Cleaning debris with laguana hoover

[FredrikAnderson]

Okey, here is where I am at and what I was planning. I am building a pond and doing it as inexpensive as possible. I will upgrade when money isn't as tight but this is where I am at now: I have a pond that I built from a hot tub shell. It holds between 300-350gallons of water. I am using the pump that was part of the hot tub and am happy with the low flow on it(it had a high speed that was about 2700gph and a low speed that I am guessing is somewhere like 900gph maybe a little less). I have built a 16gal skippy filter with a dump valve. Water goes into the pump through a 1.5" hose. It comes out 1.5" and then branches to 3 different pipes. A 1" line that goes to a bog that I am soon going to be adding. A 1" line that goes to the filter, and exits the filter onto the waterfalls. And a 1.25 that goes straight to the water falls. I just drained my pond because I am going to remove the rock I put in. Once removed I will proceed to fill it up again. I just found out that a friend of mine is giving me a RO DI unit with a float valve and I will just have to get new filters for it. I plan to use this to refill my pond which should solve my chlorine issues. It will top off my pond automaticlly as well so I shouldn't have to worry about chlorine anymore. I am trying to figure out if my jel bacteria is gone at this point or if it will still work given that I only ran it for a few days. Because I got the hot tub free from Craigs List along with the retaining wall stones and a lot of other building materials I have less then 200 dollars into this project so far. Also, this pond gets all day sun. I am getting ready to get some plants to try to make it a little more hospitable and I am going to plant a Green Weeping Japanese Maple right next to the pond but it will be a while until that grows enough to be any help with shade.
I have a friend across the street that has a lot of koi and goldfish. His has told me that I can have some of his 4" all red ones (not sure if they are goldfish or koi for sure but I think they are goldfish). Right now I have 3 mosquito eaters in the pond that I put in a while ago to eat the mosquito larva that was getting bad in there. I understand that they can live in almost anything so I can't expect to keep goldfish or koi alive just because the mosquito eaters are living.
Here are a couple pictures so you get the full idea and I can get the full critique. Love the feedback so keep it coming.

 

[koikeepr]

Hey, nice job. I always marvel at how ponders can do wonderful things on the cheap!

By the way, you might want to be careful of planting that tree too close to the pond and using it for shade. You wouldn't believe what a nightmare it is to keep leaves out of the water! Total pain in the neck and they can cause quite the mucky water should they decompose in there and be harmful to your fish. If you're interested in shading for the water you could rig up a sun shade pretty inexpensively or a pergola type thing. I just use water plants like water hyacinths and water lettuce for the same effect.

 

[Robyn]

Well I am just getting started. I have had the water in there for only about 4 days before I put the bacteria onto my media. I have been running the filter now for like 3-4 days. Kind of forgot the chlorine in the water to start with and now I am wondering if I should start over with the bacteria.

If I am reading this right... you put water in pond... ran it or let it sit for 4 days, then added bacteria and have run it another 4 days?

Not sure what size your pond is, but you should be fine.

You can check what I say if you like... but the chlorine dissapates. If you fill a jug with regular tap water and leave it on your counter overnight... it will be fish safe the next day. Granted... ponds contain more than one gallon of water. But with the greater surface area, the agitation and aeration, the warmth from the water heating up, etc... I really do not think you will have any real worries!

For dechlor in future, I have always liked Stress Coat Plus.

This is the pond version. I do not need it for my pond, my water is from a well. But I do use the aquarium and marine tank versions! I may get some for the koi just for the other benefits it has though.

 

[gardenplanters]

Hi,
I have two very large ponds, so it is worth it for me to have an Oase Pondvac. I couldn't imagine opening and dumping over and over. But many folks do magical things with the shop vac, and some brilliant DIY ponders have even rigged up shopvacs in fascinating ways to act more like your hoover.

I really only use mine twice per year--in the early spring when I re-open the pond and in late summer.