In need of help!

[newpondguy]

Currently I have a 130 gallon pond that I just put in last weekend and landscaped it. It is 4feet by 2.5 feet by 16'' deep. I know I asked before but now I have the names of the goldfish I have. Right now I have 2 Shubunkin goldfish and one comet goldfish in the pond. The pond has a 220 gph pump and biofilter. Will those 3 fish happily live their full life in the pond? I have debated for two days on whether to take the preformed pond out and dig my own or keep it there. Any and all help will be appreciated!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Your fish will be just fine.
Some will disagree with what I'm about to say, and rightfully so, but at one point I had three Shubunkins living in a 30 gallon pond. They lived happy and healthy their entire two years in there. It was before I knew much of anything about the hobby. I now have them in a 400 gallon flexible liner pond with a few others.

I'd recommend a flexible liner just because you can customize it to exactly how you want it. Its not something you would need to do to keep your fish happy and healthy, just something that you may prefer in a year or two.

Though, again, your 3 fish should be completely happy in the 130 gallon pond.

 

[JohnHuff]

The answer is yes, unless you live somewhere where it'll ice over in the winter, like say, Ohio. But I think eventually you'll want to buy more fish and dig a deeper pond, everybody does.

 

[addy1]

Your pond looks great btw! beautiful job

I have a small deck pond, had no clue there was one fish left in it when I pulled the fish for the winter, small shubunkins. It iced over, the fish did fine. Very low load with only one fish. My preforms have misc fish in them, rosey reds, a stray gf shubunkin, they ice over in the winter, so far the fish have survived, again low load.

 

[newpondguy]

Thank you for your help. We were able to get up this morning and go out and measure a new pond. It will be 6ft by 4ft by 2ft deep, that will be 360 gallons. That way our 220 gph pump and biofilter will be able to keep up with the pond. We may try to go 30 in deep but we will have to see how hard the clay is and we will have to shape the pond differently so we don't over do it with the pump.

 

[slakker]

How cold does it get in Fremont OH? If you're digging, it may be worth going a bit deeper if the winters are cold so you won't need to bring the fishes inside for the winter.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

I personally would not be comfortable leaving the fish in a pond that size over the winter in Ohio (I also live in Ohio) You could always bring the fish indoors over the winter (that's what I have done for the last 4 years) I kept mine in a rubbermaid livestock water trough in our utility room (works great and doesn't cost a lot)

Kinda got tired of doing that though and are now in the process of digging the pond deeper to make it 3 feet deep and approx 700 gallons (right now it's only about 165 gallons and 18 inches deep)

 

[pecan]

Beautiful pond and landscaping. It sounds like your fish load is not bad. Your fish should be fine except when winter hits. I would dig for the main reason of going deeper for winter. I would go 3' deep just to be safe when it ices over. You can always dig down 2' and raise it up a foot above the ground too if you don't want to dig as much.

 

[newpondguy]

I should also add that the pond is nestled in between our house (which has a basement) and a black top driveway. Will those help hold some warmth in the pond? We are looking to dig possibly 2 1/2 feet deep. We would like to keep them in the pond throughout the winter. Right now the pond is only 16'' deep and I already hit some hard clay, so making it to 30'' will be a struggle. We plan to also have the pond built up about 5'' out of the ground, so total it would be 35'' deep.

 

[newpondguy]

Beautiful pond and landscaping. It sounds like your fish load is not bad. Your fish should be fine except when winter hits. I would dig for the main reason of going deeper for winter. I would go 3' deep just to be safe when it ices over. You can always dig down 2' and raise it up a foot above the ground too if you don't want to dig as much.

Thank you!

 

[newpondguy]

Maybe I should use spell check, can't spell today! lol

 

[pecan]

I should also add that the pond is nestled in between our house (which has a basement) and a black top driveway. Will those help hold some warmth in the pond? We are looking to dig possibly 2 1/2 feet deep. We would like to keep them in the pond throughout the winter. Right now the pond is only 16'' deep and I already hit some hard clay, so making it to 30'' will be a struggle as that. We plant to also have the pond built up about 5'' out of the ground, so total it would be 35'' deep.

I think that should be fine with a total depth of 35". It is smart that you built the pond up above grade too so you don't have to worry about run off getting into the pond when you have heavy rains.

In the winter, you will just need to shut the pump down and drop in an air stone with bubbles that move the water enough to keep a hole in ice and you will be good to go. Not sure what your zone is but here in a zone 7, I shut mine down around Dec 1 and start it back up around March 1.

 

[newpondguy]

It can get pretty cold about 3 years ago it got down to -15F, 2 years ago it was a warm winter rarely got below 20 degrees and last year was fairly warm as well. Snow doesn't stick around too long. The average high on the coldest part of the winter is 35F. Nothing ever freezes too much around here for long.

 

[newpondguy]

I think that should be fine with a total depth of 35". It is smart that you built the pond up above grade too so you don't have to worry about run off getting into the pond when you have heavy rains.

In the winter, you will just need to shut the pump down and drop in an air stone with bubbles that move the water enough to keep a hole in ice and you will be good to go. Not sure what your zone is but here in a zone 7, I shut mine down around Dec 1 and start it back up around March 1.

We are now considered zone 6 this year, thank you for the advice I was hoping that 35'' would be a good depth, I think I finally have this figured out!

 

[newpondguy]

One last question (yeah, right) will my 220 gph pump work for the new 380 gallon pond? I've heard as long as the entire pond water is circulated at least once every two hours it will work.