Help setting up pond

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Hey all. New to this forum and new to ponds. Our family recently moved into a bigger house and it hapened to have a nice sized pond with a bridge over it. The pond is about 8'x3ft and its deepest part is probably around 4ft. The filtration is as follows: Some sort of rock filter in the deep part of the pond, a tetrapond canister filter, and a big tub of pumice stone that the water gets put through after the other two filters. It seems like a nice setup. My problem is algae. The pond is full of it. Stringy algae everywhere. Theres also alot of insects in the pond. I have been dosing it with Algaefix for a while and its done little for it. How would I go about getting my pond ready for Koi this april? I've heard of mosquito fish that will take care of the insect problem, has anyone had success with them? Any input is appreciated, thanks!
 

sissy

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more than likely lava rock if they are red.Sorry to say but your pond is not really big enough for koi 9 years ago mine were a couple of inches long and now they are over 2 feet long and koi are fussy about there water quality
[sharedmedia=core:attachments:52795].Water movement does not produce mosquitos .
 
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What do you do with the red lava rock? And I believe my pond will be sufficient. Its much bigger than the one at my LFS and they have over 10 Koi in it. But thanks for getting back to me!
 

sissy

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my pond is 10x 25 and is over 4 ft deep is to small as I have 13 fish .lava rock is in my filters .
 
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Morton - what type of filtration do you have?

Sissy - how many gallons do you have? You may be ok with 13 fish, as long as you have the extra filtration.
 
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Ok. Just got my lazy self up and got the true measuremeants. 17ft long, 6ft wide (at skinniest part, its sort of like an 8 shape) and 4.5ft deep. So I apologize for being so off haha. The gallon calculator on pondcare.com says around 2000 gallons. I dont know if thats true or not haha
 

sissy

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my gallon calculator on the net says it is 7482.2 gallons .Not sure that is right but thats what it says .I have the 2 filters but koi produce a lot of waste .I have baby fish but not sure how many .2 years ago I gave away 30 babies to friends starting ponds .I don't want more work so less fish means less work and i really don't have the time for them and the land .
 
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I have a rock type filter on the bottom of the pond which then goes to a tetrapond canister filter which then goes through a pipe and blasted through black lava pumice stone.
 
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Sissy - I had that problem with fry too. We started adding the bullfrog tads and that took care of the problem - I wouldn't do that with smallish fish - how big is your smallest fish?

Morton - do you know what the gallons per hour are on your pump?

I have 17 good sized koi in just under 5000 gallons. The pond stays clear and clean, but we have filtration through the pumps, the skimmer and then through our bogs.

Do either of you have bottom drain?
 

sissy

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I do have some of the good lava rock a friend sent me from Hawaii ,the so called lava rock here is just clinkers from brink making so not real lava rock .Why they call it that I have no idea .Pressure filters are not the best i have 2 just sitting in my basement unused .
 

sissy

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no bottom drain and took the bullfrogs to live some where else and way to many tadpoles so took them down to the creek across the road from my house /My smallest fish are my fantails and the 2 of them are over 6 inches long.Not sure how many babies i have but the new neighbors may take them after i talked to them today and said they want to put a pond or pondless and told them i have babies if they want them
 
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I would definitely give them to your neighbors if they want them. I had found from having goldfish, that they are breeding machines.
 

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sure are even koi produce lots of babies and kinda hard to tell whats what until they get there whiskers and hoping they decide and I can give them some water and filter stuff from my pond to help get theres running faster .They asked me to stop over and look at what and where they have in mind for a pond .I took apart several abandoned ponds for realtors and moved fish and gave them away .I don't want more .
 

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