Total beginner......all advice welcomed

[Matt2610]

Hi all, after arguing with the other half for many months I finally got my way to have a small garden pond. I live in rented accommodation so wasn't willing to dig a pond into the garden as when I move I want to be able to take my creation with me, therefore I opted for a raised pond on my patio which I built out of timber. I have fully insulated the pond for the colder months as I'm guessing in the ground ponds retain there heat from the ground surrounding them. I'm in the process of lining it and have purchased a nice little set up from a friend to get me started including a pressure filter, uv light and 100 litre an hour pump.
I'm really after some advice of what fish would be suitable for my pond and long it has to be up and running before I can introduce fish into it.
I'm a total beginner and really welcome any advice.
The pond is 500 gallons or just shy of 2300 litres.
Thanks for reading
Matt

 

[HARO]

100 liter per hour pump? Did we miss a 0? Just curious.
John

 

[Matt2610]

Sorry yes it's a 1000 not 100
Matt

 

[sissy]

welcome and glad you won the battle we will love helping you and love snooping

 

[ashirley]

Welcome to the forum. The people here are so helpful. Enjoy your pond.

 

[Mmathis]

Welcome!

 

[addy1]

to our group!

For a pond your size, stick with shubunkins or goldfish. Once you have water in your pond, it will need to cycle, add a few fish test your water for ammonia etc. Give it time to cycle, build up the good bacteria while you watch the water tests, before you add more fish.

 

[HTH]

Welcome. Do you have raccoons ?

 

[koiguy1969]

it seems to me your pump is a bit small for a pressure filter. @ 1000 l or 265 gals per hour. check the manual or 'google' your filter for its specs.. i'd bet your significantly under powered. even if its doing a half decent job of filtering, its likely not near adequate for a good backflush.
you'll find most if not all presure filter manufacturers recommend a much higher flow rate!
as far as fish selection, i would stick to goldfish varieties. shubunkins, sarassas, comets, commons, wakins, lots of variety and can be as beautiful as koi. and i would probably go ahead and put a new bulb in the U.V as well, theyre cheap on ebay.

 

[falconut]

I'm new too, but agree that comets and shubunkins are the fish you should be looking at. Mine is around 400 gallons and I started with (1) 4-5" shubunkin and (2) 5-6" comets, then 2 weeks later I added (3) 5-6" sarassa comets. Mine all seem happy and I test for ammonia every 2-3 days. Still waiting for something besides 0. Mine was crystal clear for almost 3 weeks, then went very cloudy and was told to wait it out. I figured I'd mention encase you experience the same. I'm just running a standard submersible filter with the output to a fountain and running 24/7. I did add 3 lilies at week 2, that have been putting out plenty of red leaves. Good luck with yours.

Not sure how deep yours is, but my dad's is a prefab that is only around 18" deep. He added (3) 5-6" comets about two weeks ago and something just ate them yesterday. So, if yours is shallow, you may want to put a netting or something around it.

 

[j.w]

Matt

 

[sissy]

remember don't buy to many ,I know it is tempting but you want to enjoy the babies they will have . :cheerful: