Need Help

[Jason M]

Ok so I have had my pond up for 15 months now, however I was out of the country with the Army for twelve of those. I got the pond set up last August right before I left and we threw a few $.25 Comets in there for my going away party. Well I came home for two weeks in May and everything was looking good so I went out and got some plants and three Koi. When I was putting in the plants stirring up the water made me notice some fry from the comets well I didn't have much time to deal with them seeing as I had to go back over seas. Now that I am home and trying to wrap things up for the winter the water has become very dirty, I am asuming from both from the plants and the extra 100-150 comets that I now have. The pond is roughly 1800 gallons and I have a 4000gpm pump running through an external 2500 gallon tetra pond filter.

I plan to go get an aerator this weekend for the winter. I tried to catch some of the comets and give them to some people but was only able to catch about 25 of them, they are just to fast and have to many places to hide. I know I need to get rid of a lot of them and plan on doing so in the spring, I just hope they don't create about 5,000 fry in the meantime. I also am adding a waterfall and want to build my own filters as I fell the Tetra Pond filter just is not doing the trick.

My questions are:
1. Is there anything that I can do now to clear up the water? or should I wait until the spring?
2. Is it ok to leave that many fish in there over the winter?
3. Can someone please give me some guidance on building my own bio filter?

Thanks,
I live in Northern Kentucky which is in zone 6a.The first two pictures are from when I cam home in May, the next two are from May when I added the plants. And the last four are the current conditions.

 

[j.w]

One thing I can tell you about population control if you only had goldfish (don't know about koi w/this) but if you don't feed the goldfish you can stop the new births a lot. I didn't have any new goldfish in my first pond,well maybe one or two but for the most part it was kept under control by not feeding for the several yrs I had it running. They can get buy eating whatever falls into their pond, worms, flies, algae, plant roots etc. Koi may be different on this idea tho and since you have koi in there well there goes the plan out the window. Guess you could try throwing the food only to the koi but those little goldies are fast like you found out!

You could try using the white pillow stuffing(why can't I ever think of the name here everyone uses for this stuff) in a laundry basket set under that pipe you have shooting water into the pond. When the white stuff gets full of the green gunk take it out clean it and put it back in till your water gets clearer. You can set the basket on something so it is raised up out of the pond some so all the gunk doesn't just flow back into the pond.

With proper filtration you can leave that many fish over winter but others may know better how much filtration you would actually need to do that. I don't have a filter currently and just do partial water changes. Works for me but then my pond is about 2500 gals and only about 50 fish or so, all goldfish not really huge ones either.

Oh just thought of the word they use for the pillow stuffing...........think it's batting and you can buy it at Wal-mart in the sewing dept. I've also bought it at Christmas, its the stuff they use to make it look like snow around decorations. I found that ripping out the old stuffing on a lawn swing I had worked even better as it was firmer and didn't wad up at all. It was a big rectangle sheet like thing.

 

[Ruben Miranda]

Hello
Welcome
to help clear things up I would suggest water changes.
No more then 50 percent and make sure ou use declor when adding the water back in.
As winter sets in and the water gets colder that Algea will die off.
But I would also recomend a UV to help with the Algea.

Looks like and sounds like there are a lot of nutrients in the water with all the fish and feeding.
Do a few ater changes not all in one day but every other day or 3rd or 4th day feed less
Do what what J.W suggested to help strain the water
and if you can install a UV

Ruben M.

 

[JohnHuff]

1. Is there anything that I can do now to clear up the water? or should I wait until the spring?
--- The opacity is due to suspended stuff in the water. Pre-filters have always worked for me, that's just a strainer that you put where the water enters the hose.

2. Is it ok to leave that many fish in there over the winter?
--- Yes.

3. Can someone please give me some guidance on building my own bio filter?
--- There are so many to chose from. Difficult to pin down for you, there are Skippies, moving beds, trickle towers, and showers. The simplest thing for you to do might be just to dump everything inside that Tetra and fill it with K1 media.

 

[crsublette]

1. Is there anything that I can do now to clear up the water? or should I wait until the spring?

Explosion in fish population dictates an explosion in organics, or nutrients, present in water. Looks like the water coming out of the spout there is quite green as well. It might be what is called "pea green algae", that is a free floating algae. I would be careful about removing this if your fish population is still quite high. This floating algae could be acting as your primary bio-filtration to prevent any toxins from harming your fish. First, try to get more fish out. Then, properly install a UV and see if it helps; it is extremely important the UV is properly sized for your flow rate and properly installed otherwise it might not work.

2. Is it ok to leave that many fish in there over the winter?

From a quick Google, looks like you're in a 5b~6b hardiness zone. Your winters are probably cold enough to temporarily shutdown all bio-filtration. So, there is going to be some increase in toxins during the winter with the bio-filtration temporarily shutdown. Everyone who overwinters their fish in the pond goes through this period quite fine so you'll probably be fine.

3. Can someone please give me some guidance on building my own bio filter?

Just try to avoid buying the big retail filters for bio-fitration. Good bio-filters can be extremely easy DIY (do it yourself) project.

As Huff mentions, the choices are endless. It all depends on: 1) how much of a land foot print do you want the bio-filter to occupy; 2) how much money you want to spend; 3) do ya have a place to hide it such as behind plants, fence, closet, or "filter pit"; 4) how much time do you want to spend on the project; 5) what kind of look do you want from your bio-filter??

The very simple bio-filters likely may do fine for ya. They all have their limitations so, if you can't control your fish population, then you could quickly outgrow your bio-filter. There are also certain critters such as dragonfly nymphs that will eat baby fish and other critters; I just don't know much of them.

Also, the better mechanical filtration you have prior to your bio-filter then the more efficient your bio-filter can process toxins. Just as bio-filtration, mechanical filtration choices are endless and same questions apply. If you do want to spend money, then I would spend the money on the " 90% self cleaning " mechanical filtration units, which are quite expensive and you may only have to tend to them maybe once a month.

 

[Jennywren]

I can't really offer any further advice, but have done what J.W. has mentioned and it cleaned the water really well. It does take time though and you do need to clean the batting...( I used an old quilted dressing gown cut into squares )... often.


What I really want to say though....nice pond, nice setting.

 

[Jason M]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I was able to do a 50% water change today and was able to catch 39 of the little guys when the water was limited to only the deep section. This two pictures are of one of the $.25 that I put in there last August, boy has he grown. It is just a regular comet correct? I also picked up two 2" albino channel cats that I am keeping in the aquarium for the winter and will put into the pond in the spring, I also plan on getting a few Blue Gill in the spring to take care of any fry that I may get this year.


https://www.gardenpondforum.com/gallery/image/2669-pb111003/




https://www.gardenpondforum.com/gallery/image/2671-pb111005/

 

[dieselplower]

Cool pond. The best way to clean up that green water is a UV bulb. The green stuff in the
water isnt actually bad for the fish. Its just unsightly.

 

[HARO]

Two channel cats AND a few bluegills? You won't have any goldfish LEFT!
John