My Pond Diary, With Pics :) !

[demonmagus]

looks good

 

[lintulover666]

that looks really great so far. The Waterfall looks lovely. cant wait for more updates.

x

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thanks for the compliments everyone !
Yesterday i spend a long time separating the bunchs of pond plants we had bought into larger containers as most of the plants we had bought came with more than one plant per pot. I managed to replant about a dozen containers before i ran out of gravel, and i still have so many more plants to re-pot !
But at least i guess its good value for money, most of the plants i re-planted i put around a long ledge in the smaller half of the pond. Oh, and the pond's is a lovely (not) green pea soup color.

I looked at filtration not long ago- you'll never guess how big the pumps box is going to be- 6ft long, 2ft wide and 2ft high ! But it comes with everything i need, including UV filter to rid the pond of algae, and it will filter the pond fine.
Don't ask me how much its gonna cost- everytime i look at my bank account i cannot but help think how drained it is going to be at the end of this - but i would say its definately worth it .

I'll get some more pics in soon once i have done more planting .

 

[black angel]

Going by your calculations in the first page i make your pond 3000 us gallons.

There seemed to be a lot of liner left over so i used this formula to work it out.

pond 1 10x6x4 so lengthxwidthxdepth
10x6=60
then take the 60 and and x by 4 = 240
Then take the 240 and times by 7.5 = 1800 gallons

channel 4x2x2
4x2=8
8x2=16
16x 7.2=115 gallons

pond 2 8x6x3

8x6= 48
48x3= 144
144x7.5 = 1080 gallons

grand total of 2995 US gallons so thats roughly 2500 UK gallons.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Going by your calculations in the first page i make your pond 3000 us gallons.

There seemed to be a lot of liner left over so i used this formula to work it out.

pond 1 10x6x4 so lengthxwidthxdepth
10x6=60
then take the 60 and and x by 4 = 240
Then take the 240 and times by 7.5 = 1800 gallons

channel 4x2x2
4x2=8
8x2=16
16x 7.2=115 gallons

pond 2 8x6x3

8x6= 48
48x3= 144
144x7.5 = 1080 gallons

grand total of 2995 US gallons so thats roughly 2500 UK gallons.

Ah sorry i should have added some more recent accurate measurements, i had them written down somewhere but when i added them up on some online pond caluculators they came to around 5000+ gals. I think i've lost the exact measurements of the pond, i will re-measure the pond in a bit and post them here soon as i know the original measurements i posted here were a bit off .

 

[black angel]

Using this http/www.overthegardengate.net/garden/pondcalc.asp
I got 872 gallons on mine doing an average of 2 foot deep as its got different levels. I tried 2.5 foot and got just over 1000 gallons which didnt seem right to me.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yes i think you could be right, i mean, finding the exact amount of gallons in the pond will always be difficult due to its unusual shape, but after doing my own calculations i think that 2500-3000 gals sounds more like it; I've tried many pond calculators on the inet, giving results between 2000 and 6000+ gallons, so i don't have much faith in pond calculators anymore.

The total length of the pond is just over 7 metres long, the widest point is 230cm wide, and the deepest part 4ft/122cm deep- so it is more than big enough for goldfish, orfe or ghost/koi (which are the sorts of fish i have in mind for the pond) .
If i can get hold of orfe or some nice ghost koi, the sort of stocking i am looking at right now is;

6 comet goldfish
6 shubunkin goldfish
4 common goldfish
5 orfe
5 ghost koi (or normal koi, depends on whats available)

Does this stocking sound all right? I have found a pretty good deal on a pond pump/filtration system too (filters up to 4000gals), which i hope will be good for the pond- it also comes with a UV filter too which should clear up all the algae which has made my pond water look like pea soup too .

I will try and get some more pics soon, as a lot has been done since my last update of pics, but it is raining right now so i will wait until things have dried up a bit . In the mean time, i will try and create a scale model (as accurate as i can) of the pond and post it up here when it is done.

 

[black angel]

When are you planning on adding the fish? Are you going to have that as the maximum fish or are you planning on more. With great filtration you could squeeze in a few more goldfish types, maybe try to get something unusual such as wakin or jikin.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

When are you planning on adding the fish? Are you going to have that as the maximum fish or are you planning on more. With great filtration you could squeeze in a few more goldfish types, maybe try to get something unusual such as wakin or jikin.

Well the plan right now is to have as much done as posible within the next 8-9 weeks as i am going on a short holiday to Australia in 8-9 weeks for 10 nights (one night in london too). As it stands right now, i have two goldfish in a 30gal tank and the pond has no filtration, but it has a huge amount of plants now and the waterfall is complete .

Its too late now in the year for me to move my two current goldfish into pond, so what i plan to do is to have a 125gal tank set up before i go in holiday, clone the filter media getting it instantly cycled, and put the two goldfish as well as a huge common pleco in it. The room temp stays between 24 and 28 degrees, never drops any lower, so the common plec should be fine in the tank with the two goldfish while i am on holiday.

