My goldfish pond

[CometKeith]

@CometKeith ah cute kids and bet they will grow up to want ponds too maybe someday! You have some big beautiful fish in that pond. I see lilies getting ready to bloom also.

Thanks JW. I think a pond does help kids enjoy nature so maybe they will someday. They are just 4 and 2 so it might be a while! Just found out our downstairs tenant was feeding the fish while we were gone! He said he threw a handful of food in every day! Luckily I had just wheat germ based spring food in my outdoor cabinet so all is good!

 

[CometKeith]

This is a pic from our third floor porch. I need to remember how this looks so when all the plants are overgrown a few months from now it will remind me to cut things back We haven’t planted any flowers yet. Hopefully we will have that done by next week.! Basically the layout is bog on the left, lilies in the middle and open water on the right.

 

[GBBUDD]

Looks like quite the full house

 

[CometKeith]

Looks like quite the full house

Thanks yes you are right! 9 Koi that keep growing and about 40 or 50 goldfish that keep having babies in around 3000 + gallons. I’m at my limit to how large I can build the pond if I want to stay married ….. but I can keep adding filtration as needed. The last two years all have been healthy but I don’t want to take anything for granted!

 

[Tula]

If you do add more filtration you could consider a shower.

 

[CometKeith]

So my Koi were lined up at the waterfall tonight. We had 3 days in a row of hot weather and it seems like the pond is heating up. My old air pump broke over the winter so I’m ordering a new one pronto! I definitely need more aeration….

 

[GBBUDD]

i suggest nitto air pumps

 

[CometKeith]

i suggest nitto air pumps

Thank you for the advice. I had just ordered a Koi Air pump 1 from Amazon before I posted this. I’ll definitely look into the Nitto pumps in the future.

 

[GBBUDD]

If you look around you'll see the same shape and numbers on these pumps, Nitto makes for many different brands

 

[Tula]

Keith if you have an extra pump you could put it in the pond and shoot it towards the pond's surface to increase aeration until the new air pump arrives.

 

[CometKeith]

Keith if you have an extra pump you could put it in the pond and shoot it towards the pond's surface to increase aeration until the new air pump arrives.

Hi Tula. Thanks for that suggestion. I do have a few extra pumps if I need to start them up, but the temperatures dropped over 20 degress from yesterday so I think the cooler water will help with dissolved O2 and I also cleaned up the algae hanging from my waterfall and the flow from it increased considerably so hopefully it will be okay. Also the air pump will be here by Thursday. I guess you never know with these things and my largest Koi which is almost 2 ft was definitely favoring hanging out by the waterfall along with the rest of the Koi so I figured I better get the replacement aerator asap. I have had one working continuously for 3 years so it was a little weird not having one. Also I bought a much more powerful bog pump last year and had an issue with the connection not holding on with the existing flexible piping so I never attached it. Someone I work with suggested I get some hose clamps to hold it together and I just got them today so that might be one more thing to help with water flow. Do your Koi ever hang out by your waterfall? Would you consider that to be an emergency situation? Mine usually don’t so thats why I got so alarmed.

 

[Tula]

Yes my koi hang out by the water fall, but not near the surface.....down deep. I think they like that it's like a little cove. I have two aerators one powerful and one " regular". I only run the big one in the heat of the summer.....it's actually overkill for my pond and really churns up the water.

I preventatively change their diaphragms every other year. My smaller one is getting up there in years so will probably look for a sale and have it on hand for when it dies.

 

[CometKeith]

Hi Tula. Mine were at the surface so I felt I needed to do something . Also my old one broke.. I think it was dropped too many times because I kept it on an outside window ledge that was kinda precarious. Now the new one is inside my garage with the tube running through the window opening to the pond. I put it in this afternoon. The fish seemed a little freaked out at first but I will see how it goes when they get used to it!

 

[CometKeith]

I moved my new aerator a little towards my lilies. It kinda pushed them together but it gave more open water my fish to swim. You can see the bubbles from it to the left of the waterfall. Also I connected my bigger pump to my bog. Last year I tried taping the hose to the pump with duct tape and it didn’t work. This tIme I used a plumbing clamp that goes around the pipe that you tighten with a screw and it worked fine. I’m hoping the bigger bog pump will help the bog be more effective. The pond looked a little clearer already, but maybe thats just wishful thinking!

 

[CometKeith]

I took this pic yesterday evening right after I fed them. All the orange goldfish were born in my pond. Some are up to 10 years old. Most of them started out black and changed colors. My brain tells me that I should give some away as my Koi grow to decrease the bio-load, but my heart won‘t let me!