I had quite a few leaves make there way into my small pond in the
fall. The water looks a little brown now. In the spring, should I do a
serious of water changes or take out the Koi and drain it completely
to clean out all the muck and everything? The pond is 1 year old. I
don't know if completely draining it will do more harm than good
(stress on fish, etc.)

MC wrote:
I had quite a few leaves make there way into my small pond in the
fall. The water looks a little brown now. In the spring, should I do a
serious of water changes or take out the Koi and drain it completely
to clean out all the muck and everything? The pond is 1 year old. I
don't know if completely draining it will do more harm than good
(stress on fish, etc.)

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'm not Porg am not am not am so
see my pond at:
http://www.fuerjefe.com

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
((¸¸.·´ ..·´
-:¦:- ((¸¸

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;

My pond was put in last July, so this is it's first spring. Of course, up
here (Toronto), spring isn't quite here, so none of this will happen until
at least end of April, once the water temp is constantly above 50 degrees.

(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
((¸¸.·´ ..·´
-:¦:- ((¸¸

In article . rogers.com,
"IanQ" writes:

- Leave for a couple of days;

I didn't read anything about having to leave it a few day's when half emptyed??


Sacha

if the bottom is mucked up, remove the fish. dont move them until the water has been
above 55oF for 10 days and the fish been on romet B or other antibiotic food for that
long. they need a functional immune system. dont fill the pond with cold water and
plunk the warmed up fish back into it. Ingrid

(MC) wrote:

I had quite a few leaves make there way into my small pond in the
fall. The water looks a little brown now. In the spring, should I do a
serious of water changes or take out the Koi and drain it completely
to clean out all the muck and everything? The pond is 1 year old. I
don't know if completely draining it will do more harm than good
(stress on fish, etc.)

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
((¸¸.·´ ..·´
-:¦:- ((¸¸

In article ,
writes:

if the bottom is mucked up, remove the fish. dont move them until the water
has been
above 55oF for 10 days and the fish been on romet B or other antibiotic food
for that
long


Taking all the fish out will be very hard. Won't they be hard to catch??

On the antibiotic food for 10 days also? Just making sure.


Sacha

If I remember correctly no where did I read I have to remove the fish or give
them any antibiotic foods.


Sacha

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

Hey, i am reading this thread, and regarding removing the fish and
cleaning the pond, feeding them 10 days first, etc, does this apply to
goldfish as well? I never added declor when i first put them in the
pond and they are still fine.

I want to clean the pond before there are any kind of eggs, (I should
probably re-think that) and want to know if i can do it now. Should my
GF be ok and do i really need declor. This is a 4X2X2 pondlet. Thanks.
I'll be back another time to talk about my plants and landscaping.
·.·´¨ ¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
jammer
((¸¸.·´ ..·´
-:¦:- ((¸¸

In article m, ~ jan
writes:

Spring Cleaning Good or Bad?
From: ~ jan
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2003 04:26:48 GMT

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

So your saying if you covered a pond in the fall then there wouldn't be all
that muck hence having to drain the entire pond every Spring??

Sacha

On Sun, 16 Mar 2003 16:01:53 -0600, jammer wrote:

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!

Fish usually aren't a problem when using a shop vac. If they come
close to the pickup point of the pipe/attachment bump it against the
bottom and they move back. Toad tadpoles are another matter, but I
don't' care how many thousand of them I throw out there are just more to
take their place.

Regards,

Hal

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

So your saying if you covered a pond in the fall then there wouldn't be all
that muck hence having to drain the entire pond every Spring??
Sacha

Yes.

That's been my experience. Only the fine dust can get thru window
screening. Plus there is a double benefit if you live where it snows, the
screen holds the snow off the surface of the pond and creats an igloo
affect. Frozen ponds will actually completely thaw out. Screen is not very
strong so you must put boards over the pond to rest the screen on (see my
web page) to support snow load. ~ jan


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

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

I will wait until water is 55 and then drain and clean. In Chicago
though, that could be May. Do deteriating leaves have an affect on
the pond? They fall into natural ponds all the time without any harm.

jammer wrote in message . ..
Hey, i am reading this thread, and regarding removing the fish and
cleaning the pond, feeding them 10 days first, etc, does this apply to
goldfish as well? I never added declor when i first put them in the
pond and they are still fine.

I want to clean the pond before there are any kind of eggs, (I should
probably re-think that) and want to know if i can do it now. Should my
GF be ok and do i really need declor. This is a 4X2X2 pondlet. Thanks.
I'll be back another time to talk about my plants and landscaping.
·.·´¨ ¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
jammer
((¸¸.·´ ..·´
-:¦:- ((¸¸