This is going to be my first spring with this pond (inherited - it came
with the house) and I'm wondering if there's any pitfalls I need to
watch out for, or preventative stuff I can do. There are about 60 or 70
goldfish in the pond that are now mildly active, and a few plants that
haven't woken up yet.

Any advice is welcome.

Thanks,
Justin H.

Hi Justin,

Congratulations on your pond. May you get hooked.

Folks will have a lot of advice for you. They will want some more
data to make suggestions. Like, how big is your pond? That is a lot
of goldfish! How big are they? Have you a pump? Is there a filter?
What is the bottom like? Are you feeding them? Have you had ponds
before?

Jim

Jim and Phyllis wrote:
Hi Justin,

Congratulations on your pond. May you get hooked.

Folks will have a lot of advice for you. They will want some more
data to make suggestions. Like, how big is your pond? That is a lot
of goldfish! How big are they? Have you a pump? Is there a filter?
What is the bottom like? Are you feeding them? Have you had ponds
before?

Hi Jim,

The pond is ~2,000 gallons, but we probably only fill about 1,500. The
goldfish vary in range from about 2" - 6" or so. There used to be a LOT
more in there, but we gave a bunch away to local people - which means I
can now see the bottom of the pond. Yay! It's a cement pond with no
bottom drain, but I have a pump that goes to a filter box filled with
something like hard foam (but more porous) that does my bio and, I
suppose, mechanical filtering. The pump is in a bucket I drilled holes
into with more foam wrapped around it to pre-filter. The bottom of the
pond has gravel on it, but I'd like to take that out and leave it bare.
I'm still debating with myself whether I want to put in a liner, but
I'm not sure what effect this will have on my pH levels. The fish are
just starting to be active as the average temp. climbs here, so I've
started feeding them a little bit every few days. And this is our first
pond, but not our first fish. We have a few fresh water aquariums
around the house.

I hope that covers everything you wanted to know.

Justin H.

On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:56:16 EDT, "Justin H."
wrote:

This is going to be my first spring with this pond (inherited - it came
with the house) and I'm wondering if there's any pitfalls I need to
watch out for, or preventative stuff I can do. There are about 60 or 70
goldfish in the pond that are now mildly active, and a few plants that
haven't woken up yet.
Justin H.

I'm going to cover a few of the pitfalls, since you spoke in a later post
you have aquariums, so dealing with water quality isn't new to you.

Pitfalls, you decide to get koi, koi = expensive, and I don't mean just the
purchase price. 50-70 goldfish usually don't get names, koi = names,
longevity, personality = Pet. If water quality not kept pristine, koi look
sickly, koi need meds, meds cost. You come to find out (after spending
money on meds and koi die anyway) healthy koi = fancy filter, good news,
less maintenance, clear water, bad news, cost. But enough on that fun
stuff.

Koi grow big, koi need new pond, you dig more ponds. Ponds cost. You young?
You DIYer? You good back? No problem. ;-) You like other hobbies? Too bad.
Koi first. They eat shrimp, you eat ...drum roll... dog food. LOL!
Okay, inside joke, you'll understand later as season progresses. You eat
beans & rice.

Btw, unless cement pond leaking no need to line, but liner should not
affect pH... that said, what is pH now? Noted your e-mail address, you on
Whidbey Island by chance? ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

~ jan wrote:

Btw, unless cement pond leaking no need to line, but liner should not
affect pH... that said, what is pH now? Noted your e-mail address, you on
Whidbey Island by chance? ~ jan

Thanks for all the info, and...er...encouragement!

I do actually have a leak, but I'm pretty sure I know where it is. The
builder put in a 3" PVC pipe that basically functions as a glory hole.
It comes out the side of the pond, then turns up 90 degrees.I can fill
the pond, then within a couple of days, it drops to just below the level
of the pipe. The only sealant I've found browsing local stores is the
foam for gluing rocks together. Would I use something like the silicone
used in aquariums, or is there some other product for outdoor use?

I work for a company on Whidbey, but I live on the mainland. Close
enough, I suppose!

Justin H.

On Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:37:20 EDT, "Justin H."
wrote:

I do actually have a leak, but I'm pretty sure I know where it is. The
builder put in a 3" PVC pipe that basically functions as a glory hole.
It comes out the side of the pond, then turns up 90 degrees.I can fill
the pond, then within a couple of days, it drops to just below the level
of the pipe. The only sealant I've found browsing local stores is the
foam for gluing rocks together. Would I use something like the silicone
used in aquariums, or is there some other product for outdoor use?

Hmmm, I suppose you'd need something that binds to the cement. Hopefully
someone has used/done this and knows of a product.

I work for a company on Whidbey, but I live on the mainland. Close
enough, I suppose! Justin H.

Ah. My mom grew up on Whidbey Island. We all live on the desert side of the
state now days. A couple of us here live in the Tri-Cities. Lots of great
pond stores over there on that side of the mountains, I'm envious. ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us