New 35 gallon newbie pond

[Zkj12]

Looking for suggestions. Like plants and things like that. Has 2 feeder goldfish. Started with 5. Pond is 4 days old. Thank you.

 

[sissy]

not sure where you live but water hyacinth or water lettuce would work

 

[Zkj12]

not sure where you live but water hyacinth or water lettuce would work

I live in NE Florida. I was thinking lily pads but I want to get the small half dollar sized ones but don't know where to get them. I will have to check into the plants you mentioned.

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

@Zkj12 I would definitely not put more than 2 goldfish in a 35 gallon pond. Two is already less than 20 gallons per fish and you're gonna have to work a lot harder to keep the water parameters in check until you get it balanced.

 

[EricV]

I bought three of those ponds when Menards was closing them out for $15 each. They are really nice as quarantine tanks, etc. I agree, though, 2-3 goldfish is plenty as they start to grow. And if the setup was brand new, there was no biological filter established.

 

[trailsnale]

i have a similar setup to yours. it's about 3 years old now. 3 feeders and a frog from somewhere (he's near the bottom of the light). last year i bought a lily (texas dawn?). it stays small due to the fact the pond receives little direct sun. but, it's certainly a highlight when we get a bloom or two. highly recco the lily-route. i think for those of us with small 'ponds,' less is more.

 

[Zkj12]

@Zkj12 I would definitely not put more than 2 goldfish in a 35 gallon pond. Two is already less than 20 gallons per fish and you're gonna have to work a lot harder to keep the water parameters in check until you get it balanced.

I have a 29 gal tank and only have 2 goldfish in it and that's all I can really fit in it. I bought 5 fish at first because I knew that some would die. When I came home from work I found a frog that seems to be moving in. I don't mind as long as he leaves the little fish alone. How big do feeders get?

 

[Zkj12]

i have a similar setup to yours. it's about 3 years old now. 3 feeders and a frog from somewhere (he's near the bottom of the light). last year i bought a lily (texas dawn?). it stays small due to the fact the pond receives little direct sun. but, it's certainly a highlight when we get a bloom or two. highly recco the lily-route. i think for those of us with small 'ponds,' less is more.




View attachment 110870

Nice pond. Yeah I'm leaning more to Lillies. do you have to do a lot of maintenance to yours?

 

[trailsnale]

Nice pond. Yeah I'm leaning more to Lillies. do you have to do a lot of maintenance to yours?

not really. spring cleanout of 'gunk.' clean filters about every other month during the summer. and i'm pretty good about keeping dead lily pads trimmed/etc. as i see them.

best thing i did was to add a small heater. keep it in the pond year round, but it operates only when water temps fall below 50.

i'd suggest not overfeeding first few weeks, as others have suggested, until your tank gets cycled. a few flakes once a day. my .02

good luck!

 

[Jhn]

Try looking for water snowflake, if you want small half dollar size pads put up. Pretty easy to control as well.

Texas dawn while very pretty if given enough sun will completely cover a 35 gallon pond in short order. You can always just trim pads back to thin it out, though.

 

[Zkj12]

I was thinking about transplanting some moss from my backyard and outing it around the edge of the pond but I don't know if there's too much sunlight there. It has morning and mid afternoon shade. Only direct sunlight is 11 thru 3.

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

I have a 29 gal tank and only have 2 goldfish in it and that's all I can really fit in it. I bought 5 fish at first because I knew that some would die. When I came home from work I found a frog that seems to be moving in. I don't mind as long as he leaves the little fish alone. How big do feeders get?

"feeder goldfish" are usually common or comet goldfish and can get up to 12-14 inches in length given the proper conditions (water quality, size of enclosure, stocking ratio (ie. fish per gallon), etc.) I have some that are several years old that are only about 4-5 inches long because they lived in a regrettably overstocked aquarium for the first few years of their lives. On the other hand I have others that I've had for about a year and they are already 6 inches long and will likely get much bigger. My biggest ones have been pond raised their whole lives and are easily 8-9 inches in length and could reach max size in the next year or so.

 

[j.w]

@Zkj12
Since you live in Florida you could put in some pretty tropical fish that would be hardy outdoors there if the goldfish get too large. Some I've heard that do nicely outdoors in warm climates are Mollies. There are pretty colors of them that would show up nice in an outdoor container.

 

[sissy]

fairy moss in the pond or plant snow in winter around the pond .Snow in winter will bloom year round for you .I have moss growing on my property but it gets shade all the time