Building An Outdoor Fish Pond

[newfishy]

my father in law is trying to make use of a spring comming up on his property.

the pond or box would have the spring water comming in one side at the top comming threw a pipe at a pretty heavy flow, and going out the bottem threw a pipe burried under the ground to the trout pond in the pasture. the area grades downhill pretty good. the spring never dries up...even in our hottest summer.

is this enough to provide constant airation and also constant water changes for the fish? will that be good or bad for a fish...I think he is planning on some kind of goldfish.

its gonna be about 4x4 wide and several feet deep.

I think he is planning on making the box either with bricks, concreate or limestone...but I told him I am not sure what limestone would do to a goldfish.

I am just trying to find out stuff to try and give him good advice as I have never had goldfish or outdoor fish before.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The design sounds ok to me, but how are you going to seal the pipes where they come into and out of the pond- will you be using pond liner or a pre-made tub?
2ft is really a bit too shallow for an outdoor pond though particularly if you get cold winters where you live (at 2ft deep the fish won't have much protection from predators like herons or cats etc)- ideally the pond should be at least 3ft for goldfish or 4ft deep for koi (although if you wanted koi you would need to dig a much larger pond, about 4times the size of its current size at least) . The pond would also benefit from being a bit longer too as you won't be able to keep many fish in a pond that size (about 3-5 goldfish tops) and the fish will benefit from a larger pond, increasing the pond width or length (or both) to 5-6ft long will IMHO be much better .

 

[newfishy]

Im not real sure how he plans on having the pipes comming in and out, Ill have to ask. And I will deffinitly tell him it should be deeper and maybe longer, else the fish may die in winter or cats are going to eat them. I think he was planning on either a large plastic tub...as in cattle water trough big tub, or just a pond liner, not sure which is more cost effective. I actualy am going to try to get him to build the outside rim higer, that way it will be much harder for little kids or other little creatures to climb in.