The goldfish will just have to wait out the winter in the 125gal tank until the weather turns warm enough to put them outside, i may buy them one or two buddies to make things more interesting for them while they are in the tank when they get in the 125gal tank.

As for stocking the pond this year though, well, a lot of it depends on what turns up- a friend of a friend apparently has a very overstocked pond with koi and goldfish and is planning to rehome about 10-15 of their fish, so i will take a look at their pond once the filtration is installed in mine and see what i can take .

I may stock more fish than what i have listed, but i want to keep the stocking light for this winter so i myself can get accumstomed to pond keeping .
What would you say is the max amount of fish (wether koi or goldfish), the pond can stock ?


EDIT: Oh, and hopefully i am buying my pond filtration tomorrow "yay"!

 

[black angel]

Assuming the pond is 3000 gallons then you calculate 250 per koi and 50 for each type that isnt a koi, so really your options are really good.
I agree too that your indoor fish cant go out until late spring so to keep the filter going through the winter get a couple of your friends koi to keep things going.
Try and keep the filter going through winter as well. Ive been told by someone in canada to leave it running and to stop the cold water getting down to the fish to place a large piece of polystyrene under the fall *need to tie it in place* and this means the water runs across the top of the pond rather than under it.
Also if the fish share the same area as the pump, to raise it a foot or so as well.

How lucky are you to go to Australia, that will be really nice. Planning on anything to do with fish while you are there?such as the barrier reef?

With the filter, you should get some white filter wool as well to catch the muck.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Assuming the pond is 3000 gallons then you calculate 250 per koi and 50 for each type that isnt a koi, so really your options are really good.
I agree too that your indoor fish cant go out until late spring so to keep the filter going through the winter get a couple of your friends koi to keep things going.
Try and keep the filter going through winter as well. Ive been told by someone in canada to leave it running and to stop the cold water getting down to the fish to place a large piece of polystyrene under the fall *need to tie it in place* and this means the water runs across the top of the pond rather than under it.
Also if the fish share the same area as the pump, to raise it a foot or so as well.

How lucky are you to go to Australia, that will be really nice. Planning on anything to do with fish while you are there?such as the barrier reef?

With the filter, you should get some white filter wool as well to catch the muck.

Oh! About the filter in the winter thing, i've been meaning to ask about that; some people have advised turning the waterfall off during the winter, while others have advised keeping it going- so basically, will it be ok running throughout the winter if it has this polystyrene board under the fall?
Is it basically there to prevent the water dropping from the fall to the pond, cooling the water down too much ?

As for the Australia holiday though, i'm mainly doing it to catch up on some family there and see how they are doing, so i will probably be running around lots as there is a lot of family to see over the holiday, but the time i do get to my own will definately be spent checking out the local reefs in the oceans !
The place we will be staying in for the holiday is right next to the beach, and is a very lovely beach at that- every couple of years i go to Australia, i always visit the particular beach as it is always a bit different everytime i go- last time i went there, there were starfish, fish and sea horses everywhere in the rock pools .

 

[black angel]

I was going to switch it off but I might try this and see how it goes. I was told that the cold water would be a lot colder coming into the pond as well. Winter up here should be colder than yours so im hoping the water will be too fast to freeze but will take it each day at a time. Its a good idea as well to get a de- icer to float on the pond surface in case anything happens to stop the water running. I was looking at pond heaters but they are so expensive and the cost to run would be too much as well, though swimming pool heaters are supposed to be cheaper. Going to go hunt out some polystyrene now.

Have a great time in Oz Tokis, sounds great.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I was going to switch it off but I might try this and see how it goes. I was told that the cold water would be a lot colder coming into the pond as well. Winter up here should be colder than yours so im hoping the water will be too fast to freeze but will take it each day at a time. Its a good idea as well to get a de- icer to float on the pond surface in case anything happens to stop the water running. I was looking at pond heaters but they are so expensive and the cost to run would be too much as well, though swimming pool heaters are supposed to be cheaper. Going to go hunt out some polystyrene now.

Have a great time in Oz Tokis, sounds great.

Thanks ! I will try out the polystyrene thing too as it will be great if it does work - will have to keep a steady eye on the ponds temp though, particually when things start to ice over. Hopefully this winter won't be too freezing .

 

[what a load of pollocks]

i wouldnt advise putting a Wakin with a common or comet goldfish as for strange reason, the comet and common chase and attack the Wakin dont know why but in my other post about the Wakin alike as did put my 2 wakin cross breed in my pond to see if they settle but within night fell started to chase and attacking the Wakin cross breed, all wouldnt going to stop attacking so had take them out and put in my 50litre tank,
plus have shubunkins too in the pond so be best stay on common and comet, shubunkin single físhs

why not go for butterfly koi just 1-2

When are you planning on adding the fish? Are you going to have that as the maximum fish or are you planning on more. With great filtration you could squeeze in a few more goldfish types, maybe try to get something unusual such as wakin or jikin.

 

[black angel]

It could have been too crowded for the fish and thats why they started fighting or it was breeding behaviour. What damage was done to the fish? 17 fish in 250 gallons is a lot of fish.