie....made me chuckle...maybe i will put a pic of my monsters too

you can ge one of those open crates cut holes in the end and to weight it down I use a length of abs pipe with caps for each end and rocks inside the pipe I then cut a round hole in the crate on each side and thread the abs pipe threw the holes holds it down and gives you a hand hold to pull it up .Or you can tie a plastic rope to each side to pull it up . Thats my hit dog Pee Wee and he has a big bro. called King Arthur who is a pit bull .And then they both have back up from the great dane Herschel LOL

 

[blessedfamily]

Welcome can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[Cilyjr]

ok so it looks like shubunkins are the way to go! stocking wise what is the right amount of fish for a pond of this size?

and lets talk filtration a bit. in the reef system most of the denitirfying bacteria lives in the rock and most of the filtration is done biologically now most fresh water tanks use mechanical filter with activated carbon and such for filtration. the waterfallbox came with a foam pad and a place for lava rock but i have a hard time figuring that such a small amount of lava rock can colonize enough bacteria to pull the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate to keep a healthy environment... could someone maybe give me a bit of a rundown of how the denitrafacation process works in ponds

 

[fishin4cars]

Same thing applies for ponds as any fish tank, Filter is best based on fish load, So the heavier the fish load the larger the filter Trick with ponds is larger area, more water, balancing how much fish load is a safe amount by watching the water parameters.

 

[addy1]

In the diy section there are a bunch of filters you can build that will work for your pond. They also go over the material put into the filters.
I use a bog, which in one big bio filter, gravel and plants, upflow.

Since you have tanks, I am sure you know once you have water, to add fish very very slowly. Like two to start and small ones. The pond, like a tank will need to cycle.

 

[Cilyjr]

ok. good info..will any freshwater test kit do? or are there special pond ones?

 

[Cilyjr]

also i went out with a tape and measured and i was a bit off on the guessing of the size. the hole is 11 feet by 8 feet and 30 inches deep. using a pond calculator i found online i think i am closer to 1100 gallons

 

[fishin4cars]

ok. good info..will any freshwater test kit do? or are there special pond ones?

Any fresh water test kit will work, get the drop type over the strip type test kit for better accuracy.

 

[Cilyjr]

i got a pallet of stone coming wed morning. though it wont help much as i don't get the liner until Thurs evening. i can do some of the stuff on the hill where i will be planting i suppose. also i need to get the electrical out there. that's easy except drilling through the base of the house

 

[Cilyjr]

i got left a present in my new unfinished pond....it seems Mr.Pants (real name: Chance) does not approve of the hole...no pictures of the present but heres the giver