"clevfunguy" wrote in message
oups.com...
I live in Northeast Ohio and just purchased a houe this summer with a
small pond. It's about 120 gallons, and was a mess when I first saw it.
It had nothing done to if for 2 years and was full of sludge and no
real "life". I nursed it back to health and it is stocked with a couple
of goldfish, two small Koi, lots of water lettuce, small floating
plants, some "grass", and I plant that I think is a Canna.

I hope you are aware that koi grow up to 3' long (that's THREE FEET LONG)
and need quite a large pond to live in. Each koi will require 300 to 400
gallons of good filtered water by the time it's a few years old, maybe
sooner. You may want to return them or trade them for goldfish which only
get one foot long. Healthy fish grow quickly.

My aquatic experince is limited to mostly sal****er / reef tanks, and
no experience in ponds, especailly in winter in Ohio!

I'm preparing the pond for winter. The filters have been cleaned
(external basic wet to dry setup). I plan taking the UV sterilizer off
for the season. The leaves / acorns all almost gone and the pond is
netted. I purchased a floating heater to maintian an area for CO2 / O2
exchange and plan on running the filter during the winter (output will
be channeld back into the pond via tubing).

I hope it's running very slowly so as not to disrupt the stratification of
the water. There are slews of websites giving some good advice on
ovewintering ponds.

Questions:
Is it OK to run the filter during the freeze?

I would shut the filters off when the water reaches 50F. All I leave
running are airstones or small water pumps near the surface. When the fish
stop eating and the bacteria are dormant from the cold - why run the filter?

Should I "cut back" the plants (right now they are very high and the
netting is just covering them)?
Should I revome the floating plants, or will they survive and regrow in
the spring?

Both water hyacinth and water lettuce will not survive the winter. Remove
and compost them. Trim tops off after the first good frost.

Anything else i should be thinking about?

I plan on doing a major upscaling of the pond in the sping, but I
really don't want to lose anything that I have int here now.

Your pond is much too small for koi. :-(

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
--

KL....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö ~~~~ }((((({*