Ok, today i emptied and refilled the lower pond, adding "Right Start"
or something like that. I sat the pump on a brick platform about 4-5
inches off of the bottom. I also sprayed off the plants and cut back
some roots. (Those taro grow like freaking crazy here!) Then i
emptied the upper pond and caught the 3 remaining goldfish and plunked
them into the bottom pond. (That additive said it was fish ready
immediately) I shop vacced the top pond and filled and conditioned
it. I can probably actually go buy a few fish for it now. All that
took me up until dark and about 57 mosquito bites. (Off Schmoff) So i
propped the hose up with a rock over the top pond where the new
waterfall will be, and turned on the pump. Last i checked, the fish
were played chase.

I would like to thank you for your help. The answers may have been
easy, but i had no idea how much sludgey crap was in the bottom pond
and no wonder i every fish.

LIVE AND LEARN - I have learned plenty and will go on someday to
help my friends with their ponds.









On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 23:57:18 GMT, "RichToyBox"
wrote:

The water fall is acting as a skimmer for the top pond and all the
dust,
dirt, debris that lands on the pond, plus any floating plant material
all go
over the water fall to the small pond at the bottom. The pump will
recirculate some of this stuff, since it will be dispersed through
the water
column. The bottom pond will fill with muck, mulm, fairly quickly
and needs
to be cleaned regularly. When I started out, I had a similar setup
to
yours, and then added a 1500 gallon liner pond to the mix, and then
the
amount of mulm built up very quickly in the bottom pond.

You really need a solids handling pump that you can put on the bottom
of the
small lower pond and then have the water circulated through some form
of
filter that can be easily cleaned, or you will be cleaning the bottom
pond
very often, or you will be building pockets of hydrogen sulfide gas
that
will kill fish, if you want to have fish in the lower pond. If you
don't
mind not having fish in the lower pond, then it can be a settling
tank,
setting the pump intake near the surface, and as material builds up,
turn
off the pump, use a shop vac or similar to clean the pond and then
refill
the bottom pond and restart the system.