New to ponds. Could use some advice.

[Deaztrailnutz]

Hello everyone. I recently nest up my 270 gallon above ground pond in my back yard and have no major emergencies at the current time, but could use a little advice from those more knowledgeable than myself. First, my pool is stocked with 7-2" comets and about 12 feeder guppies, all of which have been in the pool for about 3 weeks. My first question is about feeding in the fall and winter; I have read that I should stop feeding them when the water reaches 40 degrees. I live in the southeastern United States(climate region 7) where we often have day time highs in the low to mid 50s and over night lows in the low 30s during the winter. Should I stop feeding every time the temp reaches that threshold even if it is only for a few hours? Next question pertains to algae; I have green hair algae? Which I have been netting out on a daily basis with a pool skimmer. Will the gold fish and guppies eat this form of algae? I see the Goldie pick at it, but are they actually eating it or just investigating what it is? Would cherry shrimp or snails help eliminate the algae? Next, I have noticed several dragonflies around the pond in the afternoon. I have attempted to identify what species they are, but have had no luck so far. My fear of them is actually of their larva. I have seen videos of their nymphs eating small goldfish and what appears to be small live bearers. Should I worry, and is their anything I can do about them? Lastly, how often and what percentage of their the water should be replaced during routine water changes?

 

[Dave 54]

Set in motion a maintenance routine for your filter and pond do partial water changes every few months and basically you cant go wrong , next you will need to know what your water perameters are at any given time so go out and purchase an API pond drop test kit (dont buy the strip tests they are inaccurate.
Test your water on a weekly basis for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Ph this is vitally important and needs tto be done religously !!!!......
Buy a book on fish health so tht if you should start to have problems with any fish you can at least then treat your fish I recomend the following book :-
The Manual of Fish Health ISBN 0861013869. Dr Chris Andrews Adrian Exell, Dr Neville Carrington. read it it will tell you verythig you need to know on fish and fish health issues you can purchase it on Amazon US quite cheaply .
Remember goldfish if looked after propperly can live up to 40+ years , koi can live for 80+ years.
Sadly many people have the attitude that fish are a throw away commodity which they are not, we have been keeping koi now for 27 years and have two koi of that age (they may be a little older if you count the time when they were in the breeders hands ,
If you get stuck dont be affraid to ask questions even if you think them as being dumb weve all been where you are survived the learning curve and run clean and happy ponds.
If you buy ne fish to add to the pond you must always Quarentine them for two months so buy yourself a tank and filter unit which is to be used solely that purpose.
Never overfeed feed only what your fish will eat in five minutes , make sure your fish food is in a sealed container it keeps them fresh .
Last but not least do not over stock your pond with fish .
Do you have a pond air pump, if not go out and buy one (not an indoor one) and an airstone to help oxygenate your pond water.
During fall always ensure your pond is free of any leaves leading up to winter (you can net the pond to stop them falling in .
Happy fish keeping

Dave

 

[j.w]

Deaztrailnutz

 

[dieselplower]

Regarding feeding, I would stop feeding them when water temperature reaches 50 degrees. I reduce drastically at 55 degrees. It does not matter what the outside air temperature is because the fish are not out there.
No, I dont think snails and shrimp would make a dent in the algae. More will just grow.
Algae thrives on nutrients in the water like ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and phosphates. You can reduce the amount of these with less fish, less feeding, or better filtration, mechanical and biological.
The fish might eat it and they are also searching through it for bugs etc to eat as well.
I would not worry about the dragonflies, and would personally consider them a bonus

 

[Deaztrailnutz]

Set in motion a maintenance routine for your filter and pond do partial water changes every few months and basically you cant go wrong , next you will need to know what your water perameters are at any given time so go out and purchase an API pond drop test kit (dont buy the strip tests they are inaccurate.
Test your water on a weekly basis for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Ph this is vitally important and needs tto be done religously !!!!......
Buy a book on fish health so tht if you should start to have problems with any fish you can at least then treat your fish I recomend the following book :-
The Manual of Fish Health ISBN 0861013869. Dr Chris Andrews Adrian Exell, Dr Neville Carrington. read it it will tell you verythig you need to know on fish and fish health issues you can purchase it on Amazon US quite cheaply .
Remember goldfish if looked after propperly can live up to 40+ years , koi can live for 80+ years.
Sadly many people have the attitude that fish are a throw away commodity which they are not, we have been keeping koi now for 27 years and have two koi of that age (they may be a little older if you count the time when they were in the breeders hands ,
If you get stuck dont be affraid to ask questions even if you think them as being dumb weve all been where you are survived the learning curve and run clean and happy ponds.
If you buy ne fish to add to the pond you must always Quarentine them for two months so buy yourself a tank and filter unit which is to be used solely that purpose.
Never overfeed feed only what your fish will eat in five minutes , make sure your fish food is in a sealed container it keeps them fresh .
Last but not least do not over stock your pond with fish .
Do you have a pond air pump, if not go out and buy one (not an indoor one) and an airstone to help oxygenate your pond water.
During fall always ensure your pond is free of any leaves leading up to winter (you can net the pond to stop them falling in .
Happy fish keeping

Dave

Thanks for the advice Dave. I have two aquariums (a 55 gallon and a 56 gallon) and have kept aquariums for 20+ years, but this is my first pond. I am used to more frequent water changes than every few months my great aunt had a comet that lived for 18 years with little to no care. Once a week she would add some fresh well water to the pond and he seemed to love it. I have no air pump at the current time but do have double water falls. Perhaps I should add an aerator. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Deaztrailnutz]

Deaztrailnutz

Thanks. You have a nice looking pond in your yard!

