Cycling my fish pond

[Meg]

were it mine, I'd add the water, add some plants, wait a couple days, do a couple water tests (to be sure your'e not an extreme ala pH) and then add. WHEN you do, do it VERY VERY slowly, like an hour or more. What I do is float the bag, opening it and adding a small amount of MY water to the bag. Then every 15 minutes/30 minutes, add more. You want to acclimate them by temperature, pH, general hardness, etc. Slowly allows them to adjust. Now, IF you're doing this with really cold temps, I'd hold off until the water is at least 50F. I've seen/heard of issues/loss of fish when lower temps are tried.

(and yeah, I know; others will say NEVER add the bag water to your pond; I like to live dangerously, I guess; never had an issue that way in decades of fish keeping).

So, make sure your water is okay THEN add the fish. Just a couple. Though, in a pond your size, you could easily add 6 fish under 10" no sweat.

Awesome thank you so so much!

 

[GBBUDD]

The brutal answer to all your questions is There in no ONE answer. The water differs all across the world. If your setting up your pond in the dead of winter bacteria will grow very slowly. Start in the dead of summer and depending where you are the bacteria can thrive or it may even be too hot a cook it in waters that are too warm.

My filter will be attached to a 90cm long waterfall, will that be okay through the cycle as it’ll aerate the water? If i threw 500 gallons per hour over a fall it doesn't do a lot for a big pond. Throw 10,000 gph over the same fall and you will add lots of air exchange to your pond both in and out.

How long do I cycle for before I can add my fish? Are you talking about 2 gold fish or two 30 inch koi. i saw your thinking full monty with sturgeon. but again how big is the pond how many gallons. you better be talking 10000 if doing multiple sturgeon and koi and a heck of a filter you have not made one reference as to a bog nexus or bead sand filter....

I have well water through my pipes and taps so should I add something to get rid of the chlorine and all that or does it settle on its own? As mentioned there is no chlorine in well water unless you added it with a softening system

When can I start adding plants. At the beginning of the cycle or after it’s ready for fish? You can add plants right away but some do better then others as the waste builds up in the water and gravel the more the plants will thrive.

Any tips or knowledge I need to know? Don't make the biggest mistake and design your pond and system without putting it to paper and post it here. most of the time we get i built this and it's not working what am i doing wrong and usually the list is extensive

 

[teckpham]

Here is my experience as I added fishes to the new pond last month:

I did have a little bit of rain water in it at the start (5%), but once I filled it up, some fished went right way. I think our water supply is really good already.

When I added the first group of fishes, ammonia was introduced into the system. I had planktonic algae bloomed (pea soup/green water) pretty much the next day. It stayed for about 2 weeks until the bacteria in my bog started to catch up and out compete the planktonic algae. The water cleared up again.

At this stage, my floating plant is starving for nutrients (turning yellow). I added another big group of fishes to it. The planktonic algae bloomed again and it took another 2 weeks for the water to cleared up again.

I think that I am still low on the BIO load, as I don't have much algae growing on the liner yet and my plant have only improved by a bit.

 

[CometKeith]

All good advice above. Just remember to take things slow. A brand new pond takes a long time to cycle. I didn’t see if you had filter media to hold beneficial bacteria. That’s an important component if you want to properly cycle a pond. If your filter is only mechanical it won’t have a place to store the beneficial bacteria that needs to break down harmful fish waste.

 

[addy1]

The fish can adapt, unless you have extremes, like the Boss did with acidic pH of 5!

Our well water is also so soft it barely reads on the tests. Between the ph and softness the fish did not have a chance.

I did not test before adding the 10 tiny fish to my big pond. Within a hour all were floating I felt horrible, then had to figure out why this drinkable well water would kill fish.

 

[Meg]

Our well water is also so soft it barely reads on the tests. Between the ph and softness the fish did not have a chance.

I did not test before adding the 10 tiny fish to my big pond. Within a hour all were floating I felt horrible, then had to figure out why this drinkable well water would kill fish.

Did you figure it out?

 

[WaterGardener]

Our pond has a bottom drain. Personally I wouldn't want to have a pond without one. It takes care off all the junk on the bottom of the pond so I don't have to spend all my time trying to clean it all out. Since it would seem that you are building a larger sized pond, I would highly recommend one, maybe more than one, depending on the size of the pond.

The bottom drain we have is also aerated and helps to agitate the surface and add oxygen, and it helps to direct debris to the drain.

