My goldfish pond

[addy1]

Buy her roses! and start digging! That would be neat cometkeith, and you water sure is clear. Very nice fish

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks, JW the spotted orange one is a watonai and there are definitely some shubunkins there too. Addy, Yes, I should start digging while she is still okay with it! but I think I'll wait for warmer weather and keep planning it so the dig goes smoothly. Yes the water is really clear. I still have not totally cleaned the bottom yet. I'm worried that if I stir up too much bacteria it might hurt them until my pond is fully cycled. I think I read somewhere it is better to clean your pond in the fall instead of the spring because of all the harmful bacteria you stir up. I rebuilt my waterfall today and was able to raise the source of the water so it makes more of a splash and further out into the water. Also I noticed something funny. When I get close to the pond all the fish huddle in the middle and go deeper in the water, but if I look at them when I am in the garage through the window they are all very busy and active and don't notice me. I'll try to take a picture through the window.

 

[addy1]

Mine are doing that, they are slowly getting used to me feeding them off and on. Ow they head to the deep as soon as they see me, still nervous I think from the cold, quiet winter. I am leaving the liner floating until they get a little calmer and some plants grow.

 

[CountryEscape]

Sounds like a grand idea, Keith!
My fish follow me around the pond. LOL Literally, I'm not joking. I can stop at the skimmer, and they come there. If I'm at the bog on the other side, they are over the bog edge watching me. BUT, I've not had any predators, like you, Addy, so I suspect your fish are more worried about that. My goldfish take a few minutes to find me (in the goldfish pond, not in the koi pond, those goldies follow the koi's cut) and then they say topside and check out what I'm up to. Also, both of my ponds are pretty murky still. And, I have netted the bottom twice, thinking that it could be the problem for the murky water, now I'm wondering if I should leave it be and see what happens. Thanks for the pointer, Keith. Anyone else think that is a bad thing, to net out the bottom in the spring, or more than once maybe?

 

[addy1]

I netted my bottom about three days after I turned it on. Did not have a bunch of muck, just some leaves. Around 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket of leaves and junk. Didn't seem to bother them at all. But maybe if you have a lot of stuff sitting there it is better to wait for your filter to really kick in.
I also net mine in the winter right before I turn off the pump.

 

[CountryEscape]

OK, I did the netting last winter, too. This spring, there were matts of the algae, thanks to the beneficial bacteria product I use, and what I pulled out would not have been any more than you are talking, just different kind of stuff. I sure wish I had clear water, just looking for any ideas to help me get there. Just going to have to wait for the filter to kick in full force. This warm and then cooler weather may be holding things up some, too. Ho hum ... patience is certainly a virtue I don't think I got. LOL

 

[addy1]

laughing ce, I built a skippy when I first got my pond running to get rid of the fine dirt. I am impatient also, have not used it since, just sitting there all pretty and lonely.

 

[CountryEscape]

Well, my filter in the koi pond is the Skippy style, and it's still murky. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, but the fish are happy, no one has died, plants are growing, so just figure I need to get some shade coverage with plants and it will sooner or later clear up. At least it's not green! The goldfish pond seemed to be trying to go green, but the bog must be holding that in check so far. Have UV light on koi pond, just in case, but none on the goldfish pond. Don't plant to buy another one either. Will wait and see ...
Patience must be a virtue many are lacking in ....

 

[addy1]

I put a bunch of real fine filtering material in my skippy one, ce, a bunch of quilt batting in net bags, door screening. A few ac filters, anything that would grab and hold on to fine stuff. Used a real low flow pump, (well low flow for my pond) around 600 gph. Ran if for around 3 days, cleared the water up, have not used it since.

The water had a slight murk to it this year when I first turned on the pond, within 24 hours the pond cleared.

 

[CountryEscape]

Yep, I need to get more quilt batting and get it in that filter! Didn't think about that, and have the quilt batting. BUT, I don't have a filtration system on the goldfish pond, so I guess I could try to rig up the quilt batting on the outflow of the stream and bog! Another evening project up ahead!

 

[CometKeith]

CE, just curious are you doing any water changes? I would think that regular water changes of 15-20% should help clear it. Mine cleared up really nice when my bio-filter started leaking. I was adding about 10-15% new water everyday until I finally fixed it. I got two more fish from my friend today. One has a lot of orange in it's tail. These are pictures of the fish from earlier today before I added the two new ones.

 

[CountryEscape]

That's another thought, Keith. Come to think of it, I never did any water changes to speak of last year, just kept adding water when it would evaporate in the heat of the summer months, which was often unless it rained. I've been doing that now, too, but not really emptying any out to refresh it with new water. Tomorrow I'll give that a try as well. Have a meeting tonight, so have the roll of screen wire to help hold the quilt batting together and another roll of quilt batting, so I'm all ready to get that under my outflows of water and see if that will help clear up the water. Time will tell ....

 

[CometKeith]

CE, I think the water changes gives a lot of benefits; reduces the concentration of ammonia, provides fresh water, and also some say by altering the amount of fish pheromones it encourages spawning behavior. Just one or two small water changes won't do a lot. It has to be numerous ones, but obviously not too much water at once. I have an extra hose and I run it from the pump to what i want to water that day. I probably did about 20 water changes already this year. I started with dark brownish water (it looked like I was making wine!) from all the leaves that fell into the pond in the winter and it is pretty clear right now. Maybe next year I'll break down and get a net to protect it from leaves. My neighbor has a giant cottonwood tree that forms a canopy over part of our yard and the pond, not to mention our other trees that love to dump leaves in the pond!

 

[CountryEscape]

My problem is not leaves, though. I have 2 large elm trees, but they are quite a ways away, and their leaves are very tiny. I also have 2 fairly large soft maples but their leaves shrivel up to pretty small, too, and the winds tend to blow them right off of my yard, not so many get into the pond. Even when all the leaves are falling, I still never have that many in the skimmer or on the bottom come spring. I have more problems with algae on the bottom, or it makes it way there with the beneficial bacteria. I think the water changes will help though as you say for the ammonia numbers, which I need to check again. I checked when the temps first got warm, and it was either zero or .25, the lowest marks. All other numbers were good. But, I have been feeding the fish every other day the last couple of weeks (quit though on Sat. because temps were dropping again, darn it) so the waste will increase from that. I'll just keep trying different things until I figure out what works, or all of a sudden it will just be clear, like last year. That's wishful thinking, but I tend to believe it will happen again, when the plants take off and things start growing and using up the wastes.

 

[CometKeith]

CE I haven't fed mine yet this year. I think it's better for me to hold off until the pond cycles. Also at that point the plants are growing and using some of the nitrates that algae also feeds on. Your right that the plants should help keep the algae down. My fish are busy eating the small amounts of algae on the liner and rocks. Last year I fed them when we had a warm spell early in Spring and I had a few fish get sick after that. I checked the pond right after that and the ammonia was too high. This year they have all been good except for the one that committed suicide by jumping into the rocks and getting stuck in the waterfall. I am up to 17 fish now. I got 5 total from my friend in the last week. Each of them are at least 4-5" just for the bodies and the tails go another 3-4 inches. This is the most fish I have ever had and I am still thinking about getting a few more. I am thinking of ordering a few fish on line. I have my eye on a yellow comet and a red and black shubunkin and a few others. I better get ready to start digging the expansion project soon!