Hi Jase so your in one of the koiless states of Australia eh mate suc a shame as your missing out on one hell of a fish , I can only suggest moving to one of the two states that allow them over there .
Those silly bastards in your government are really missing out on something here mate "totally KHV free koi", wheb the rest of the koi world is suffering through this disease the Aussy koi keeper is free of it but in th same breath those in government wish to intoduce it to Austrailia to rid itself of all the wild carp (cane toad comes to mind here).........
They could make a killing big style yet they risk infecting the only KHV free fish by doing this, such a darm shame perhaps someone should have a chat in the shell like ofthe Minister for fisheries .
The only book I can offer you on goldfish is one I have in our koi/fish health library some 27 years in collecting giving you title ISBN and Author the Vet who wrote it just also happens to be a koi Vet .
The books name is as follows Fancy Goldfish "A complete guide to care and collecting" ISBN 1859749577 by Dr Erik L Johnson DVM and Richard E Hess with Photographs by Fred Rozenzweig.
Fish Health Wise The Interpet Manual of Fish Health ISBN 184286074 by Dr Chris Andrews, Adrian Exell and Dr Neville Carrington this was my first ever fish health book and the book that started our 27 year hobby but it was then a Salamander book with Interpet buying them out at a later date, so I have both copies which are still very useful to us to this day.
The collection just hit the 70 book barrier and looks set to go on as we go on lol
My reasoning you have to have what you say about in books correct or you soon stop having a carreer as an Author so what weve created is a massive cross reference library of fish health knowledge by the way that last book has a Plymouth connection in Adrian Exell and Plymouth is my home port. (ex Her majesties Royal Navy).......
Remove the rocks by all means thats a great idea but leave the gravel mate your storing up no end of problems if you do it that way , just allow the bottom to get a green covering it looks natural that way and is far less hassle gravel is a trap for detritus and can harbour no end of nasties your worst being gram negative bateria .
Our Pond filters do exactly that, that is mechanically clean your water of all detritus a fish passes out the arse end but also produce helpful bacteria helpful to this clean up and for the pond itself and thus to the well being of your fish....
How many gallons imperial is your pond again , "sort term memory problems" sorry , ours is 1,000 gallons imperial we do a 30% water change on a weekly basis only (you never water change to 100% unless a dire emergancy calls for this to be done i;e pollutuon of the water by say weed killer or oil .....
Pump wise we clean that three times a year spring mid summer and late Autumn and give the filters a boost with Microbe-lift PL Filterpad innocculent gel which kick starts the process once again .
Thisroutine of water changes and filter cleans should keep your fish hail and hearty for the rest of their days and believe me when I say days a goldfish can if propperly looked after live as long as 40 years koi upwards to 80+ years .
As long as the algae isnt string algae I wouldnt worry about it , (look at it as the algae being one giant lung but made up from algae cells) which is good for your pond but remember its a plant and plants at night reverse and produce C02 instead so an air stone or two is required .
Our pond is normally spotless apart from green algea sides and bottom, koi love to destroy plants so we UK koi keepers go for a formal pond with no other plants,.
One tip I suggest Jase is to buy a couple of lined books and split them into different catagories Maintenamce of Pond , Maintenance of Filter , Maintenance of U/V-C Maintenance of Pump . Water Perameter readings Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ph, Kh, Gh and a final category for all fish health matters , you are in acctual fact building a data base you can eventually look back into to see where you had problems with water Perameters Fish Health changing your U/V-C etc if you get where I'm coming from with this oh and I know this may sound stupid buy yourself a generator to keep the whole pond ticking over in event of a powercut , they cost next to nothing nowadays our own is a Clarks 700 4 stroke but a small box generator 2 stroke will suffice to do the job .
Hope I've been of some genuine help to you here Jase "your thoughts please mate"..
Dave