My pond build thread

[enrgizerbunny]

I don't know. I might take them to petco. The babies aren't any larger than a 15 cent feeder so time will tell. Some are changing though. In order to get them out I'll have to get a minnow trap or something. I'll be buying koi sooner than later for sure.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Really happy with my water clarity. The larger fish in this picture were hanging out down around 4 feet and the sticks are at 5. Hard to see with the glare though.

 

[Delapool]

That sounds really impressive - must be great to watch.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Pond got really cloudy this winter. Didn't net it and had to clean out a TON of leaves off the bottom. Raked the string algae down to acceptable levels. Cleaned the filter and water cleared up again. Finally put my fountain back in.

 

[Autumnsky]

Lookin' good! Fish?

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Lookin' good! Fish?

Still no koi. Apparently I missed a couple goldies and they've multiplied again so I've got 4 big ones and a couple dozen babies from last summer. They're all terrified and stay in the 5ft section when I walk up.

 

[Delapool]

Water feature looks good! Could you install it yourself or have to get sparkie out?

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Water feature looks good! Could you install it yourself or have to get sparkie out?

100% DIY. I haven't run power out to the pond yet, but I have a 20 amp GFCI protected circuit on the foundation wall of my house that runs the pond. Fountain is a 1000 GPH with a UV bulb (bought before I knew how they really worked). I've had it 3 years now but it never got put in last year.

 

[MD John]

Looking to buy a house in the next year. If it don’t have a pond. I will be adding one.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Looking to buy a house in the next year. If it don’t have a pond. I will be adding one.

I recommend planning better than I did. It'll make life easy long term. I did some things right along the way, but there are plenty I won't do again.

 

[Autumnsky]

This is why it is fun to watch the building process and how life goes with what you made.

There are a bunch of things I would do differently in fish keeping if I could go back for a do over, lol!

Koi enrgizerbunny, go for the Koi!

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Brought home two standard koi yesterday and added them to the pond with the gazillion Goldies.

 

[Autumnsky]

Hooray!

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Slowly earning their trust back so that they don't dive to the bottom every time I walk up.

 

[Autumnsky]

Tough one when you walk up and see 1 or no fish, glad they seem to be warming up to the food supplier. Can you see the Koi?

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Tough one when you walk up and see 1 or no fish, glad they seem to be warming up to the food supplier. Can you see the Koi?

Yeah the koi are running with the goldies. The big goldfish are traumatized from when I tried to get rid of all of them and I think they influence the others. But they're all slowly warming up.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

This is from this morning. I did finally get slate around the perimeter.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Long time update:

Tickled to death lately. I finally have crystal clear water. Combination of proper mechanical filtration plus 900gph going through a UV light. It's been working great this year, proof in the pudding when I clean the filter and the slight cloudiness goes away. The stones /items you can see in these pictures are 5 feet down on the bottom.

The two koi I bought last year are thriving (the big white ones). I brought home 4 new 3" koi on Monday and they seem to be getting along fine. I feed them often, twice a day for 2 days and then 24 hours no food due to my work schedule.

Finally got some plants too, that seems to really help the new generation of Goldies, which I find undesirable these days. I think it'll be a continual removal effort for a couple years.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

One of the new koi babies.

 

[Autumnsky]

That's a very good update. The pond is looking amazing with the water sooo clear!