New Pond - Questions

[coral49]

Hello,

thanks for having a site to go to for help. Quick intro, I am currently with salt/coral aquariums 20+ years and very activity on sites to help others and get help. Long story short. Decided to dabble with a pond. I recently was giving a 300 gallon Rubbermaid trough and had a nice spot to place it.

Set it up a couple weeks ago with a basic canister/uv - filter and water fall combo. Waiting for it to cycle. In the mean time i ordered online 6 shubunkin and placed them in a 29 gallon to QT. Well to my shock the Shubunkins were supposed to be small.. 3 to 4 inches. What I got was huge ones easily 8 inches and very nice colors. Wow there is a lot of fish on a small tank. So to my question. I live in Chicago, The pond has been set up for 2+ weeks.

1) Can a pond cycle at lower temps. the weather here has been up and down. The pond temp at surface has ranged from 59 after a run of warm sunny days down to 48 after days of rain and lows of 35. After 2 weeks i just tested pH 7 and ammonia was 0. Is it possible I missed the spike or did it not cycle.

2) Can you add fish to pond with cold temp from warm temps. Current QT in house so the temp is 69ish. I am familiar with acclimation procedures more thinking about the long term impact, will it send them back into a dormant state?

I am hoping to get these fish out of the 29 gallon it is way to crowded and I am changing the water weekly, I recognized that i am pushing limit on fish in pond. I was thinking i was getting 6 thumb size fish but got much larger. If all goes we well this season, I'll likely upgrade to a much larger pond, the area has space.


Picture is day 1 after fill, still quite murky it has since cleared up
thanks

 

[coral49]

Test

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our group!

Your pond will do cycling even though it is cold. I don't think you will get a ammonia spike without fish in the pond. I have read some add ammonia to help with the cycle.

It might be a bit tough on your fish to move them into that cold of water right now. I would do your best to keep the water changed out. It is supposed to warm up, sometime.

 

[j.w]

@coral49
I would definitely wait to put the fish outdoors till the temps warm up steady to around the same temp as your indoors temps.

 

[Lisak1]

Welcome @coral49 ! I just want to know where you got the great shubunkins!

 

[coral49]

Well I made it threw the summer and the winter and things went quite well, I didn't loose any fish pond cleared up got some nice lilies. My biggest complaint is I need to skim frequently due to leave blowing in that corner.

Does anyone have ideas how I can add a skimmer to the 300 gallon rubbermaid tub, turns out I need to temp move pond because work need to happen on the retain wall behind it. If I am pulling it up might as well add some improvement.

Any thoughts on how to add a skimmer?

 

[brokensword]

look at a floating skimmer;

Amazon.com : floating pond skimmer

www.amazon.com

 

[SarahT]

I got a tetra in-pond skimmer a couple of months ago and it's doing a nice job.

 

[coral49]

I ordered and received it, 1 day in and works great. Only regret is I didn't do this earlier. thanks to all