How high can water go

P

Peekaboo

Some Guy
Jul 14, 2004
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New Westminster, BC Canada
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I'm thinking of getting a barrel-style pond for my balcony.

I have found out some good stuff about setting it up, except how many inches should I leave between the water level and the top so that the fish (Koi/Goldfish) don't jump out?
 
how big is the pond going to be? a barrel pond doesn't sound big enough for koi, they need at least 200gallons each, and for goldfish, i'd say 30-60 gallons each.

so go for minnows in the barrel much easier!

as for jumping out the best way to stop that is netting, even if you leave 6+inches the fish will jump out as there will be little surface area to land back in the barrel.

minnows are less lickly to jump as far.
 
jumping koi

Koi will jump out of a 40 gallon barrel pretty soon. I had koi that jumped out of a 300 gallon pond at about 6", that was too small for them. Don't even think of putting koi in a barrel!

A goldfish might not, especially if it is fan tail as they are not so fast. Just add some sort of floating plant and you won't need a net and can run the water level up higher.
 
floating plants = netting

If you have floating plants that is as good as netting. A 100 gallon pond might not have enough depth for a fish to get a running start to jump.

Be sure to have shade for this pond, 100 gallons can be shallow and if it is in the sun, it could overheat.

You can stock something like 6 -10 goldfish in 100 gallons, depending on the surface area and the aeration and the filtration. One rule says 30 sq in per inch of adult fish in cool water, another says 10 gallons per fish, another says 1" of adult fish per gallon; use which ever is the lowest number of inches of fish.

Comets are 12" at adult, shubunkins 8", fantails 5".

You cannot keep even one koi, even if you had no other fish, so don't buy any.
 
Thanks, our floating plants should multiply so that is good to stop any jumpers.

I wondered about the heat. It will get a lot of midday and lateday sun. It is 2 feet deep so I was hoping it wouldn't overheat. It is suppose to be hot this coming week so I'll move a thermometer out there.

How much is too much change in temperature for one day and how hot is too hot?

We are going to get a buttefly koi but we'll free it in my friend's parent's big backyard pond when it gets too big. Koi are too cool not to give them a shot. :) I'm thinking 8 inches is the time to free it? Also we were thinking 3 goldfish and one koi for the whole 100 gallons.
 
Peek,
I am not sure you will be able to keep koi in that container. :(
They would be nice to have but I am in the same boat as you, Container gardens. This is my 4th year at keeping a whiskey barrel, my plants do fantastic but I have problems keeping fish. Here is my problem.
Here in MN, I have had die off in the tanks because the water gets to warm, for my goldfish and minnows, I would keep in there. This was very frustrating, fish that were placed in there in may would die by july. So, I had to try something else, I then went and added tropical fish, mainly livebearers, I added guppies and platies in my container, well they survived during the hot days, but would perish on the cool nights that would dip to 50 in may and june here. So I would not be able to add anything to that container until july.
Well, this year, i did start another one, but I went with the semi tropical. I added Gambusia and Mollies. I am hoping that these guys will be able to tolerate the cooler temps and the more extreme heats that happen during the summer. I have had no problems so far, I even added some swordtails and platies to the container. :)
Ok, now what would have solved my dramatic temp changes in my barrel? I have heard of burying my barrel half way into the soil to help with the heat and dropping temps. Well like you, I had an apartment with a terrace, this year living at a townhome with a concrete patio. This option is out. Since I have a pump and a power supply, I could had an underwater heater for the cooler nights ahead, but not sure if this would be a good idea.

To many questions.

jim
 
Thanks for your reply jim. Sorry about your fish deaths. I was also thinking about getting a barrell and moving some of my white clouds out for the summer months, next year. The temperature problem will be big on my balcony as well as it is south west facing, so I may reconsider.

Do you know what the water temperature was, approximately, when your goldfish started to die?

I'm working on building some shaded areas (the wind up high along the river where I am wrecks havok with open umbrellas unfortunately). My plants are doing allright so far.

I'm still think buying a single 2 inch young koi which should be fine for a spring and summer before a fall release into a big pond, or maybe even two summers if it doesn't grow too big. But I'll see if I can keep a basic goldfish through the end of the summer and over winter. I just bought a Pondmaster filter and pump so that should help, when it arrives. I'll get it booted up, then buy a goldfish--poor little guinnie-pig. :)

I also bought a couple of books online so we'll see if they can help answer some questions. I hate killing fish.
 
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