Hello Porgers

Wheeeee!!!! I'm so excited, after lurking here for the last year or so I am
finally getting ready to start digging my wee pond. YAY. Please be patient
with me as over the next few weeks I will probably be a prolific poster
asking for all your expert advice If any of you can answer some of my
queries below it will be mightily appreciated.

Due to my small (tiny) garden it will be a wee pond so unfortunately (as
much as I love them) I will not be keeping Koi The trouble is I want fish
in the pond but I'm not so hot for Goldfish. Are there Goldfish that
resemble Koi? I mean the shape of their bodies, I can't stand the look of
those bloated goldfish that seem to "wobble" around the place. Know what I
mean? Any suggestions?

I'll be converting an old rubber maid container (approx 50gallons) into a
bio-filter/waterfall, Will this be overkill for my small pond? Considering
the pond will be roughly 2 1/2 metres square and a depth of roughly 3 feet
(how much water will this hold?). Should I go deeper? I also want this to be
OVERLY stocked with plants, a small water jungle if you will Will the
plants get along with the fish or should they be in a separate vegie
filter? Is it feasible to combine the bio filter and vegie filter into one?

I have a small pump, it says it is rated for a 1500 gallon pond and head
pressure of 2metres, it will be submerged in the bottom of the pond and will
pump directly into the DIY bio/vegie filter and then gravity fed to the
waterfall. Does this sound good? Does the pump need a pre-filter? I'll be
using batting and alfagrog as bio material, this will be handling mechanical
aswell as bio filtration, will a system like this yield high DOC as a result
or do the plants take up the extra doc? Is it better to have the plumbing
input to the filter to fill from the bottom up or from the top down?

OK, I think thats more than enough for one day. Any help and input will be
greatly appreciated. Thanks
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**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**