My pond is about a 600-700 gallons pond. -
I have a dozen gold fishes anywhere from 3"-6"and now seven koi 6"-8"
I use a skimmerfilter with a 3000 gph pump and separately I have a waterfall powered by a 700 gph pump housed in my ownmade filter, a 3 gallons bucket,with some lava rocks and pillow filler for filtering media. This was working fine till I increased the fish load (the seven koi).
Now every 3 days it is full (the three gallon filter) and needs cleaning...time to make/get a bigger one.
Does anyone have any suggestions and/or instructions?
I'm thinking of building my own under water filter....
Pictures of the pond: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/386415/
That's a lot of fish for a pond that size. Going to be a lot of cleaning no matter what kind of filter you get.
Hmm....was afraid of that, is there a formula on how any fish I should have?
(that reminds me of that old joke...I cannot be overdrawn at the bank, I still have a few checks in the checkbook...)
I might just have to buld another pond than...
There is a formula, but for the life of me I can't remember it. It has to do with mass of fish to volume of water and surface area in inches. The one that works for indoor fish tanks(one inch of fish per gallon of water) is a total disaster if you try to use it for ponds. What matters more than the length of your fish is their mass, oxygen consumption, and waste production. I'll look for that formula for you and post it here if I find it. Meanwhile, watch the fish for signs of stress, keep the filter cleaned regularly, and do partial water changes if needed. NEVER change all of the water because you will throw out all your good bacteria with the old water. What were you going to do with the fish come winter? Now is about the time I start setting up indoor holding facilities for mine.
Oh yeah-I'd like my pie cut in six pieces, I couldn't possibly eat eight...
The pond is 3' deep, the gold fishes have survived 3 winter under the ice but it will be the first for the koi.
I just looked at your photos more carefully, I didn't realize you've had your pond for a couple years. It's really pretty. I couldn't tell from the photos-could you expand the pond? Maybe build another pool to flow into this one? That would increase your gallons and surface area. Much of my filtration is done by water hyacinth-plants eat up the waste the fish produce and grow like crazy. I'm glad your fish can stay out. I built my pond too shallow and it is such a hassle bringing them in every year! Maybe keep a hole in the surface of the ice this year to help with gas exchange now that you have a larger fish load.
I apologize for not realizing that you are an experienced ponder. I used to work in a garden center and the horror stories I could tell about ponds gone bad! When I read that you had doubled your fish load, I jumped to the wrong conclusion. Koi are so gorgeous though, it is hard to resist them. I keep thinking I will tear out my pond and build bigger, but then I'd probably end up with fish in the house all summer too, and that would drive me crazy! Let me know how it's going. I'll keep looking for that formula, haven't found it today.
Thanks but I am not an experienced ponder...I play around a bit and got lucky.
A friend of mine talked me into putting koi in...was going to get just 4-5 somehow I ended up with 7...hopefully I did not over do it
Well, if you've got fish that have lived for three years, you're doing something right! I got so tired of the people who shpped at my store replacing fish every other week because they had killed last week's fish-again. If you are interested, Helen Nash wrote a couple of very nice pond books which I can't remember the title to of course. A local library should be able to get them for you. I read gardening all winter when it is too cold to play outside!
Here's a fish calculator I found on the internet.
http://mi.lake-link.com/anglers/calculators/
Glenda
That's interesting. I'm still looking for the one about aquarium fish, but no luck finding it so far.