New house with pond

[CathyG]

Hi All!

We have recently bought a new house, and pretty much successfully transported a 55 UKG tropical tank, suffering only two losses (my Surinam Cory got himself trapped in the temporary setup, and a Bentosi White Tip died after being moved from the temp setup back to the larger tank). I was sad about those losses, especially since I had had those fish a while, but for the most part - all things considered, including a mini cycle and tank temperatures reaching 90 if I didn't keep up daily water changes (heatwave here in UK) I think we did ok

Anyhow, we have inherited a pond and I have a couple of queries, please.

The pond is concrete built, and looks quite old, but structurally sound. On the fourth day here, I noticed the "fountain" was a little weak, so decided it time to check the filtration for cleaning.

What I actually found was an old pump that attached to the fountain, with two small plastic filtration pads (similar to, but slightly larger than, Brillo pads) Straight off I thought this insufficient filtration. I cleaned them out, but saw no improvement to the flow. Checking the pump, I found two of the five impellor blades broken, and probably irreplaceable.

So I am pretty much on a tight budget here, I need a decent filter for this pond and would welcome any suggestions, please.

The pond dimensions are approx (measuring inner walls) 9.5 ft x 4 ft by 20" depth.

1) can anyone recommend a decent filter for this size pond?
2) can anyone calculate the volume for me please?
3) from what I can count, there are at least 15 good sized goldfish (12") about 10 smaller goldfish (4"-5") and at least a dozen juvie goldfish (about 2-3" - still brown in colour, some turning orange/white) Is this pond potentially overstocked?

They share the pond with crested newts and at least one frog. There was a lot of very mature and flowering water lily, which was pot bound, and I have since halved in size. A mucky job indeed lol!

Any advice welcomed. The fish all look very healthy, if a little rotund! But I need to filter this pond soon, it spends a lot of the day in direct sunlight too so presumably UV would help.

Thank you all in advance!

Cathy

 

[bigmick474]

i think the volume of your pond is about 1800 liters ( about 400 imperial gallons)
i'm not too good with ponds but i wouldn't say yours was over stocked, (if it is then our pond is EXTREMELY overystocked).
I dont really no any thing about pond filters, our filter has broken recently, about 6 months now, an it doesn't seem to be affecting the fish at all, the waters gone abit green but the fish seem happy so if moneys abit tight, i would just leave it for a while till you've settled into your new home.
I'll probally have all the members moaning at me now for saying that, but thats my opinion.

hope it helps

EDIT not really related to the subject but, last year the frogs started killing the fish. has this happened to anyone else?

 

[CathyG]

Hi Bigmick, thanks for taking the time

To complicate matters, I have found that running a new electrical supply to the pond is turning out quite a task. The existing supply is pretty dangerous, the cabling isn't armoured and it is not connected to an RCD. Because my floors are either solid, or laminate, the wiring from the consumer unit will have to go upstairs, across under the floor, down into the utility room and out into the garage. On top of that, the existing consumer unit will need to be upgraded, then armoured cabling run from the garage under the lawn (easier to peel back than concrete) and to the pond. It is going to cost me a small fortune!

I think I have found a reasonable filter, it is just getting it powered now!

 

[bribones]

380 uk gallons approx

no cheap option really when it comes to filters although you could most likely make one a home brew bucket with an inlet at the bottom outlet at the top filled with various levels of substrata ie gravel sand charcoal ,make sure you have a tight seal on the lid and bobs ya uncle

the pump is a different matter id recommend something like the cascade 4000 which will set you back around 80 quid

check out e-bay you might stumble across a bargain ,you need something that will at least handle 2000 litres if not more

if you know the make of the pump you already have you could buy a replacement impellar

yes your overstocked and be carefull with the newts as there protected by law

 

[Opcn]

Nifty! Yes you are overstocked so you mights consider getting rid of some of the fully grown ones, easier to pull out 5 adults than 25 juvies. As a temporary power supply you could run a nice long outdoor rated extension cord to the pond, I only run mine in the summer so I use the cord we plug our cars engine block heaters into. Just a thought, you may consider adding some small natives to the pond, some dace or sticklebacks, Diversity is always nice IMHO.