View Single Post
  #10   Report Post  
Old 18-03-2003, 04:44 AM
~ jan
 
Posts: n/a
Default Spring Cleaning Good or Bad?

Keep in mind, IDEALLY clean your pond in the fall and screen thereafter.

Solo,

What do you think of this latest idea tossed around our koi club, to clean
the pond before the bacteria and bugs are active, therefore immune system
not quite as worrisome? So water temps below 47F and fish haven't been fed
so blowing off less ammonia, plus outside temps are low so holding tanks
don't get overly warm. What do you think?

At the D.pond we don't have the luxury of holding the fish long, or doing
the clean out when water temps warm to 50 and up, as it is part of a public
park. So the last 2 years we've completely drained the pond, put the fish
we're going to keep into a 20 gallon tote bucket set on the pond floor,
drain it completely, vac it out, fill, add dechlor. and leave the bucket to
float in the pond till the next day. At which time we turn them loose and
haven't suffered any fish losses.

This fall we screened the D.pond and I hope this coming Saturday to fill
the filter and turn the pump on without all that mucking out of the past.
~ jan


On Tue, 18 Mar 2003 02:55:02 GMT, wrote:

dont mess wiht fish till their immune system is up and running for 10 days. 55oF
water.
fill a rubbermaid tub with pond water, drop in an airstone.
pump nearly all the water out of the pond, then get the fish while they are almost
flopping on the bottom. less stress than chasing them around with nets.
clean the pond, run in water the same temp as the water taken out OR WARMER WATER.
add the dechlor, salt, minerals or whatever
move the fish back in. dont leave fish in small container as the ammonia spike will
damage them.
Ingrid

"IanQ" wrote:

My plans are as follows (someone correct me if I am going to do harm!)

- Place a decent size bucket in pond, fill with pond water;
- Move my 10 goldfish to bucket, leave bucket in pond;
- Remove half of pond water (it's a small pond, approx.: 750 gallons);
- Shop vac, clean, etc, etc;
- Fill pond up;
- Leave for a couple of days;
- Transfer fish back to pond;
(Warm one yesterday, the ice completely melted, and the fish were swimming
around at the surface looking for food handouts!)


"jammer" wrote in message
news
On Sun, 16 Mar 2003 08:23:26 -0700, John Rutz
wrote:

draining and cleaning can be very hard on your fish unless you can
transfer all fish and most of the old water to another container and
back into the pond
can you get ahold of a shop vac?
--
John Rutz

I have a shop vac, but am afraid to shop vac my fish up. I only have 2
and i pond is small. I will have to brave it soon as i can't catch
these fish!
·.·´¨ ¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
jammer
((¸¸.·´ ..·´
-:¦:- ((¸¸





See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website