Still a learning

[Lilguy]

I have a small set up. 140 gals total. I sealed it last winter and kept temp at 60 degrees. I put 6 3 in Koi, and 8 comets and a few minnows in it last July. The Koi are 8-10 inches now the comets 4/5. Plants and upper fountain run April through September, frogs are back this year.. I have an all in one submerged filter that discharges through a second submerged filter tub.
Everything is going well, the main oval is in need of some cleaning, there is algae coating everything
But not clogging anything up. What's the best way to vacuum a set up such as this and would a small sand filter be useful in maintaining water clarity. Thanks all.

 

[JohnHuff]

Welcome to the forum!
That seems a very, very small pond for the amount of fish you have.
I'd probably leave the algae there for now because it's converting toxins that are harmful to the fish. If you get rid of it, you'll probably get green water.
How much are you feeding your guys?

 

[sissy]

welcome and agree your ammonia levels are going to sky rocket .Koi get very large and fish have lots of babies and you never clean the good muck out of a pond or you will be starting over.With those filters in the pond there cannot be much room for fish

 

[bettasngoldfish]

When I had my preform pond it was only 165 gallons and I kept 8 or 9 regular goldfish and one pleco (all small to medium sized fish) I had lot's of live plants and did LARGE water changes. Because the pond was so small I also cleaned it out completely in the spring (the fish were indoors in a stock tank over the winter) when I did the complete spring cleaning I changed all the water and vacuumed out all the sludge that accumulated in the bottom of the pond. Refilled with fresh water and put the matured filter back in the pond when the fish went back in (the filter from the preform went in the house in the stock tank with the fish for the winter) I had pretty good luck with this except that I found my fish were in the house more of the time than they spent outside. We ended up having to dig a bit larger (deeper) pond so the fish could stay outdoors all year.

 

[Lilguy]

I feed 3-4 teaspoons of a mix each day. I do water changes every week, and have heavy plant population in upper tub that creates a water fall. I may have to bring them inside this fall, we will see how it goes.

 

[JohnHuff]

I feed 3-4 teaspoons of a mix each day. I do water changes every week, and have heavy plant population in upper tub that creates a water fall. I may have to bring them inside this fall, we will see how it goes.

Ya, those WH will do a great job of cleaning the water. If you want to vacuum sludge or anything else, with such a small pond, you can use a wet/dry vac. I've been using a Sears wet/dry for years.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Yes, I forgot to mention that we used a shop vac to clean the muck from the bottom of the pond (when the fish were not in the pond for obvious reasons)

 

[Lilguy]

I have a good mechanically driven biological filtration but can't get the polished water I have in my aquariums. What setup would clear floating detritus from the
pond? I've tried canisters but they loose suction eventually because they are not designed to work above the body of water.

 

[dieselplower]

If you want clear water the first step will be to remove a lot of fish. Do you test for ammonia and nitrate? I'd love to know the numbers.