Finished 4000 gal pond. Lots of questions...

[Tiger1]

I finally finished my dream pond. It's about 16x11, 4+ feet deep. I'm guessing around 4000 gal. I live in Tampa, Fl. Pond has been running for 6 weeks to cycle out all ammonia, chloramine, chlorine, as per my pond guy, without water treatment. It worked because yesterday I added a 6" goldfish rescued from the fair, 3 mollies, a few mosquito fish, and 2, 4 inch koi. Even a frog has made it his home. All look very happy. Koi are still a bit shy, but they still ate sinking flakes. My questions are.....what food to feed koi and when (seasonal), and small pellets? Koi pellets seem too big. How often and how much for water changes? How many koi can live happy in this size pond? How slowly should I stock? My filtration is 3000gph in the waterfall(skippy filter) and 2000gph in my water feature doubled as a DIY skippy filter. Lots of hyacinth and lillies. View attachment 59511

 

[JohnHuff]

Nice pond and welcome to the forum!
Food: They sell koi/goldfish food in different sizes. Feel free to mix and match brands and sizes. I've always used tiny pellets for my little guys up and large ones for the big guys.
Water change: Never had experience with such a big pond. I usually say 15-20% but that's a lot of water, so maybe some forumers with more experience will chime in. I do changes approximately once a week.
Number of koi: That depends on your filtration. You can stock more fish with better filtration. There are guidelines but they all say different things. One thing you haven't mentioned but you will need is a water test kit.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our group! Nice pond.
I let the rain do water changes in our pond, we are very rural. I use gutter water. Otherwise I don't change it. Our well water is very soft and acidic.

 

[sissy]

nice pond and glad you posted pics .WELCOME TO PONDING :cheerful:

 

[capewind]

Welcome, and nice job on the pond.

90% of the time, we dont do water changes either. Usually, only if there is a reason to.

As to how many fish you can have ... that depends on your system. As a general rule, with average filtration, allow 1000 gallons for the first Koi, 200-300 gallons for each additional koi, and 50 gallons per goldfish ... this is allowing for their adult size. Less fish, and it will be easier to keep your water conditions in pristine conditions. More fish, more work, more filtration ...

If you are anxious to have multi fish, buying little guys, 2-5" (mixed species, only a few being koi), I wouldnt hesitate to pick out 15 or so that you really like. At this size, they really are not going to impact the development of your pond in a negative way, but then I would wait a few months or longer before adding any more. WARNING, since you already have a frog in residence ... to an American Bullfrog, any fish under 6" is fair game for a snack IF the frog can catch them AND goldfish multiply faster than rabbits ...

ALSO ... since you are refrencing your pond guy, it leads me to believe you may not have a lot of pond experience ... Set up something, such as a tote or kiddie pool, to use as a quarantine area!!! You do NOT want to learn this lesson the hard way.

 

[Waterbug]

Waiting 6 weeks is really smart imo. Not so much for the chloramine, but just kind of evens out everything else, gets some algae growing.

The kinds of food that can be fed would take a book to cover. Some people never feed, most people feed a single type of food that is whatever they happen to run into. Many people stop feeding when water is under 50F, or in that neighborhood. Some people vary the type to a vegetable based food in fall and spring. Some people feed certain types of food at certain times to bring out certain colors. That's the ClifNotes. IMO there's no right or wrong method, only what you want and how far you want to get into it.

The only sure way to know how many fish your pond can support is by testing water. Things like filters saying something like "for 5000 gal ponds" is only a very general, kind of misleading, label. And it gets more confusing because it's not just the number of fish but the amount of food being fed. People who fed 12 times a day require much more filtering than people who feed once or twice on weekends. Same number of fish, different filter requirement. So testing water for things like ammonia is how you tell. When start seeing ammonia you know it's time to add more bio filtering or upgrade the type you have. Also the bacteria that convert the fish waste also consume carbonate which is measured by a KH test. So keeping up KH keeps the bacteria working. Plus that protects against pH crashing. If you measure and maintain KH you don't even have to bother with testing pH. You can Google "pH buffering" for more info if you like.

However, one of the best advances in pond imo is super simple and fixes all kinds of things. It has a few names and isn't commonly used yet, but I think it's the future. Called drip water change, or 24/7 water change, or whatever. Basically just a drip from a drip emitter like for drip irrigation or even just a hose left on. The other thing you need is a way for the pond to gracefully overflow. You never have to do a water change, people say they never have green water, can greatly reduce bio filtering or eliminate it completely, and fresh water like this has long been known to be the best possible thing for Koi and Goldfish. If the overflow water can be used in the yard instead of normal watering you get 2 uses out of the water so the 24/7 drip doesn't cost you anything. Can't beat it. I'm putting it into my next pond for sure.

Here's a video of a well known Koi keeper and vet explaining it. He has a bunch of other great videos for beginners. The drip concept is also used by some top Koi keepers.

 

[gardengimp]

Your pond is very nice.

And your frog is a cuban tree frog. You might want to read up on them and decide if you want to try to remove eggs from your pond.

 

[Fishylove]

This is a good site too. http://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/cuban_treefrog_inFL.shtml

WELCOME! :wave: At first, when I saw the froggy, I thought awwww you have a tree froggy in your pond!! Then I read the article :huh: Boy am I glad those little boogers can't live in my neck of the woods! We have green tree frogs but never find them swimming in the ponds. Probably because of the Bull Frogs I'm sure.
Very nice pond and welcome to ponding!

 

[Dave 54]

Welcome really love the pond it looks really nice .

rgrds

Dave

 

[Tiger1]

Thanks for all the advice so far. I'm really disappointed that Mr. Frog is a bad boy. I hope to find it and put it down. I did find frog eggs in the top teir of my waterfall. I collected all that I could and put in a small tank. They are very tiny tadpoles now. Are cuban tree frog tadpoles tiny, about the size of sugar ants? I will watch them develop and see.
I do have a plant question now....... When I started my pond, weeks 2-5 was green water. I added 20 water hyacinth and in about a week and a half, pond is crystal clear. I now have about 20 3-4" koi and gold fish. Mostly koi. Once my water cleared up, the hyacinth are starting to turn yellow and thin. Did they run out of nutrients. I have 1/2 floating in a miracle grow solution to see if it helps. I've also been reading of people adding Muriate of potash to the pond, but I can't see any clear directions on how much to add and how often. Does anyone know how to use this? And is it interchangeable with wood ash? Could I use it with the miracle grow soak?

 

[Fishylove]

I think maybe sissy or addy use hyacinths, and I remember something about one of them popping them into miracle grow once and a while. How long have the fish been in there? And do you have other plants in the pond also?

 

[dieselplower]

Check the roots of the hyacinth. They should be very long and full. A foot minimum. I've had them 2 feet long in a month or two. Throw them into the pond, fish eat them, plant looks like crap and dies.