My pond

[Reef Pilot]

OK, upon request, am reluctantly posting a couple pics of my pond. Nothing to look at, that's for sure, compared to a couple others here. We inherited the pond with the house we bought a few years ago. The previous owner removed his Koi and goldfish, but some babies survived, so now we have about 12 - 15 fish, some close to a foot in length. They winter in the pond under a rock shelf, and don't have to feed them from Nov to Apr. We keep the pump and filter going the whole time, though.




Have this filter and pump. The filter box (says screenex on top) is about 3 ft wide, and this is the rather large pump in the sump portion of the pond. No idea what they are, but they just keep going,... no maintenance.

[kien]

Now that's what I'm talkin' about! "reluctantly" ? "nothing to look at" ?? I think it looks cool! Definitely haven't seen a pond like that before. Pond in a retaining wall! I also like the idea of the upper pre-formed pond spilling into the lower pond. I want to do something like that so that I can grow water filtering plants in the auxiliary pond. This way the koi don't eat it up as they tend to do

Do you plan to keep the pond long term? I know of a few other people who inherited there pond and tried it out for a season before they decided to shut it down. Often times it was because the pond wasn't built the way they would have liked it and they couldn't get into the maintenance routine. It seems like yours is fairly low maintenance though.

I ended up giving away most of my baby koi from last year. My pond can't sustain that high a bio load and my koi are now old enough that they spawn every year! I did keep some of the nicer babies though.

[lastlight]

this is getting ridiculous i wish i had my old yard back! i actually love your pond it looks fantastic. what is the wire around the main pond for?

[Reef Pilot]

Actually, have done nothing to the pond in 3 years, and everything is still working fine. Except, I did hook up a float in the sump, so that when we go away in the summer, I can hook up the garden hose and don't have to worry about it running dry due to evaporation. But it really is low (as in none) maintenance compared to my SW tanks.

The sump, is where the babies ended up surviving, as the adults couldn't eat them there. When they got bigger, I netted them and transferred them to the main pond (and after the adults were removed).

Have to say, though, that seeing your pond and Dez's is inspiring and maybe I should do something more with mine. Right now the water lines run underground to and from the filter box up by the house. For the return, I could build a little stream back to the pond (similar to what Dez did) with little falls and a bridge. But will have to find some time for that, and I guess the motivation to start another project.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by lastlight

what is the wire around the main pond for?

That's a little electric fence to keep the racoons out. Comes on at night with a timer. Also have a heron that keeps coming around (sets down right beside the fake one). But with that wire there, across the top of the rocks, he has no where to stand to try and get at the fish. So far, have not lost any fish to racoons or the heron.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by kien

I want to do something like that so that I can grow water filtering plants in the auxiliary pond. This way the koi don't eat it up as they tend to do

What water filtering plants would you use for that?

I do let some water lettuce and water hyacinths grow in the main pond. Are they water filtering? In the summer (I start with 1 plant each in the spring) I have to start culling them, and just throw them into the compost. I tried putting them in the top pond, too, but they would move to the outlet falls, and get jammed up there, and push overboard, so that didn't really work. I could probably rig something better to fix that.

Also, the racoons like to eat the water hyacinths, but the electric fence keeps them away from the main pond (but not the upper pond).

[kien]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

What water filtering plants would you use for .

Pretty much any water garden plant. Lillie's, marginals, floating plants. I have an assortment of all of the above. My koi like to dig up my Lillie's for fun :-/. My marginals (cat tails, marsh marigold, reeds, etc) are high enough that the koi can't dig those up though. If I had more room I'd grow more marginals. Water hyacinth is great too and grows like a weed. Although the fish do like to nibble on those roots too.

[Dez]

That's a sweet pond. I love the length of it. It must feel rewarding growing babies to 12". Just like frags to colonies I guess. Maintenance free is the way to go.

[Reef Pilot]

My pond water started to go green, and I saw that my UV light burned out. Unfortunately, it is of the type that is not readily available here, and my local pond guy (Roger) had to order it from the US. The real bad news is that it will probably be another 10 days+ before it comes in.

My concern, of course, is that the algae will turn to pea soup, and begin to die, killing my fish due to lack of O2. But Roger is telling me not to worry, and it should be OK for a couple weeks. Luckily, the weather has been mostly cloudy and cool recently, but it is supposed to get nice again next week. Sure hope he is right.

Don't know what else I can do in the meantime. I don't think trying to cover it with a tarp is a good idea... Fish seem to be OK, for now.

[Dez]

Get some flocculent by Crystal Clear. It works wonders on pea soup. You could also use 3oz of 29% hydrogen peroxide per 1000 gals daily until it goes away. Completely safe for plants and fish. I did h202 daily for about 2 weeks while it cycled. Now I use it once a week to keep it crystal clear, or after heavy rains.