We laid the liner for our first pond Saturday and have it 3/4 full. I
am waiting for a warm day to seal the liner to our skimmer and seal
the stream liner to the main pond liner.

In the meantime, I am wondering how I can determine the status of our
water with regard to supporting plants and fish. Should I purchase a
test kit? If so, which is best?

TIA

John

John Bachman wrote:
We laid the liner for our first pond Saturday and have it 3/4 full. I
am waiting for a warm day to seal the liner to our skimmer and seal
the stream liner to the main pond liner.

In the meantime, I am wondering how I can determine the status of our
water with regard to supporting plants and fish. Should I purchase a
test kit? If so, which is best?

TIA

John


Definitely buy a test kit. You can add the plants now. Let
them establish themselves and allow the pond to mature
before adding the fish. You can purchase the fish now and
keep them in an isolation tank. This way when you add them
to the pond, you'll know that the fish are healthy. Plus it
is much easier to treat an isolation tank than a whole pond.
Add the fish slowly to the pond - 2 at a time at two week
intervals. This allows the filtration to adjust to the fish.
You didn't mention the size of your pond. Stocking levels
are suggested at 20 gallons per goldfish and 1000 gallons
for the first koi and 100 gallons for each additional koi.
Remember when stocking - fish grow rapidly and then they
start to multiply.

--
Bonnie
NJ
http://home.earthlink.net/~maebe43/