My goldfish pond

[j.w]

So the other night I heard a car alarm in the middle of the night (2:30 AM) and I woke up and looked outside to investigate. I saw that the pipe to my bog was spitting out water in all directions! I’m guessing the water hit one of our garage windows and that set of the car alarm! I went outside and unplugged the bog pump. The next day I had to refill the pond because it lost about 6” of water and I cleaned the bog standpipe of mulch by reconnecting the pipe and running the pump... which I had been planning to do for a while … This is a cautionary tale not to let your sludge build up in your bog pvc pipe! Luckily my car alarm let me know I was losing water

So good you got that warning as that could have been a much worse problem. Glad you have that clean out pipe. Guess you will be cleaning out on a regular basis in the future. I wonder how long between clean outs is good?

 

[CometKeith]

Thank goodness you caught that in time!

Yes. Amazing that a car alarm in the middle of the night would alert me to the problem. We are going out of town next week and that could have been a huge problem if it happened when we were gone.

 

[CometKeith]

So good you got that warning as that could have been a much worse problem. Glad you have that clean out pipe. Guess you will be cleaning out on a regular basis in the future. I wonder how long between clean outs is good?

Definitely! I had just told our downstairs tenant that I still needed to clean out the standpipe. Last fall I bought a wrench that would help me take the cap off but it was hard to take it off so I never did it. Honestly it was much easier taking the cap off with the water in the bog lower so I could see what I was doing, I think I have been cleaning the standpipe every year or so but will try to do it every 6 months in the future!

 

[CometKeith]

Night time photo so you can’t see much but it actually got down to 81 degrees tonight So I could sit outside. So cool and comfortable compared to what we have been having. All my fish are doing well. Thinned out the bog again about a week ago to remove all the plants hanging into the main part of the pond to give my fish a little more space. Also added another pump for the waterfall a few weeks ago to get some more splashing And dissolved O2 hopefully. All the fish are growing and it looks like there are quite a few goldfish babies that are very colorful. No Koi babies as far as I can tell!

 

[CometKeith]

Hey @CometKeith glad things are improving and what is that plant in the front that is sprawling across the water? I like it!

Hi JW I actually just saw your question. I’m pretty sure it’s an obedience plant. They have little purple flowers but you really have to watch them like most plants because they spread pretty easily. So they branch out in all directions so the idea is you cut whatever stem you want to stop it from growing in that direction and the plant goes the way you want so they are “ obedient” lol

 

[j.w]

Thanks @CometKeith !

 

[Tula]

Your pond looks lovely and I'm glad you were able to sit outside and enjoy it

 

[CometKeith]

Just took this pic. This year is probably the most uneventful year ever for my pond. The Koi are growing, the goldfish had some pretty babies, and the plants are growing a lot!

 

[Tula]

Keith, Wow, it looks great ! Your plants have have really grown. My floating plant baskets have really taken off too......unfortunately they allow lots of koi fry to survive....which is a problem in our pond......so guess there will be a great koi round up of 2022 next month !

 

[CometKeith]

Keith, Wow, it looks great ! Your plants have have really grown. My floating plant baskets have really taken off too......unfortunately they allow lots of koi fry to survive....which is a problem in our pond......so guess there will be a great koi round up of 2022 next month !

Hi Tula. Thanks! Good luck with all your babies! I have cut down the plants so many times this year already otherwise they would have taken over my yard. I guess you can thank the “tropical” weather we have been having this year in Chicago! Here are a few fish pics. I guess they have grown quite a bit too!

 

[cas]

Your pond looks beautiful. How large are your koi now?

 

[YShahar]

Looks great! Those are some really beautiful koi!

 

[CometKeith]

Your pond looks beautiful. How large are your koi now?

Thanks. I’m guessing they are all between 1-2 feet now. My 3 largest were purchased when they were 12-14 inches and they are the ones closing in on 2 ft. The largest Showa and the Shiro Utsuri were jumbo tsoi when I got them and the third largest is a longfin Sanke. The others were all 5-7 inches when I got them. I’m surprised how much some of these are growing!

 

[CometKeith]

Looks great! Those are some really beautiful koi!

Thanks. Most of them were purchased for under $100 and were very small when I got them. They are all Japanese Koi that I bought online from either California or Hawaii!

 

[CometKeith]

I haven’t been on much lately but here is a little update on my pond. My external pump for my bead filter broke about a month ago. It took me almost a week to diagnose the problem and determine it needed replacing. The new pump took almost two weeks to get. Fortunately my fish all did okay because I’m guessing my bog filter still did a good enough job cycling the waste with the bead filter not working. I purchased a stronger pump with 2” outlets instead of 1.5” because I’m thinking of getting a larger bead filter next year and wanted something compatable with a larger bead filter (8000-10000 gallons). I did all the new pvc connections myself instead of asking a plumber friend to help me and everything came out good. My filter has a much stronger outlet flow now with the better pump. The water did get a little mirky with the pump and bead filter out but fortunately all the fish were okay. I did cut down the feeding because I no idea if the bog would be okay by itself. End of story the fish are doing well with the new setup and my water is looking cleaner with the new pump. Also I was recently interviewed by someone doing an article on people with backyard urban Koi ponds but don’t want to talk about it until it gets published! If it gets printed it will be very exciting Here are a few pics I took today. The first 3 pics the fish were going crazy because they wanted to get fed!

 

[Hound Heaven]

Just beautiful - inside and out

 

[Tula]

Wow, so cool you've been interviewed.....hope it's published

Good news on getting pump prob diagnosed and replaced and even better news the bog did such a good job.

You might not know that I recently decided to rehome our 4 adult koi.....I did a little thread on it. It was an emotional decision, but end of story, they are living with a koi breeder and once out of quarantine ( that pond is about twice the size of ours ) they will retire in his huge pond with some 30 + year old koi.

Your pics are beautiful, your koi are so colorful and growing !

 

[CometKeith]

Wow, so cool you've been interviewed.....hope it's published

Good news on getting pump prob diagnosed and replaced and even better news the bog did such a good job.

You might not know that I recently decided to rehome our 4 adult koi.....I did a little thread on it. It was an emotional decision, but end of story, they are living with a koi breeder and once out of quarantine ( that pond is about twice the size of ours ) they will retire in his huge pond with some 30 + year old koi.

Your pics are beautiful, your koi are so colorful and growing !

Hi Tula. Thank you. Sorry I hadn’t checked into GPF in a while and had no idea that you gave your fish away. I hope you are doing okay… oh and my opinion is when your grandchild gets a little older maybe you can share your love of ponds with her! Perhaps just stay away from Koi.… Do I need to be worried? I have 10 Koi and they seem to be growing a lot lately!

 

[CometKeith]

Just beautiful - inside and out

Thank you!

 

[addy1]

With the gf and koi fry hiding and growing you might need to worry.

… Do I need to be worried? I have 10 Koi and they seem to be growing a lot lately!

She had 1700 gallons and 4 always removed fry. I don't recall your gallons