New to Ponds

[koikeepr]

no snails either! They can die and cause polluted water.

I'm on a well too, and later in the season my water gets an amber tinge. It's clear, but with a amber appearance. That's not a problem.

I'm not sure what you mean by rotted leaves? Do you mean rotted leaves in the pond? If so, you need to get a net and scoop that muck outta there! It just wreaks havoc on a pond.

 

[DrDave]

The metal may be fine, at least there are no petroleum disilates in the roofing materials. That said, I would not use the first rain for your pond. After that, the residual rain may be fine.
Can you direct the intial rainfall away from your pond until the roof has been rinsed?

 

[koikeepr]

forget about what air temperatures are. Get a pond thermometor (you can buy a floating one at places like PetSmart) and what matters is what water temp is!

Yes, Toro will freeze and wither. You need dig up the corm and store it in a dry/cool place through winter, and then when it warms up again in spring you put it back in the pond.

 

[sandy433]

No the rainfall can not be directed. Its already rained several times since i filled pond. I only use the rain water to keep levels full, and not to fill my pond with the well water when i know rain is in forcast otherwise then rain will overflow pond.

If this is truly a big consern we can see about putting up gutters, I just really hateed to waste that water.

and let me me make sure i understand. Ido not want snails???
now remember this is not a real koi pond. just a pond..but would rather not make to many more mistakes.
Thanks to all of you, love the advice!

 

[DrDave]

I use a digital thermometer that I bought for $10 at the meat counter at my local supermarket. It does not float in your pond, but does give instant readings in a few seconds. I also use mine for checking soup temperatures and meat when I BBQ.

For those of you in metric land, it does switch to celcius as well.

 

[DrDave]

No the rainfall can not be directed. Its already rained several times since i filled pond. I only use the rain water to keep levels full, and not to fill my pond with the well water when i know rain is in forcast otherwise then rain will overflow pond.

If this is truly a big consern we can see about putting up gutters, I just really hateed to waste that water.

and let me me make sure i understand. Ido not want snails???
now remember this is not a real koi pond. just a pond..but would rather not make to many more mistakes.
Thanks to all of you, love the advice!

So are you saying that you do not have any fish in this pond? If it is for plants only, then the runoff should be fine from your metal roof.

 

[sandy433]

Yes i do have my cheap bait fish..all alive and doing good so far, supprized i havent killed them yet. LOL

I have probably a stupid question here? why do i need to know what pond temp is?
is it for fish? Plants? running pump? Its cold.LOL
I'll get something to check with tomorrow.

also I said leaves were a problem. and i was conserend thats what had changed my pond water color.
I scoop them out daily, and have removed filters and rinsed them. I have gotten into pond and made sure no leaves were on bottom.

I feed my bait fish daily. just small amout of flakes the clean up withing a couple mins.

 

[koikeepr]

the temp was important when we all thought you had koi fish in your pond. Because you shouldn't feed koi/goldfish once the water temp hits 50 degrees.

I don't know what kind of fish is a bait fish. Do you mean some kind of minnow?

If your water is tinged amber it can be a host of things, such as the runoff from your roof, the leaves, etc. If you want to get rid of it you can try putting barley in your pond (they sell this at petSmart in both liquid or barley straw mats. I prefer the liquid because the mats break down in the water. To avoid this, you can stick the mat in a little net bag that you can buy in a dollar store.

Also, you could buy a box of Activated Carbon in the petstore and put that in a net bag and drop it into your pond, too. Either one can clear amber water. The carbon is cheaper than the barley. However, some plants don't react well to being right next to carbon. If you're worried about that, go with Barley.

 

[koiguy1969]

i have never heard of barley for removing tannins (tinted water) but activated carbon will work.. in fact if you use barley bails they can slightly discolor water and barley pellets arte notorious for browning water.. liquid is the way to go, the barley / peat extract is bettter than plain barley...but barley products are for alge control not tannin removal. they decompose releasing humic acids that further breakdown and produce hydrogen peroxide which is what kills the alge

 

[koikeepr]

By the way, fish love that amber tint in the pond. It filters out the sunlight a little bit for them...

 

[sandy433]

The Bait fish i i have are gold fish. we buy them in bulk for all our water tanks on the ranch.
LOL almost impossable to kill..they freeze in winter and no pumps in 105 degree days. and the cats do get some every now and then.
So thats what i started with in this pond. just to help establesh the pond. I do feed them because the pond is to new. there is nothing for them to live off of. no plants at all yet. and i guess because its in shade almost all day no algea had bloomed.

I'm off to petsmart to see what all i might need. and to pick up lily from person on craigslist.

I'm in a bad aera, nobody this far out has water ponds, koi or anything to go with them.
I'm 2 hrs from Austin.

so finding anything is a major deal. so far i have only bought the pump and liner off line.
everything else came from my house.

 

[koiguy1969]

if your buying feeder fish buy them at Meijers (if theyre local to you) they let you pick the ones you want and theyre only $1.00 a dozen and ive bought some real lookers..you'll have comets, commons, sarassas, even shubunkins to choose from...the only shubunkin i still have is the one i got as a feeder there and hes a eal nice looking fish.

 

[koikeepr]

ah! you're talking about feeder goldfish as koiguy says! Yes, for goldfish you still follow the rules of not feeding when water temps hit 50 degrees. The reason is that the gut slows down for winter when they go into their sort of "hibernation." It is common for a fish to get food caught in the gut and then die from it. So don't feed once temps hit 50 (even if the temps warm up again for a few days). Then start feeding in spring when the temps hit 50 degrees again.

 

[koiguy1969]

plus there will be adequate food in the pond if theyre really hungry..as in algea films, plant matter etc.... and these are foods their digestive tracts are designed by nature to digest.

 

[Mrshkoiluver]

By the way, fish love that amber tint in the pond. It filters out the sunlight a little bit for them...

And it is all natural. They have a blue tint that is sold on the market for this. Free and natural is best.