New to fish ponds - not completely sure what to do

Sorry to dredge this up again. I'm not trying to be LAM in my posting. :)

Once this pond cycles, I'd like to add more fish. For a 75 gal pond, how many can I safely add? The guy in petsmart said I could put 10 in there, but that seems like way too many. I was thinking of adding 3-5 pretty little comets and helping them grow into 3-5 pretty big comets. Is that reasonable? Am I being overly cautious? Is there anything wrong with getting the comet feeder fish that are $0.24 as opposed to shelling out $6 for a little bit bigger comets?

The guy said that because of the evap factor (I'm having to add 15 gal every 3 days or so) that this is effectively like changing out the water, so it means the pond can support a few more fish. Is this true or is it so much BS?

Also, I really don't have a way to quarantine the new guys. I'm feeling a little guilt over that. Is this really such a big deal in a pond setting?

Thanks y'all!
 
I think 3-5 sounds good. When the water evaporates you don't get the benefits of a water change since it's only removing water, not fish poop whatever else. Plus yeah, frequent water changes mean you can have a heavier bio load, but with goldfish you're dealing with a space issue, not just a bio load one. So yeah I'd say 3-5.

AFA feeder goldfish- how big is Rambo. Make sure they're not small enough to be eaten!

With only 1 current fish QT isn't such a big deal, really. And I'm sure you'll keep an eye on them. :)
 
clb2196 said:
I think 3-5 sounds good. When the water evaporates you don't get the benefits of a water change since it's only removing water, not fish poop whatever else. Plus yeah, frequent water changes mean you can have a heavier bio load, but with goldfish you're dealing with a space issue, not just a bio load one. So yeah I'd say 3-5.

AFA feeder goldfish- how big is Rambo. Make sure they're not small enough to be eaten!

With only 1 current fish QT isn't such a big deal, really. And I'm sure you'll keep an eye on them. :)
Click to expand...

How small is small enough to be eaten? Rambo's about 4" but I doubt he could fit one of these little guys in his mouth. He did get the name Rambo for a reason, though, and at this point, nothing would surprise me!
 
PallasAthena said:
How small is small enough to be eaten? Rambo's about 4" but I doubt he could fit one of these little guys in his mouth. He did get the name Rambo for a reason, though, and at this point, nothing would surprise me!
Click to expand...

The goldfish people will have to answer that. Generally anything they can fit in their mouth is fair game, so if they're bigger than that you may be ok. If you don't get an answer here eventually, ask in the chat room, someone will know. :)
 
I've added fish! 5 little comets! (An extra made it's way into the bag) Right now I can only find 4 though. I REALLY need to post pics.

We have a big problem though.

Is it unreasonable to lose 15 gal in 1 day? That's how fast the water level dropped! How do you go about finding leaks in the pond liner. I've looked, but I couldn't see anything. It doesn't help that the thing is sprayed with gunnite.
 
Will you have enough water for the fish if you don't top it off when you loose water for a few days? If you do, don't top it off, wait a day or two and see where the water level ends up. If you have a hole, the water level will quit falling when it reaches the hole. Then you search the water line for the hole and patch it. Might be better to house the fish somewhere else, in case the hole is way down at the bottom.

Another thing to try is turning off the waterfall and watching the level for a few days. If the level stays where it should be with the falls off, the leak is in the falls. If it continues to drop, it is most likely in the basin.

Been there, done that, hate that...good luck. If you do find a hole, patching is pretty easy, but the spot has to be clean and dry, so the water will have to be dropped a little below the hole to get it patched.

Jen
 
Thanks Jen. I turned off the falls last night and I'm moving the water through the little fountain instead. I very strongly suspect that the leak is in the falls. This is a big problem. The rocks are mortared in place and the only way to access the plumbing is with a sledgehammer.

I really want to run into one of those guys from the DIY network show Yard Crashers and have him crash my yard and do all this stuff for us. Why can't I be that lucky? :confused:

I had visions last night of transferring my guys to a tub, pulling out the whole waterfall, pond liner and everything, digging a much bigger and deeper hole, and really just doing things properly. Trouble is, I don't have the skills or the time to DIY that, and I definitely don't have the money to pay for it! *sniffle* Like I said, I want yard crashers to crash my yard.
 
Unlike all last week, today was warm and sunny. I expected the water level to drop. It didn't. At all. The leak is definitely in the waterfall. Greaaaat. I'm not sure that's fixable.

ETA: I had to remove the vid. I'll post it to youtube and try reposting it here tomorrow.


Here are some more pictures:

a view that shows the plants
IMG_0624.jpg


one of the little orange and white guys - check out the clear water!
IMG_0621.jpg


A view of the whole thing now that it's been cleaned up
IMG_0625.jpg


ETA2:

Rambo and his little buddies:
IMG_0623.jpg
 
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I know the leak thing is a pain in the butt, but your pond is looking very cute anyway, and now at least you know where it is. Since you have an alternate fountain, you have aeration, too, until you come up with plan B. What if you left the existing waterfall just as a stone wall? It looks like there is a basin at the top, is that right? Maybe make it a planter for something nice and trailing, and put in a different, lower waterfall to one side, with all new, accessible, hardware?
I am envying your clear water, mine is going thru the green phase at the moment. But I'll take green water over no water any day!

(off topic, but how do you write between your pics when you post? I seem to end up with all my pics together and I can't figure out how to write between them...)

Jen
 
I actually thought about getting some hose and bypassing the existing waterfall plumbing and just bringing water to the top of the falls that way. I thought I could tuck it out of sight, but it would still run water over the falls. Otherwise, I did consider just making the bowl at the top of the falls into a planter and just running water through the fountain. I'm just concerned that while the fountain provides water movement, it doesn't really provide enough aeration.

Here's a video showing what I mean.

You can see the little fishies zooming around! Yesterday they even came up to feed from the surface. Rambo, too! Everyone seems to be feeling braver now that they can school.

Also, do you hear that grinding/rattling noise in there? It doesn't do this when the water goes through the falls (or maybe the falls masks the noise), but I'm worried that my pump is on its last legs. This is NOT what I need right now since we've just dropped $1100 in vet bills for our dog with more to come. :(
 
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