 

[Deaztrailnutz]

Regarding feeding, I would stop feeding them when water temperature reaches 50 degrees. I reduce drastically at 55 degrees. It does not matter what the outside air temperature is because the fish are not out there.
No, I dont think snails and shrimp would make a dent in the algae. More will just grow.
Algae thrives on nutrients in the water like ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and phosphates. You can reduce the amount of these with less fish, less feeding, or better filtration, mechanical and biological.
The fish might eat it and they are also searching through it for bugs etc to eat as well.
I would not worry about the dragonflies, and would personally consider them a bonus

The fish are not out there? I was planning on leaving them outside this winter. Most people around here do the same. I'm guessing you bring yours in due to the extreme Michigan winters? As of now I consider the dragon flies a bonus as we'll, but I have an eye out for nymph

 

[Dave 54]

Thanks for the advice Dave. I have two aquariums (a 55 gallon and a 56 gallon) and have kept aquariums for 20+ years, but this is my first pond. I am used to more frequent water changes than every few months my great aunt had a comet that lived for 18 years with little to no care. Once a week she would add some fresh well water to the pond and he seemed to love it. I have no air pump at the current time but do have double water falls. Perhaps I should add an aerator. Thanks for the advice.

Deaztrailnutz,out of the 27 years weve been keeping koi for the first 22 years we kept our koi in a huge in door Aquarium before my disabilities forced a move outdoors to an easier form oof keeping koi hoever the tank they used to be in measured 6 x 2 x 2.5 and held a ton of weight in water which equals 220 gallons imperial .
It was a big learning curve for us and we had to unthink our way of keeping koi and rethink larger our pond being 1.000 gallons imperial, I wont hide it as it is a big learning curve to undergo but if you keep an eye on your water perameters you should be ok remembering that things take longer to do in a pond situation water parameter wise especially when you first start up you'll wait forevber for your ammonia and nitrite readings to spike (which went against everything we then knew) .
I've found that a good maintenance routine of pond and filters helps alott which is about the only thing I've taken over from our indoor days plus keepinging a good eye on our water perameters the rest had to be relearned

Dave

 

[dieselplower]

The fish are not out there? I was planning on leaving them outside this winter. Most people around here do the same. I'm guessing you bring yours in due to the extreme Michigan winters? As of now I consider the dragon flies a bonus as we'll, but I have an eye out for nymph

I meant fish are not out in the outside air temperature. Yes they are outside, but the only temperature they know is the water temperature. I leave my fish outside all year.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

For clarification... The water temperature in the pond will be closer to the ground temperature rather than the air temperature. The ground usually won't freeze deeply, so in the Winter the ground will hold heat and be warmer that the air temperature. If your pond is sitting right on the ground without air below it, then it will still benefit some from the ground temperature. However because your pond is so shallow, you MUST put a heater in the pond over the Winter to prevent the water from freezing through (although it is fine for the surface to freeze over).

When folks talk about feeding temperatures, they are always referring to the water temperature, not the air temperature. As diesel said, since the fish are in the water, the temperature of the water is the only thing they care about. As the water temp gets down around 50, you will notice that the fish don't eat as much. If you see that the fish don't have any interest in the food, stop feeding! As temperatures fluctuate, they may come begging for food some days and not others. Over time you can get a sense for whether they will actually eat anything, but you want to try and make sure there is no excess food left in the pond over the Winter, because it will rot and foul the water (the same is true for leaves and other plant matter). As you go into Winter, you want to make sure the water is as clean as possible. Another thing to consider is that when the temps start dropping, you want to switch to a what germ type food which will clear out of the fish faster and not cause any problems by sitting in their stomach for a long period.

Don't worry about the dragonflies, they are actually very beneficial. I've seen nymphs in my pond that were as big as my minnows, but I've never seen them eat a fish. Dragonflies eat other insects and will help keep down the mosquito population. If you have some hatch in your pond, they will return the next year. I've actually worked very hard to make my pond inviting to dragonflies because they are so beneficial.

And regarding the string algae... good luck! The fish won't eat nearly enough to keep it under control, and snails won't touch it. If you can find some large enough shrimp, they may help, but keep in mind that fish love to eat shrimp! Thanks to advice from this forum, I've recently been trying hydrogen peroxide in my pond. You don't want to put in too much or it can harm the fish and other plants. A good amount seems to be around 1 bottle (I think they are 1 liter?) per 1000 gallons, so you might start with 1/4 bottle. Pour it directly on the worst areas and after a few minutes you will see the algae start bubbling and chunks of it start floating. After a couple days you should notice that all of the string algae is a more pale green and has greatly reduced in volume and length.

Hope that helps.