New house with a pond !!!

[koiguy1969]

thats definately a little bit of a mess...looks like your water is loaded with particulants and tannins... is there fish in the pond now?
does the upper pond hold water?
can you give a picture of the inside of the upper pond? i think you could set that up as skippy filter!!
i would totally clean out that filter...NO DETERGENT hose it out real good wet vac if you have one..with the media removed of course!! clean the media in a bucket of pond water!!

 

[DrCase]

Wow that pond needs some attn..... But Will end up a nice pond.
In the first pic i can see a plant growing out of what looks like the bottom of the pond...how thick is the muck layer down there?
The landry basket can go under the filter return to the pond ,or the water fall return ,i would try the water fall return just to give it more filter.
If the muck on the bottom is a few inches thick like it looks,,,I would get out my shop vac and slowly suck it right off the bottom,,,it will take time but you got to get that out before your going to get any were...If you have a real pond vac even better....
On the filter get a 5 gal bucket of your best pond water and wash it out good...
It will get worse before it gets better

 

[koiguy1969]

how many fish are in the pond?

 

[DrCase]

The swede has about 10 Koi

 

[koiguy1969]

what do you think doc.. is that upper basin lookin like a candidate for a skippy filter? how i mised the fish number in the first post?

 

[swede1976]

Hi all,

right this is what i have done minus the laundry basket, as i have got to buy
some pillows. i did try and clear it out with a net, but hey guess what ?.......its got rocks in the bottom of it! what i have done is, clean out thr filter on the right, and got another pump and run it up to the top pond, and filtering it before it goes in.
let me know if this is ok. the fish are looking a lot more lively now !!View attachment 997

as you can see a fish in the top right of the pond!!! lets see how it goes. can i add anything to the water to help it out ?

thanks

 

[koiguy1969]

alright the upper pool holds water...time to turn it into a biofilter. check out the 55 gal bio filters and the 70 gallon skippy filter threads for instructions when its done fill rhe top with floating plants.. hang your laundry basket or milk crate full of fiber fill or batting.(dont wait on this) and your gonna see some maked improvement..but the rocks on the bottom gotta go.your gonna have a heck of a time obtaining pristine water conditions with them there.

 

[swede1976]

thanks for this koiguy,
really appreciate all this help.

 

[koiguy1969]

your welcome... all that stuff your fish are stirring up is fish poop and decaying organic matter of all sorts. the rocks hold the debris there between them and under them,this releases toxins into the water, not at all good for the fish. youve got some work to do, but it is managable, i wish you luck!!
OH!! if you are gonna do partial water changes, gently stir up some of the muck near the pump your using to drain it so it can be sucked up and pumped out, you may get rid of quite a bit that way.just a thought! you could move the pump around while doing it.

 

[swede1976]

could you recommend a pod vacum and would it help ?

thank

 

[koiguy1969]

i think the rocks on the bottom may pretty much render a vaccuum useless. an inexpensive one is the mucvac its powered by your garden hose. and the head is removable so you might be able to get between some of the rocks.
p.s it does displace water from the pond.. which in your case is good..you get a partial water change to boot!!

 

[stroppy]

this maybe a silly idea but could you put the fish in the upper pond so you could then get the rocks and muck out without the muck maybe harming the fish ..if you just put the little pump in there and keep the filter going ?

 

[swede1976]

i think a vac will be a good idea, hopefully if will get rid of the most of it, the problem is and the crap is permantly floating in the water, so a partial water change would not hurt either. As for putting them in the top pond i dont think it will work at least 4 of the fish ar nearly 12" long almost 30cm.
think it will be to over crowded. i really want to get stuck in sorting this out, i really dont know where to start first. :banghead3:
They do seem a bit happier now there is water flowing.

 

[stroppy]

maybe they are a bit to large to go in there ...was just an idea :icon_smile:

 

[swede1976]

would have been a great solution !!
really need to get going with all this work.
feels like its going to take eternity, and the worst bit is i dont know the first thing about keeping fish !
:icon_smile: