Last summer was my first summer here. I have a pond with water level which goes down dramatically (the least rain on record for August) last year. It does not go dry though.
The pond is fed by rain, roof water, and dribbling spring water. The pond is more or less circular and about 50' in diameter. I have five kinds of water lilies in it.
There is an overflow pipe in it in the unlikely case it should need to flood.
My questions are:
l. What is the cheapest way to aerate it?
2. What kinds of water plants do I need for zone 6b to help with oxygen?
3. I have a good many gold fish which aren't very big and two koi about 9". How many koi could I keep in it? How many koi should I buy to guarantee at least a mating couple (when they mature?)
4. Do I need to filter the water too? How?
5. What kind of money are we talking about here? I have a friend who can set thngs up like pumps and filters.
Thanks. I am a novice pond owner but I am so excited.
lots of advice please
How deep is your pond? You need to know that and then you can calculate how many gallons. That will tell you what size of pump and filter to get, as well as how many fish the pond can sustain. If you have rocks on the bottom that will reduce the gallons.
The most attractive way to aerate a pond is by waterfall. A pump also helps do this, you could add a fountain or something like that as well. Anything that agitates the water will help.
Keep in mind koi do get big, several feet long. It can also take them years to spawn, I think they are usually about 12 inches+ before it is even an option. All you need is one male and female with any fish but I'm sure more would provide better odds. Females are usually bigger and rounder then the males. They will eat the eggs as soon as they spawn, so you will need a kiddie pool or something to let them grow big enough so they won't be eaten by mom and dad;)
Koi need lots of room and poop a lot. If you are keeping koi you will definitely need to filter. Filters should do at least two things. Provide mechanical filtration, which removes the gunk and biofiltration that allows surface area for good bacteria to grow to break down ammonia and such. Filters can be as simple as a box or barrel full of mats, brushes or lava rock or you can spend some money for pressurized or bead filters. When it comes to my pond and aquariums, I think things stay much cleaner for the fish and myself when I overfilter, but that is just my preference:)
There are a ton of water plants to choose from. Hardy varieties can survive the winter. It is a good idea to cover 60% of your pond with plants to cut down on algae and oxygenate. Water lilies provide good shade. Floating plants like water hyacinth and water lettuce are cool. Marginal plants like reeds, grasses and iris are nice in the shallow areas.
Pond equipment can be expensive but if you can DIY some things you can save money. Your pond is already built and that is usually the most expensive part. It will really depend on how many gallons and how big of pump and filter you need. A skimmer filter is also a good idea.
Do some googling and read back in the posts. Enjoy your ponding journey! It can be addictive....lol:)
evesta,
Thanks so much! I think the pond is at least six feet deep, possibly more. The former owner thinks it must be six (My neighbor says 15', but I am inclined to go with the one who had it built.) I did look at pumps last night and I would go with one of the bigger ones. I found www.pondscapinganddesign.com; they have a lot of useful information.
I have several pond books too. This year I thought I would try to grow a lot of the marginals that I didn't grow from seed last year.
The periphery of the pond is a border of orange daylilies, tall grass, vines, and poison oak with several "weed trees" which need to come down where they might weaken the earthen dam. I am overwhelmed with the idea of eliminating what is already there, except for the poison oak.
I have seeds of rodgersia, iron weed, joe pye, rhubarb, red rooster carex, annual tri-colored ornamental corn, and a couple of other things. I need to winter sow them right away. I have a good number of Siberian iris and Japanese iris,. I think I can raise iris pseudocarus from seed (I still have some seed from SIGNA iris.) I thought I would plant pink and red castor bean plants, asparagus for their fern, sun hardy ferns, tall and shorter seed grown hibiscus,and a few kinds of primulas grown from seed last year. Probably there will be other plants too. I also have a dwarf Japanese Maple. I don't have to do all of this in one year. Living in 6b restricts me to a smaller group of plants than 7a where I used to live. My five kinds of water lilies should provide good shade and cover for the fish. I have one large area of white in addition to four in various shades of pink from last year's planting.
I would be happy to have other plant suggestions.
Last spring I released 2 koi at least 6" and watched them swim off never to be seen again until last week where they were hanging out with the gold fish. I had thrown my koi food away by then. They looked healthy to my untrained eye.
My new supplemental water source will have to be untreated water from my well.
Well water is good as long - my well has a high Ph and is causes the fish to be brightly colored. So you're telling us your pond is 50 feet across and anywhere from 6-15 feet deep? I gotta see a picture of this whopper of a FISH TANK!!!!! This is a man made pond? It's huge! Did you have in a defrost heater in the pond all winter? How did you keep the water from going stagnant last year? Estimating the water amount is difficult without depth but I am aware of a way to do it with measuring salt levels. I will look around for that info.
Do you want some good ponding sites for information and sources of supplies at reasonable prices? I get some of those together also.
Welcome to the addictive and expensive world of water gardening and fish!
http://www.koivet.com/ (a great site for information on the care and treatment of fish and the equipment that supports them. It is in conjunction with a vet who specializes in Koi and I highly recommend his book. I believe you can find the information on the amount of gallons in your "LAKE" in their forum)
http://www.abcponds.com/pond-maintenance/pond-winter-maintenance.htm (good prices and information)
http://www.sacramentokoi.com/ (good site for outstanding information)
http://texaswaterlilies.com/ (excellent source of water plants, quality of plants and prices great-they were part of a Daves Garden co-op last month and offered a little bit higher than wholesale of a group of select plants-contact them by phone and see if they would extend that offer to one-it was outstanding)
http://store.123ponds.com/index.html (another great source of supply)
I have personally bought items from most of these vendors. All of these vendors have been discussed at length on this site and have been recommended by other ponders here stating that they had great products at some of the most reasonable pricing.