So glad I found this forum. I'm writing on behalf of my mother, who had her wonderful backyard pond installed about 20 years ago. She now has about 70 goldfish that she loves. One of them is obviously sick, and I'm going to describe that in the appropriate place elsewhere in this forum.
Her pond is about 10 feet by 20 feet across, and about 3 feet deep. It also has three tiers of little waterfalls on one side, with a small, shallow pool at the top filled with net bags of lava rocks. She has an electric pump with a good filter wrapped around it, and her significant other thoroughly cleans the filter and pump every week. He cleans the lava rocks every year.
The pond is lined with sturdy rubber, and rimmed with stones and beautiful gardens. I'll have to upload some photos of it all another day.
Right now there are water lilies across about two thirds of the surface of the water. Occasionally there are frogs.
The water itself was originally city water supplied through a garden hose, and the proscribed amount of chlorine remover was put in. Since then it has been entirely changed once about five or six years ago, but is replenished only with rainwater, not city water. My father puts in the precise amount of anti-algae liquid every month, according to the size of the pond.
Mom began 20 years ago with 8 or 9 goldfish, and she now thinks she has about 70. (I don't think there are that many.) They have always been very healthy, losing only about one a year -- sometimes only because a heron comes along!
The fish eat TetraOPond Koi Vibrance right now, twice a day -- it's the summer variety of food. In the spring and fall they eat the same brand but one appropriate for those seasosn. When the water temp goes down to 50 degrees in the winter, they are not fed again until spring when the temp gets back up to 50.
Let me know if you'd like more information.
Her pond is about 10 feet by 20 feet across, and about 3 feet deep. It also has three tiers of little waterfalls on one side, with a small, shallow pool at the top filled with net bags of lava rocks. She has an electric pump with a good filter wrapped around it, and her significant other thoroughly cleans the filter and pump every week. He cleans the lava rocks every year.
The pond is lined with sturdy rubber, and rimmed with stones and beautiful gardens. I'll have to upload some photos of it all another day.
Right now there are water lilies across about two thirds of the surface of the water. Occasionally there are frogs.
The water itself was originally city water supplied through a garden hose, and the proscribed amount of chlorine remover was put in. Since then it has been entirely changed once about five or six years ago, but is replenished only with rainwater, not city water. My father puts in the precise amount of anti-algae liquid every month, according to the size of the pond.
Mom began 20 years ago with 8 or 9 goldfish, and she now thinks she has about 70. (I don't think there are that many.) They have always been very healthy, losing only about one a year -- sometimes only because a heron comes along!
The fish eat TetraOPond Koi Vibrance right now, twice a day -- it's the summer variety of food. In the spring and fall they eat the same brand but one appropriate for those seasosn. When the water temp goes down to 50 degrees in the winter, they are not fed again until spring when the temp gets back up to 50.
Let me know if you'd like more information.
