My pond is about 8 inches lower than normal and with today being a warmer day could I run the hose into it to get the level up or would that be bad with all the decayed leaves that got into the pond from fall cleanup until now. I don't want to stir up that mess but more water and more O2 in the water might be appreciated by the fish. What's your opinion?
Zone 5-Can I add water to the pond-it's evaporating
Yup - It's OK. I had to add water to the gold fish pond last week. It had dropped about 4" from evaporation. I used the hose, water from an outside faucet and added dechlorinator just like it was summer. In your situation I would add the water slowly. It should be no problem. My big koi pond is holding steady at about an 1" under its normal level. We are expecting rain next week so I'm hoping I wont have to add any water there. Rain! Real wet rain! I 'm delerious at the prospect of something coming from the sky that's not frozen!!!!!
This message was edited Feb 6, 2009 2:53 PM
At 8:30 am it was 22 degrees here (I was driving my kids to school) and at 3:30 pm it was 47 degrees (picking up the kids). What a fluctuation!
Thanks for the input.
Linda
I'm sure glad I've done this for going on nine years. There are few things I haven't faced for this zone and few mistakes I haven't made.
Things I wish I new more about:
Bead Filtration - I plan on upgrading someday. It's expensive and it looks like you'd better get it right the first time.
Scraping and scoping - I go the local koi pond store with some fish slime. I should have been doing my own long before now. Lazy and unwilling to invest in the necessary equipment.
Spawning - Up until now it's always come as a surprise for which I was totally unprepared and the koi ate the eggs before I could get any in a tank. That' s my vow for this year. Like a Scout I'm going to be prepared.
I'm sure there's more, but that's the top three. Tomorrow when it warms up maybe I can go out and count koi noses. I haven't seen them for weeks. I've never been more anxious. This was the longest record cold spell I and the koi have experienced. I hope I don't have to learn any hard lessons about winterkill. The pond never iced over. It has always had a decent area of open water for gas exchange. I sure have my fingers crossed.
are you not feeding them
Absolutely not. No food until water temps reach 50° Then only every other day until temps get to around 60°- 65° Wheat germ based is fed until water temps get to 70°, then a switch to growth protein based feed. As of about a week ago I have seen nine of the eleven. hey looked to be in good condition. The other two are dark and the water is murky so I think they are OK but I just can't see them due to the water conditions.
how deep is your pond and how large I want one in my yard, my sister has a beautifull pond but keeps the fish inside for the winter so she feeds her's lol because they are inside hahahah sorry about that