New house, New Pond

[HickoryKoi]

I have to agree with everyone else...It takes a LONG time for all of that good bacteria to grow again...Your best bet is to just remove as much muck as possible and leave the rest alone...You have such a beautiful pond there and your fish are really nice too...If you clean it all out you will likely start to have algae overgrowth problems and who knows what else...It takes years to season a pond to the level of yours!

Thank you. This seems to be the way to go.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to the forum!

Agree with the above , don't empty and clean.

 

[cas]

Any good recommendations on a pond vac?

I have been very happy with my ‘Oase Pondovac' pond vacuum. I got mine online from Webbs pond supply.

 

[j.w]

I have been very happy with my ‘Oase Pondovac' pond vacuum. I got mine online from Webbs pond supply.

I've bought things from Webb's and they seem to have pretty good prices!

 

[GBBUDD]

Welcome to the forum.
Look at the size and health of your fish! koi are not the most durable od fish and are prone to have issues when water quality suffers.
So even though the ponds may not be spotless and have some build up i would do any changes GRADUALY. The muck is just that to us but in the nature world it is home to all sorts of creatures bacteria and microbes.

What type of filters do you have and pumps.

There are many a visitor to this site that would kill to have conditions as you have now as a final product. Net out the leaves , it appears you have some string algae but looks minimal just pull that out without squeezing it as when you do you will release spores into the water.

It appears you have a great start to your new hobby i would caution about any fast and drastic changes if you have two ponds the water flows through both then i'd look at doing a light cleaning to one, and see how the system does. and by light i'm with the masses here vac out the leaves and other material that can rot and cause issues . no pressure washers .

your wanting to feed the fish will probably the biggest downfall to the water quality

to replace those fish won't be cheap for that size and quality minimum of 800 for the gin rin kohaku

 

[HickoryKoi]

Welcome to the forum.
Look at the size and health of your fish! koi are not the most durable od fish and are prone to have issues when water quality suffers.
So even though the ponds may not be spotless and have some build up i would do any changes GRADUALY. The muck is just that to us but in the nature world it is home to all sorts of creatures bacteria and microbes.

What type of filters do you have and pumps.

There are many a visitor to this site that would kill to have conditions as you have now as a final product. Net out the leaves , it appears you have some string algae but looks minimal just pull that out without squeezing it as when you do you will release spores into the water.

It appears you have a great start to your new hobby i would caution about any fast and drastic changes if you have two ponds the water flows through both then i'd look at doing a light cleaning to one, and see how the system does. and by light i'm with the masses here vac out the leaves and other material that can rot and cause issues . no pressure washers .

your wanting to feed the fish will probably the biggest downfall to the water quality

to replace those fish won't be cheap for that size and quality minimum of 800 for the gin rin kohaku

Of course. We’ll at this point everything will definitely happen gradually. As the day we were supposed to move in a giant hickory tree fell on our home.

Feeding will not be the downfall. We switched them over to a high quality feed and they are definitely underfed. They get a handful of food once a day.

We’ll get I cleaned up. I have to run by the house today, will get some pictures of the other koi in the pond. Bigger than those guys and gals. Can’t really appreciate the colors because of the tannins but the fish don’t seem to mind.

 

[GBBUDD]

Switching to high protein feed may change the water parameters faster than you think .. Ask me how I know. Glad you asked I had switched from a local suppliers food to a Japanese color up food and that definitely changed things quick . Humans have the ability to eat bres
Breakfasts ,lunch and dinner. Wild life is not as lucky unless they have us to feed them . If you have a larger volume of water it's less an issue to feed often. Look at every medium size pelete as a hamburger 3 should suffice per day per fish . Increase filtering and feedings can increase as well without problems.
The feed your fish what they ca consume in 5 minutes is Waaaaaayyyyyy over feeding in my opinion. It might take me 5 minutes to feed the fish but that's because I'll trow one pellets at a time to certain fish.

 

[GBBUDD]

It's been a year for trees coming down . I had one as well just not on moving day . Well it appears minimal damage compared to what it could have been that size a tree could have cut all the way down to the floor.

 

[HickoryKoi]

It's been a year for trees coming down . I had one as well just not on moving day . Well it appears minimal damage compared to what it could have been that size a tree could have cut all the way down to the floor.

Yeah. It most certainly could have been worse Although it was a double trunk tree and one of the trunks came through the roof and the master bedroom wall and window. Floors are buckled due to weight of tree and having to bring in a structural engineer, hopefully it did not cause problems down to the foundation and we won't have to tear the back wall of the house off. But no one was hurt.

 

[HickoryKoi]

I've never had to tear down my pond to clean it and it is 18 years old. Granted, I have kept up on the muck removal, but you can gradually clean up your pond without a total tear down. And it will be a lot cheaper

Should I remove the fish when I start with the much removal? I don't want to have an issue with releasing a lot of hydrogen sulfide into the water and harming them.

 

[Mgessert]

Omg! I’m so sorry about your bad luck!

 

[GBBUDD]

Yeah. It most certainly could have been worse Although it was a double trunk tree and one of the trunks came through the roof and the master bedroom wall and window. Floors are buckled due to weight of tree and having to bring in a structural engineer, hopefully it did not cause problems down to the foundation and we won't have to tear the back wall of the house off. But no one was hurt.

ok looks can be deceiving you had it bad enough. What a pain and on a new home for you. chin up maybe you'll come out with a few bucks in your pocket. if you have any questions as to what they are telling you I was a General contractor for 25 years and still in the trades today. where are you....

 

[cas]

Should I remove the fish when I start with the much removal? I don't want to have an issue with releasing a lot of hydrogen sulfide into the water and harming them.

When I use the pond vac to remove the muck, there isn't too much dispersed in the water. In fact, my fish nose around right by the nozzle of the vac. I use to worry that they would get sucked up, but now they are big and strong enough they don't seemed phased by it.