Emily's Pond Build Log

$800 worth of rocks ordered. :) I am getting 2 pallets (3 tons) of small river rocks, 1 pallet (1.5 tons) of medium river rocks, and 1 pallet (1.5 tons) of large river rocks. They're being delivered this coming Friday (3/11), and we'll start installing at that time.

We also picked up the fish that will be moving to the pond in 4-6 weeks. They're in QT now. 2 large rubbermaid totes each with a filter (which had been running to keep them cycled on two of our current setups), and both with large air stones to help keep things moving. I'll be doing some pretty hefty water changes on them too. There's about 25 rosy reds in each, and 5 juvie goldies in each (mostly shubunkins, but I think a couple commets too).

Hopefully the bulk of them will survive. Can't take back any of the 'feeders' for their 2 week live guarantee. But at $.13-$.30 each, I'm hopeful that we'll keep most of them alive.
 
Hey all. Just some pictures of the QT setups for the goldies/rosy reds.

The pink tote is 40 gallons. The gray tote is 34 gallons. We used the bathtub as the site of one of the totes (the sterilite is thinner than the rubbermaid and makes me a little more nervous so if it springs a leak, I'd feel safer with it in the tub), and the rubbermaid is a little more flexible so we used cement blocks to help support the side so it didn't bow out so much. The gray tote is sporting a Marineland Biowheel filter that had been running on my 46 gal bowfront for about 5 years (that one is now also supported by a SunSun, which I installed about 6 months ago), and the pink tote is filtered by a Whisper 3 that had been running alongside a SunSun on my 40 gal goldie tank. Both fully cycled. Both tubs are also aerated, though I'm not thrilled with the aerating bars we picked up at the LFS. Neither work well. They both leak air at the intake end and just end up making a lot of big bubbles right at the end where the airline connects. I tried using silicone to help seal the end of one of them, but zero luck there. May take them back and get something else instead. We'll see. I also added aquarium salt (1 TBS per 5 gallons) for now to help with stress and such. As I do W/C's that will slowly be reduced, but I'm hoping it might help prevent losses. I've lost one rosy red thus far from the pink tote, and nobody from the gray one yet. The tailless rosy red is in the gray tote, and either has disappeared or is blending well enough with the others that I cannot pick it out anymore.

Ok on second thought. No pictures. No matter what I try, the uploader says "failed". I've resized them to small images, moved them to different parts of my computer, and I give up. I cannot upload pics. :(
 
Just an update on my QT tanks. I'm down about 5 rosies i believe. All goldies still doing OK. I did a 50% W/C in the smaller tub - that's the one that has lost all the fish. The bigger tub hasn't lost any, but I'll be doing a 50% w/c this week anyhow. Did it sooner than anticipated on the smaller tank since I had a few deaths in there today. Added the aquarium salt back in too for now, and used prime (double dose) to treat the incoming tap water. Hopefully things even out in there, but I did expect some deaths since these are feeders and not the healthiest fish to begin with. This is why I really wanted to QT for a few weeks first. Easier to keep tabs on all the newbies and make sure everyone that makes it to the pond is healthy.
 
I love this thread! I sure wish i could do a pond. You're pond is going to be lovely.
 
Ok, I'm beginning to wonder if there's something wrong with the smaller sterilite container that I bought. I've lost multiple rosie reds out of that QT "tank", and none out of the rubbermaid container. The sterilite was brand new. I rinsed it well in hot water prior to filling it and dosing prime and all that. The Rubbermaid contanier was in my attic collecting dust. Had used it previously to store blankets and sheets and such at our old house, but it had been in the attic for about 2 years now. Anyhow, I rinsed that one well in hot water too (same as the other one), but something is definitely different between the two. Or maybe I just put the more unhealthy fish in the one container. I had two bags of rosy reds (one went into each QT tank), and one bag of goldies (4 went into the smaller container and 6 into the larger one). The filter on the smaller container is well cycled. It's been running for years on my 46 gal. The filter on the bigger container is cycled as well - been running a few months on my goldie tank. I'm just not sure what the deal is. Could it just be that those rosies were unhealthy? What are the odds something else could be going on? I haven't lost any goldies yet. But I believe I'm down 9 or 10 rosy reds from the 34 gallon tote. The bigger one holds 40 gallons. It's not a big size difference between the two.

Any thoughts? Both are treated with prime, and both treated with 1 TBS aquarium salt per 5 gallons. I did a 50% W/C on the smaller container yesterday just in case, and still lost 4 more fish today. I've got one in there that will be gone soon. It's not looking real healthy.
 
i doubt that there was anything nasty on the inside of the new sterilite tub, but you may be getting some plasticizer leaching out. try throwing in some new charcoal, which should suck up any organics. this is a case where dusty would be better -- a lot of sudden surface area -- as long as your filter will sweep it out of the water.

again, it could be (and probably is) a statistical fluke. feeders are notoriously marginal for survival; i once did a quickie toxicology study using feeder goldfish; almost half of them died during the initial QT. (only one died in the actual experiment, and that was in the control (!). )
 
I doubt that there is anything wrong with the tub too since if there was I'd think all of them would die about the same time. I'm losing about 2 fish a day in that tub right now. This morning it was one rosy and one goldie - the smallest goldie to be exact. The rest are all still very active. I fasted them the first two days, and then started feeding them on the kens fish food that I have already (algae flakes, earthworm flakes etc), but I'm not feeding a big amount since I'm not convinced that they're all eating yet. They certainly aren't looking for the food. Takes them a few minutes to even realize they've been fed.

I'll do another W/C tonight or tomorrow night, and keep my fingers crossed that at least half of the rosies make it. I bought 56 initially (technically paid for 50 though, they threw in a few extra since they knew that I'd lose some). But I'm down to probably 40-45 total. Hard to count them as they're fast and the tubs are not the ideal color to see them well in. Plus a lot of surface agitation going on with the HOB filters and air bars.

I guess maybe I should be glad I haven't lost more. And still odd that I haven't lost any from that one tub. I mean, they all came from the same tanks at the LFS. Definitely weird. I don't have any charcoal at home that I know of, but will see if i can hunt some down just in case. Are we talking putting it directly in the water, or dumping into the filter?
 
can't tell from the pictures, but does the pink one get colder than the other because it's in the entry and close to the window, while the gray tub has displaced you from your bath? how cold is it in that front room?

(i remember the time we had a duck living in our bathtub for a couple weeks. good times . . . )

the best place for the charcoal would be in the HOB filter, since there's more water flow thru there than along the bottom, but it would probably work as well on the bottom near the intake. (and as you say all this is all assuming that there actually IS something in the water.)

they are probably very hungry (since suppliers seem to starve feeders) but their metabolism is too slow to let them eat and digest, so the weakest go first
 
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