HELP! - Koi Pond is a Disaster!

[Psybuster]

Lemme explain the situation. My dad built this pond nearly 14 years ago and it's becoming really run down. The water is green and cloudy, the Koi seem sick and we got god knows what kind of predatory fish in there. My dad took good care of the fish up until 4-5 years ago now just just drains and refills the water after every month. My recent desire for aquatics has lead me to making this a project to where I can get more Koi (and hopefully restore the health of our old ones) and have this pond have crystal clear water. I'm sure there's a ton of fish waste at the bottom as well.

 

[Psybuster]

oops...

 

[RogerMcAllen]

It might be a bit easier for us to help if you asked some specific questions.

As far as your predatory fish, you say that you drain the pond monthly. Shouldn't it be fairly easy to find when do you do that?

My first suggestion would be more plants. Quick growing underwater plants such as anacharis will suck up nutrients. This will help take care of that algae problem. Some floating plants such as hyacynths or water lettuce would also be nice, with the added benefit of blocking out a bit of the light.

 

[zacdl]

Draining the whole pond month after month is a no-no too. Not only does it stress out the fish, the whole pond has to start new every time you do that.

 

[Psybuster]

not completely drain it, but about 50%

 

[zacdl]

Even 50% is pretty much. Maybe 25% monthly would be OK if you belive in water changes

 

[Psybuster]

awesome thanks for the help, we are going to get quite a bit of plants for the pond so it clears up, we have blue gale (sp) in there and that's why all the crayfish died off, we are going to relocate them into a nearby creek (they are common around here so it's not disturbing any environments).

 

[RogerMcAllen]

I'd say no to that. Any time you release something into the wild there is the possibility of spreading diseases out into your surrounding areas. If you can't find anyone who wants them, a cull would be a better option than releasing them.

 

[Guest]

If I read this right, you haven't scraped the muck out of the bottom for years?
If that is the case, that would be step #1. I'd do it during a water change, just get in there and get all the crud off the bottom and remove it from the pond.

 

[Andos99]

You have an extremely nice set up.....I would love to have something like that one day for my own. I can't wait for you to clean it up and post new pics......keep us updated on your progress!

 

[Psybuster]

been doing some window shopping, next month going to quarintine (sp?) the koi and drain most of the pond, that's when i'm going to add a a ridiculous amount of plants i still need to figure out the square footage of the pond, but that's going to be my first step. been searching for some filters as well (geez expensive) and something to circulate the water. getting the water nice and clear is #1 priority, the fish look ok and don't seem to have any diseases or any sickness from what i was checking them out. So that's a great sign. Hopefully this won't cost me an arm and a leg, but it's getting there.