When can I ad fish to my new pond?

Joined
Jun 7, 2018
Messages
50
Reaction score
28
Location
Seattle, WA
Hardiness Zone
8b
Country
United States
When can i start adding fish to my new pond?

It’s beenrunning now and cycling for nearly 3 straight days.

Is there a rule for how long I need to wait?


Thanks in advance!
 

Attachments

  • 24F27D16-FEF8-4B3E-B20E-E1D014C924AF.jpeg
    24F27D16-FEF8-4B3E-B20E-E1D014C924AF.jpeg
    190.1 KB · Views: 338

addy1

water gardener / gold fish and shubunkins
Moderator
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
44,337
Reaction score
29,089
Location
Frederick, Maryland
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
It can take weeks for a pond to cycle. When you add fish they start to pee and poo. The ammonia levels climb if to many added which can equal ill fish.

Here is a write up about cycling a pond.
https://fishponds.biz/cycling

If you want to add fish add just a few, like two. Get a test kit and start testing the water, liquid test kit.
 
Joined
Jun 9, 2018
Messages
481
Reaction score
871
Location
Tennessee
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
7a
Country
United States
I second that, listen to addy.

As mentioned in my signature below, I have explained the nitrogen cycle to hundreds of people that didn't want to hear it. They didn't want to hear it because of their excitement to add fish to their newly set up aquariums and ponds. Just to come back days later bawling about dead fish. So patience is definitely a virtue.;)

Your pond is coming along nicely.
 
Joined
Jun 11, 2012
Messages
7,046
Reaction score
7,233
Location
Water Valley, Alberta
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
2a
Country
Canada
When can i start adding fish to my new pond?

It’s beenrunning now and cycling for nearly 3 straight days.

Is there a rule for how long I need to wait?


Thanks in advance!

Instead of using sacrificial fish, use straight ammonia.
You should be looking at 3 weeks instead of 3 days for when your water is ready to accept fish, and that's only after you register 0 ammonia and nitrite.
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2015
Messages
677
Reaction score
572
Location
Chicago (W suburbs)
Showcase(s):
3
Hardiness Zone
5b
Country
United States
How big is your pond? If it's big enough you can very slowly add small fish and build up a nitrogen cycle without ever seeing any measurable ammonia or nitrite.

Just water flowing is not a cycling pond. The bacteria need food to develop. So you either do as Mitch implies and feed them chemical ammonia or you have fish that feed them, but very gradually in that case since ammonia is deadly to fish.

Whatever you do, please no sacrificial fish.
 
Joined
Jun 7, 2018
Messages
50
Reaction score
28
Location
Seattle, WA
Hardiness Zone
8b
Country
United States
Thanks everyone. I had planned to wait two weeks so I’ll jist tack another week on. I’ll maybe I traduce two koi to start after 10 days to two weeks.

Just wanted to make sure. We’ve since added some plants to get them going as well.

Thanks as always!
 

addy1

water gardener / gold fish and shubunkins
Moderator
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
44,337
Reaction score
29,089
Location
Frederick, Maryland
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
i’ll maybe I traduce two koi to start after 10 days to two weeks.
How many gallons is your pond? You may want to stick to shubunkins, good colors easy to care for.
I have a big pond and stuck with goldfish shubunkins. Very easy to care for survive winter without issues.

Koi get huge and out grow ponds.
 
Joined
Jun 7, 2018
Messages
50
Reaction score
28
Location
Seattle, WA
Hardiness Zone
8b
Country
United States
How many gallons is your pond? You may want to stick to shubunkins, good colors easy to care for.
I have a big pond and stuck with goldfish shubunkins. Very easy to care for survive winter without issues.

Koi get huge and out grow ponds.

Pond is pretty big, 2500 gallons or so, and is about 15' x 12' average. Depth of 42"
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2015
Messages
677
Reaction score
572
Location
Chicago (W suburbs)
Showcase(s):
3
Hardiness Zone
5b
Country
United States
OK, basically the same size as mine. I'll tell you what I did. First, I had some fish in 35 gallon container ponds for a year, so I had a built up bio filter there. So after two days of letting the water warm up (and after dechlorinating) I rinsed some of my own filter media in the new pond. That will kick start the bio filter, but probably isn't necessary in a pond our size. My water is treated with chloramine, so the filter had 0.5 ppm of ammonia to take care of and I waited until it did.

Then I added about four 3-4" goldfish each week for about 6 weeks until I got my pond stocked. I never measured any ammonia or nitrite in this process. I tested every few days.
 
Joined
Jun 8, 2016
Messages
3,292
Reaction score
3,129
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
5b
Country
United States
Thanks everyone. I had planned to wait two weeks so I’ll jist tack another week on. I’ll maybe I traduce two koi to start after 10 days to two weeks.

Thanks as always!
The cycle starts after you introduce ammonia in the pond, so waiting to add fish alone just postpones the starting of the cycle.
I think you could add the 2 fish right away but feed them very very lightly, and keep an eye on the water parameters
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
30,780
Messages
508,556
Members
13,042
Latest member
lucaryan

Latest Threads

Top