As you can already see, there is no right or wrong way to build a pond. You have to choose what suits and works best for you and your situation.

 

[addy1]

Did you figure it out?

yes about 10ish years ago. After all the fish died I got a good test kit and started testing. I don't test anymore all is stable.

 

[Souper09]

Welcome to the forum!

With well water you most likely, do not have chlorine unless you add it. Check the ph, ours is very acidic and I killed off the first fish I put in. Our well is a ph of 5.3.

Run you filter and waterfall, add plants all will help cycle the waters.9

Hello everyone I’ve been doing my research a lot recently and I’m going to be setting up a big pond for sturgeon and koi.
It’s going to be dug out in the next few weeks and set up ready to cycle for a few months.
My questions are:

Do I need my filter to cycle it?

My filter will be attached to a 90cm long waterfall, will that be okay through the cycle as it’ll aerate the water?

How long do I cycle for before I can add my fish?

I have well water through my pipes and taps so should I add something to get rid of the chlorine and all that or does it settle on its own?

When can I start adding plants. At the beginning of the cycle or after it’s ready for fish?

Any tips or knowledge I need to know?

Thanks everyone!

Welcome to the forum, there’s a lot of knowledge in this group, best advice was to put in some sacrificial gold fish/comets in the pond, just in case. I ran my pond for about two weeks before introduction of koi. There were no deaths in the family. I run my pond all year long even in the winter last night it was 10 degrees or -11 depending on what you use. I have a small heater to keep the water flowing near the pump intake.

 

[brokensword]

Our pond has a bottom drain. Personally I wouldn't want to have a pond without one. It takes care off all the junk on the bottom of the pond so I don't have to spend all my time trying to clean it all out. Since it would seem that you are building a larger sized pond, I would highly recommend one, maybe more than one, depending on the size of the pond.

The bottom drain we have is also aerated and helps to agitate the surface and add oxygen, and it helps to direct debris to the drain.

As you can already see, there is no right or wrong way to build a pond. You have to choose what suits and works best for you and your situation.

oh, by all means; if you're going with bottom drains, for anything above small, more drains is necessary. I think if you have an overload of fish, debris, feeding habits, bottom drains can definitely help. i try to not do any of those, except for the first, and I'm gonna break that rule with a vengeance of success. Heh, famous last words...

 

[combatwombat]

Welcome @Meg. Looks like you've received a lot of good advice. I'm excited to see your pond. Sturgeon can get really big!

 

[Meg]

Welcome @Meg. Looks like you've received a lot of good advice. I'm excited to see your pond. Sturgeon can get really big!

I was thinking about maybe getting a sterlet instead? What do you think about them with their size? Do they get as big as sturgeon?

 

[combatwombat]

I was thinking about maybe getting a sterlet instead? What do you think about them with their size? Do they get as big as sturgeon?

Afraid I don't know anything about Sterlets. I just remember going sturgeon fishing with my dad when I was a kid and the fish we caught were twice as big as me.

 

[yorkshire pudding]

I was thinking about maybe getting a sterlet instead? What do you think about them with their size? Do they get as big as sturgeon?

hi @Meg i think you will be better suited getting a sterlet to begin with they do stay smaller than sturgeon and theres nothing to stop you getting a sturgeon in the future,Can i ask why you want a sturgeon ? i got mine because i love the way they look prehistoric jurassic park type fish, My pond is roughly the same the same size as yours and in 2 years my diamond back had outgrown the pond so he went to live in a lake not far from me(not dumped but a managed fishery) and i was very sad to see him go. i will admit though idont miss going out in winter snow and ice to feed him at 10pm at night .

 

[brokensword]

hi @Meg i think you will be better suited getting a sterlet to begin with they do stay smaller than sturgeon and theres nothing to stop you getting a sturgeon in the future,Can i ask why you want a sturgeon ? i got mine because i love the way they look prehistoric jurassic park type fish, My pond is roughly the same the same size as yours and in 2 years my diamond back had outgrown the pond so he went to live in a lake not far from me(not dumped but a managed fishery) and i was very sad to see him go. i will admit though idont miss going out in winter snow and ice to feed him at 10pm at night .

yeah, I kind of echo the 'why'? I'd start with something small and easy, just to get accustomed to whatever issues might need attention. Seems a sturgeon or sterlet is more for experienced ponders and definitely more specialized!