Small backyard pond help

857 Views 4 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Two Knots, Apr 22, 2016

mikereno1

Discussion Starter · Apr 20, 2016

The house we purchased a couple years ago has a small pond/water feature in it. It is a 4ft diameter tube that is 3 ft deep. There are 3 large goldfish in it that have survived a couple winters. The pump that controls a small water feature stopped working a time ago and I replaced it with a cheapo harbor freight pump that has worked ok but the gets clogged after a couple weeks with algae, etc.

There are lillies that come up in the spring.

How can I keep this thing clean without damaging the lillies or fish?

Any recs for a filter?

It looks extra dirty in the pic as our ivy is shedding pollen and things everywhere.

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de-nagorg

· #2 · Apr 20, 2016

A shade structure might keep that algae in control.

Just like most other plants it needs sunlight to flourish.

ED

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Phases

· #3 · Apr 20, 2016 (Edited)

Wow! Pull the goldfish out clean the heck out of that thing. (leave carpet algae on walls/floor). Put fresh pond appropriate water in with levels (ph, ammonia and the to two Ns) checked (can get kit online or pet stores). Oxygenate with a small air pump and give some shade. The fish like it and it helps with the algae. Make sure temperatures are within a couple degrees of what the fish are held in vs the pond when you put them back, otherwise float them an hour or so in baggies.

You can get little filtration systems with little bio filters and UV lamps in them online and pond shops, would be cheap for something that size.

I'm only about a year and a half into the Koi pond game but, that's my immediate thought. In the heat of the summer if you don't do something those fish are likely to die as they get older.. need clean water and oxygen.

Here's mine btw

http://www.houzz.com/discussions/2940057

Scroll down for cleaning pictures.

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Colbyt

· #4 · Apr 21, 2016

Buy a pump bag for the pump and throw away that stupid foam filter that comes with the pump. elevating the pump above the floor of the pond reduces crap sucked into the pump.

A really good air pump and some large pond stone will aerate the water and help the bio waste degrade .

A separate bio filter where the water is allowed to rise through some rocks before returning to the pond will greatly help.

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Two Knots

· #5 · Apr 22, 2016

Empty half the water out so that you can get all that nasty stuff out of
the pond. Colby gave you some good advise. A pond needs aeration,
frequent water exchanges, good filteration, and lots of vegetation floating
on top.
You can use a net to lift up and out all the accumulated muck and
skim off all the floating debris floating on top.

It a challenge to keep a small pond such as yours clean, it needs frequent
cleaning to remove all the fish waste, as well as frequent water exchanges,
pWe have a pond for 19 years, however
it is a bottom drain, gravity fed system with a DIY filteration and separate
biological pond system.

They also sell pond vacuum cleaners, for ponds without bottom drains, look
into it as it will make your life easier.

There is nothing wrong with Harbor Freight pumps. We have several small
250 to 260 Gph pumps that we paid about 12.00 each. We run two of them
365 days a year.

Pile up a few of rocks on the edge somewhere and run some tubing and create
a small waterfall ( with a 250 gph--HF pump) cascading off the rocks. The fish love aeration.

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