What most of us have found over the years
is that bigger is more forgiving than smaller.
And that if most of us had to do it over
again we would have built a bigger pond.

That said...
You can take a long view of it and plan for
two ponds. Build a small one and then turn
it into a plant filter for a larger pond down the
road. Take the planning into consideration.

Goldfish are pretty tough and, being how you are
in the NE they probably will do okay in the smaller
pond. Especially if you plan on taking them inside
for the winter. Just of few of them. Or you can try rosie red
fathead minnows if they are available in your state.

Ponds do well balancing if they have few fish to lots
of water and lots of plants. And there are always seasons
to the balancing act. Most of us deal with some kind of
algae bloom in the spring until our lilies start to shade the
water and all our marginal plants get going. Algae is
very efficient at getting going early in the pond season .

kathy :-)
www.blogfromthebog.com