Hello all from eastern NC

[oneman1pond]

I just got this preformed pond from a buddy of mine. From what he said its approx 400 gallons. When I got it it was so green you couldn't see the fish.....straight nasty just to keep it real. Well to keep a li ng storie short I got it home and installed in a afternoon. Its in my front yard next to our porch. Morning sun and the afternoon gets part sun part shade, all shade at approx 4 give or take a little. I'm new to the pond community so I'm here to get educated. I have about 60 or so small golfish in there now just to establish the eco system. I originally wanted koi but decided to go with shubunkins I have not purchased yet instead. As I have been doing more and more research I have been increasingly getting worried about that pH levels, algae,ammonia levels and just the overall well being of my fish. Its still under construction and will be finished soon. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you to all.

 

[sissy]

welcome and not sure city water or well water as city water must be treated .Water will have to go in the pond and actually the green stuff as you say could contain good gunk to get the pond up and running faster and get a filter going faster .Have you ever been to reidsville NC as there is a koi farm there ,First is getting the filter set up and going for awhile .There are lots of ways to clean the pond water and quilt batting in a basket with the water running through it is the easiest and soaking quilt batting in peroxide will help keep fine algae cells captured so they do not have a chance to reproduce .

 

[j.w]

oneman1pond
Nice to have you here. Glad you decided to go w/ the smaller type fish as koi get so big they would out grow your pond in no time. Even w/ the smaller ones you might end up having to give away some of them as they grow or your ammonia,ph etc. levels will climb and you will always be trying to correct them to keep your fish from dying. Here is a general rule of how many fish per gallon of water: One 6" fish for every hundred gallons of water or 1" of fish per 10 gallons of water.

 

[sissy]

just notice the gravel in the bottom be careful because it is hard to clean fish waste from that .Ask any one who has a fish tank unless they have one of those under gravel bubbles they get mucky and black after awhile .You can't even tell you have rocks on the bottom .Looks good at first .