New Pond owner here

[studiovette]

I recently moved to NJ and inherited a very nice inground pond in the back yard. Aprox size is 800 gal. It has a beautiful waterfall feature and hoping my son and I enjoy the hobby together. With the nice weather finally here I decided to sit in on a couple seminars that were done at a local shop to get some basic info. Looking fwd to learning more on here from you guys & gals as this shop is SO overpriced! I was going to have them do the initial 1st time clean out and assesment and was quoted over $1500!!! So that's where I decided to do it myself
My pond is about 8 years old and has an external 1/3 pump, skimmer box with pump and canister filter. I also have a 57 watt Aqua UV.
I just did a total cleanout as my water was murky brown with a lot of dead plant life and 4 dead fish that had to be dead for quite a long time. WHAT A MESS!! Found a tone of roots and soot at the bottom that I removed. When I got to the bottom I used a shop vac as recommended by some pros. The entire bottom is now pristine and spotless. I filled it up yesterday and added aquascapes 3 LED light kit. Already prewired and easy to install and hide the wiring. Before I run it I have to fix some piping that broke due to non winterizing. I also had a broken UV bulb and sleeve which I ordered replacements. I am hoping I do not have any problems with my main external pump or any waterfall leaks as I hear these can be challenging to find and fix.
So here is where I would like some help and feedback. I want to add some fish over the next few weeks or. What do I need to do before that to get my pond ready? I know I need to add some bene bacteria. What else is recommended? Also any other advice on starting up would be appreciated. I probably missed a few things.

Thanks and glad to be here
Pete

 

[dakamp84]

Welcome to the Forum!

First you need to look at the water quality. Did you use tap water, well, or other source? Reason is, tap water contains many things that can be harmful to your pond and life in it (Chlorine, metals, etc). Well will be better but may still need treatment. There are many types of water treatments out there and you can even let the water run for a few weeks and let nature clear the bad stuff.

Second, you need to get your water tested. Some local shops can do it for you (for a small fee) or you can purchase a kit yourself. Either way you will need to know what to do with the reading you get. Just search this forum as it has full explanation on what each item is (way to much to cover in this response). Example - Koi are not happy when pH swings occur in your pond. Although these are inevitable, they do not like large swings in the pH. Say 6.8 in the morning and 7.8 in the evening; this can begin to cause problems.

If your waterfall does not work, you might want to consider an aerator depending on what you put into it.

Once everything looks good, you can start adding some life to your pond.

Feel free to ask questions and all of us can do what we can to help you.

 

[studiovette]

Thanks for your response. I did use good 'ol tap water, but I bought some pond detox so hopefully that eliminates most of the junk in the water. I will also buy a water test kit and make sure to ask a lot of questions

 

[Mmathis]

Welcome!

 

[sissy]

welcome and I was a NJ person but retired to VA .The only problem I ever with that kind of place is they want too sell you everything under the sun and all they want is to get you hooked where every year they get more .Here we are cheapo's but we have healthy ponds and we don't sell you on anything we are just here to help .Not saying that we all don't spend money on our ponds but we have limits and we want healthy not chemicals

 

[addy1]

glad you joined

Best thing to do is go slow about adding fish. Add some then test the water before you add more, check your ammonia etc.

 

[capewind]

Welcome! I am still choking that someone wanted to charge you that kind of money to look it over and a spring clean. Standard labor rate HERE is $45-60 hr. Your pond would have had to have been a broken, leaking mess needing a lot of parts to get near that kind of money, especially with only 800 gallons ... yikes! Glad you didnt go for that!

Anyways, looks like everyone else already covered the basics, except for fish type. An 800 gallon pond can be really beautiful, but not realistically large enough for koi, unless you want to get crazy with the filtration, so while you wait, check out some of the various goldfish breeds. You have some neat fishy options.

 

[studiovette]

Welcome! I am still choking that someone wanted to charge you that kind of money to look it over and a spring clean. Standard labor rate HERE is $45-60 hr. Your pond would have had to have been a broken, leaking mess needing a lot of parts to get near that kind of money, especially with only 800 gallons ... yikes! Glad you didnt go for that! Anyways, looks like everyone else already covered the basics, except for fish type. An 800 gallon pond can be really beautiful, but not realistically large enough for koi, unless you want to get crazy with the filtration, so while you wait, check out some of the various goldfish breeds. You have some neat fishy options.

Yea highway robbery for sure! Luckily I called a few other places that gave me more realistic pricing between $300-500 but still decided to do it alone and save that money for any upgrades and fish. It took me 4 hours to drain and clean it.
So about the fish. What other options do I have besides koi and goldfish? Also I noticed when we moved in that I would catch some frogs jumping around and hiding. Will they naturally come back? what about turtles? Or will they cause problems?

 

[addy1]

Look at shubunkins, great colors, slower about breeding then goldfish, at least mine are.

Have water frogs will find it. Turtles, we only have land ones here. Pond ones are dirty in a pond.

 

[studiovette]

Look at shubunkins, great colors, slower about breeding then goldfish, at least mine are.

Have water frogs will find it. Turtles, we only have land ones here. Pond ones are dirty in a pond.

Just got home and noticed a frog at the bottom hangin out. Pretty cool. I guess he was hiding somewhere. I will check out shubunkins.
Thanks

 

[addy1]

These are some of my petsmart shubunkins, 2.20 a piece, love the price lol, they go outside real soon.......over wintered them in a tank

 

[studiovette]

Very nice!

 

[sissy]

you sure don't want koi ,no one told me 9 years ago these tiny koi would get over 2 feet long and be fussy about water quality .Live and learn but to late for me .They are here now .

 

[studiovette]

These are some of my petsmart shubunkins, 2.20 a piece, love the price lol, they go outside real soon.......over wintered them in a tank

I just stumbled across your amazing pond in a monster thread that seems to never end. 32 pages in I decided to take a break and then realized you had replied here. WOW pretty amazing accomplishment. Absolutely stunning!

 

[sissy]

I got mine in NC at a koi farm and some where a dollar because they were ugly ,never knew until then there were ugly fish .They then grew long tails and turns out some were butterfly and fancy tails .