How to find pond-savvy House-sitters, Carlsbad CA

[Criscar]

I designed my pond when i built it to be self sustaining i walk away for a month without a worry. i maybe naive but so far so good

So even if your pump gave out the bog and everything would be fine without it operating for a month?

 

[Criscar]

Same as @GBBUDD designed the pond so it is fine if I am out of town for awhile. Helps that both of us have large ponds with multiple bogs as well.

Agree, you are better off under feeding or not feeding than overfeeding. Have yet to have an issue in all the years I have been keeping ponds and fish in aquariums. But usually problems occur when the pet sitter over feeds. What I usually do for my reef tanks is break the daily feedings down into ziploc bags, and then there is no chance of the tank being over fed. My ponds I just tell who is taking care of things, to just enjoy them nothing needs to be done For its inhabitants.

I’m sure with scale comes a lot more leeway, I’m just surprised that even a larger pond would be fine for a long while with a non-functioning pump.

I didn’t feed my fish hardly ever last summer so will be easy enough on that end, and water parameters and temps weren’t an issue at all, it’s mainly pump failure/tripped circuit that would be a genuine situation.

 

[Criscar]

I have a neighbor who stops by and is under instructions, "DON'T PANIC! Just send me a message and I'll walk you through anything that needs fixing." For 25+ years, I travelled weekly for business, and only had one call and no fish were lost. (I'm relatively new to Florida, so "we" haven't been through a hurricane test scenario.) The 3 things I stress are 1) Don't stress, 2) if you add water, add conditioner, 3) don't over feed the fish.
I'd think a pet sitter can learn the basics (leave it in writing). Are all your pond hoses within the liner so any loosened connecions don't result in pond drain and your pump off the bottom of the pond?
Good luck (refer to #1: don't stress)

It’s an itty bitty above ground pond so no liner, but there’s only 3 feet of tubing that isn’t submerged, and 2ft of that could just be disconnected if need be without any serious problems, and the one foot section would be super easy to swap out.

 

[GBBUDD]

So even if your pump gave out the bog and everything would be fine without it operating for a month?

Not that good but I have enough plants o2 makers in the water and enough water per fish size. I would bet at least a couple weeks then in the heat the algae would take command .
But yeah in winter we have shut down for 4 months.
If the pump BURNED out and wasn't a result of idiots in high places power will never be out a month. But I'm sure I'd be fine with back up pumps . Submersible.
Pond is always on internet camera.

 

[GBBUDD]

3 feet of tubing. No I'm a little past that probably closer to 150 feet.
The bigger the pond the easier to keep a more stable environment . When the sun comes out and hits a small pond it can change the temps of the water very quickly that stresses out the fish. I would think the max the sun would ever do is raise my water temp maybe 10 degrees in 24 hours.