Generally, well water is good for the fish, and it doesn't require dechlor.
Many plants need the minerals. Softened water is not particularly good for
the plants or fish, and increases the cost of filling the pond. Check the
pH as it comes out of the well, and then run a bubbler in a bucket of the
water overnight and retest. Well water generally has a fairly high CO2
content, which makes the pH lower when it comes out of the ground than it
will balance out at after sitting for a day or two.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"Kyle" wrote in message
s.com...
I moved into a new house that is on well water and would like to install a
pond. I had a small pre-fab pond at my previous house and would like to
build a larger pond this time (500-800 gal). Does anyone have experience
building a new pond with well water? My water is pretty hard (about 90 on
the hardness scale) with some iron. What affect will this have on the
plants and fish?

Could I fill the pond with water directly from the well, or could I use a
mixture of softened water and well water? The softened water would be
higher in sodium and potassium, but would be lower in hardness and iron.

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Sounds like you might be a neibor with your water, I use a well to fill
my KOI pond and my veggie bog/pond/filter
I have a one in line to the pond, and the outlet is 2 ft above the
pond,, this disipates the co2 and aeriates the new water, plants and
fish do fine

John Rutz
see my pond at http://www.fuerjefe.com

RichToyBox wrote:
Generally, well water is good for the fish, and it doesn't require dechlor.
Many plants need the minerals. Softened water is not particularly good for
the plants or fish, and increases the cost of filling the pond. Check the
pH as it comes out of the well, and then run a bubbler in a bucket of the
water overnight and retest. Well water generally has a fairly high CO2
content, which makes the pH lower when it comes out of the ground than it
will balance out at after sitting for a day or two.