New to fish ponds - not completely sure what to do

Yeah, I don't like those fountains either... let me see if I can get you a link to the calculator. One possibility for the w/c is to keep the fish in a bucket of the old water, empty the pond, clean it, but don't refill it quite yet. put the bucket in the pond, and slowly add new water to the bucket. let it over flow into the pond. when there is enough water for the fish to swim in the pond, put the fish and his bucket water in the pond, and slowly continue adding water until it is full. This will make it a lot harder to dechlorinate, though...
 
I've not had a pond since I was young- I've only had aquariums since- so I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do... but we had a couple of small ponds- about 6ft by 3ft- they only got water changes during warm months- then about 30% change every 5 or 6 weeks. (if that)

I don't know if they should have been getting more frequent cleanings. One pond only had tadpoles and plants in it- the other had a small load of goldfish and shebunkins (about 4 or 5 fish).

The fish lived that way for years and were very healthy they were at least 7 y/o when we left - at which point we moved to America and had to leave them behind.

Ponds should require less water changes than aquariums. I don't know if we cleaned frequently enough though.

We syphoned using a short hosepipe with a DIY piece of PVC attached to the end. (we lived on a slope so gravity was our friend- pond at top of our garden). We syphoned into a bucket to catch any tadpoles that got sucked up.
 
Heh, took a long time writing my post I guess. Yeah, lots of people use those plain terracotta pots for "caves". I use them in a few of my tanks, and they work just fine. Like was said, just be sure that they are not glazed or colored and are new. Pots that have been used may have chemicals, etc. in them from the plants and any fertilizers or chemicals that were used. Best not to risk it.

Regular gravel or sand is just fine. Lots of people use playsand or pea gravel in their tanks since it's so much cheaper. It's the same stuff, just not sold in specialty shops, lol. Just make sure it's not treated with a mildewcide. You should rinse it off when you get home to get out any dust (just makes a big cloudy mess, no harm though and will settle eventually).
 
*waves* Hi! (It's CSGirl)

Sounds like you got some good info, I'm pretty clueless about ponds. Would love to see some pics when it's done!

I like Hebily's idea about refilling. If you're filling with a hose, would the water get aerated and thus dechlored like it does with a Python? Or just add some declor when you put the first water in, then add some as you go?
 
clb2196 said:
*waves* Hi! (It's CSGirl)

Sounds like you got some good info, I'm pretty clueless about ponds. Would love to see some pics when it's done!

I like Hebily's idea about refilling. If you're filling with a hose, would the water get aerated and thus dechlored like it does with a Python? Or just add some declor when you put the first water in, then add some as you go?
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Hey CSGirl! GREAT forum! Thanks for pointing me over here.

I like Hebily's refilling idea, too, but I'm not sure how that would work. Would I condition bucket by bucket? How slowly would I add? As slowly as I would slowly pour/refill a bucket? Could it just come from the hose? I somehow think not. What would the logistics of this be?
 
Well, you could dechlor a bucket of water, and set up a small syphon to move the clean water into fish bucket. Or pour very slowly, wait a while (couple hours) and then do the next bucket. The idea is to do it as slowly as realistically feasable. The more slowly you add the new water, the less stress there will be on the fish.
 
Hebily said:
Well, you could dechlor a bucket of water, and set up a small syphon to move the clean water into fish bucket. Or pour very slowly, wait a while (couple hours) and then do the next bucket. The idea is to do it as slowly as realistically feasable. The more slowly you add the new water, the less stress there will be on the fish.
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Plus it will dechlorinate if it sits for a while.

Could you fill the pond with the hose, and wait for it to warm up? I have no idea how long that would take though. Otherwise, I don't see a problem using the hose.

Also, PA, if you're going to use a bacteria in a bottle, there are lots of mixed views out there, but SuperBac worked well for me. Not sure how much it would cost to get enough for the pond- I think it was maybe $15 for enough for a 50 gallon?
 
Even if spraying water in (or letting it sit) will remove chlorine it won't remove chloramine.

I hope there is a better way for removing chlorine than adding bucket by bucket.

I dunno if permenant marker is safe for pond life... If you do end up filling bucket by bucket though you could make a little inconspicuos mark every 5 or 10 gallons on one corner of the pond... that way for future water changes you can accurately judge how much water you change/add- by counting how many lines you fill up from.


I think prime is supposed to work really quickly (in minutes) and although adding already de-chlorinated water is best- you can... declorinate in the pond.

I don't think it is very practical for a pond to add the water already dechlorinated (unless you are adding bucket by bucket- which I hope you don't have to do because that WOULD be insane work).

Future though- if you know how much water you need to add- add the appropriate prime to the pond... then fill up.



There has to be some pond people here who can help!
 
Got it! Ok, fill the pond, and dechlorinate. Then add a cup full of the pond water to the fish bucket slowly... put a cupful of fish bucket water in lawn. come back in a bit. put cupful of pond water in fish bucket. Put cupful of bucket water in lawn. do this until you've added at least three times the volume of the bucket to the bucket. Then put fish in pond, bucket water in lawn. Fill bucket with new water, dechlor, add to pond. repeat three times. Done. That way, rambo gets the benefit of slowly changing water, and you get the ease of dechloring the whole pond at once.
 
Also, PA, if you're going to use a bacteria in a bottle, there are lots of mixed views out there, but SuperBac worked well for me
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I was very disappointed in Seachem Stability.

Ammonia to Nitrite stage of cycling for me lasted two weeks. I would therefore suspect that Nitrite to Nitrate stage would last just over two weeks if left unhelped.

I started using stability at about the same time I started seeing Nitrites. It's been just over two weeks and I'm on the cusp of being cycled... I'm hoping to see 0 nitrites when I get home from work tonight (which would mean I'm finally ready)... I had 0 ammonia and < 0.3 ppm nitrite yesterday at the same time... so I must be close now.

Nonetheless- it took me as long for the 2nd half of cycling WITH stability that I would expect had I not used it.

The only product that seems to get universal approval is Biospira/Tetra Safe Start.
 
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