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Closed season project.

Lewis Baldwin said:
This is something that does concern me Cliff as we have herons regularly within 100 yards of the garden due to a stream and 2 settling ponds that are very mature within a stones throw.

I've currently got fine fishing line across the pond and have dug it so the herons can't walk into or land in the pond with any ease. I plan to put more plants in and some Lillie's in the deepest part to provide cover aswell.

I don't want to go down the net route as it's quite ugly.
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someone I know built a pagoda over his, it meant the pond wasn't visible from the sky and it looked ok, seemed to work for him. like you Ive got lakes nearby and once they find your pond they will keep returning unfortunately.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
I’ve got one of those pressure filters on mine too but it’s really got an easy life as the 450L wetland filter is doing most of the water clarity. I was told the pressure filters are fine but spec them at least 4x your pond volume if you are keeping fish or they just don’t cope.

So I have on my 4000L pond a 30,000L pressure filter takes in the water from both the top and bottom and does the mechanical filtering. Mine is practically useless for biological filtering
It then goes through a non return valve and pushed at 4 points into the bottom void space of the wetland filter.

The void space will collect any crap that’s escaped the pressure filter and then the water rises through 100kg of granite rock 100kg of pebbles and stones then 300kg of 10-12mm gravel before it’s up and over through the pea shooters and over the spill.

We are only afew weeks in, string algae is obviously having the time of its life but water clarity is gin clear

Have you had any issues with new pond syndrome? I had spikes on my ammonia and nitrite. Which I’ve pulled back now to zero.
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I'll be honest, I got really really lucky.

At the point I decided to dig the pond, a friend of my dad commented he was filling his in but needed a home for the fish and filter/pump system. If I wanted to take it all off his hands I could crack on and empty his pond and deal with it all.

Hence I received a filter set up that has been running for 4 years and was fully cycled. I just had to move it and reconfigure it to the shape of my pond.

His pond had a larger water volume than mine and was gin clear. So far so good in mine after 2 weeks and the fish have settled in really well with no issues.
 
Lewis Baldwin said:
I'll be honest, I got really really lucky.

At the point I decided to dig the pond, a friend of my dad commented he was filling his in but needed a home for the fish and filter/pump system. If I wanted to take it all off his hands I could crack on and empty his pond and deal with it all.

Hence I received a filter set up that has been running for 4 years and was fully cycled. I just had to move it and reconfigure it to the shape of my pond.

His pond had a larger water volume than mine and was gin clear. So far so good in mine after 2 weeks and the fish have settled in really well with no issues.
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That’s good then.
Your filter will still house plenty of bacteria to kick off.
I didn’t have that luxury unfortunately and within a day or two of the fish going in I was taking steps with filter start and partial water changes to get my levels down.
Luckily it didn’t take long to stabilize
My big wetland filter has 4 plants and two air stones buried in it to really speed up the bacteria growth.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
That’s good then.
Your filter will still house plenty of bacteria to kick off.
I didn’t have that luxury unfortunately and within a day or two of the fish going in I was taking steps with filter start and partial water changes to get my levels down.
Luckily it didn’t take long to stabilize
My big wetland filter has 4 plants and two air stones buried in it to really speed up the bacteria growth.
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It'll soon settle down and once balanced need very little attention on that front mate.

When I set up my 240 litre aquarium it was a fair while before it was fully cycled, water was balanced etc etc

4 years in and I barely have to touch it now. 20% water change every few weeks and check the filter every 2-3 months plus a little weekly maintenance and it's clear as a bell and fish are happy.

Fingers crossed your pond will be the same, especially with such a sophisticated, well thought out filter system.

Be great to see it's progress and that of the fish over time 👌
 
Wow, them's some really nice ponds, well done all.
 
Just out of interest Rich what will you be feeding them? I’ve kept Tench and Perch before and can be finicky feeders, but both did well on a diet of chopped worm and caster! The perch also love the occasional live worm…really triggers their hunting instinct
 
Alan Palmer said:
Just out of interest Rich what will you be feeding them? I’ve kept Tench and Perch before and can be finicky feeders, but both did well on a diet of chopped worm and caster! The perch also love the occasional live worm…really triggers their hunting instinct
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I’m finding the tench actually eat everything but only at night. They are quite destructive eaters moving anything that is in their way to get to food. They’ve knocked 2 plant pots over twice I’ve had to weigh them down.

They love standard fish food pellets and flakes, maggots as a treat, corn … you name it my tench eat it.

My crucians are the most tame fish going they follow you round the pond glued to each others hip. Again they eat most stuff but they are only light feeders. They must be eating naturals because they don’t appear to eat much that I feed them but my god they’ve grown the fastest.

My perch are again light eaters and mostly at night but they are obviously more picky. The bigger 3 will devour worms maggots and prawns where as the smaller 3 seem only interested in an odd maggot. The smaller ones won’t eat anything that doesn’t move. I’m trying not to give them too many maggots as I want them to get onto a better food source but it’s going to take time and hopefully when they get bigger they’ll eat other things.

My chub obviously love a maggot but I know they are getting their fill on the naturals as they shoot around nabbing mozzys and anything that moves through the water column.
They like a bit of bread as a treat but not interested in food pellet or flakes just yet.
They are all very young and small with different eating habits. It’s going to take time to get them all onto a good balanced diet but they’ll get there as they grow.
I like the fact that most of them are taking advantage of the natural food accumulating in the pond
 
Richard Isaacs said:
I’m finding the tench actually eat everything but only at night. They are quite destructive eaters moving anything that is in their way to get to food. They’ve knocked 2 plant pots over twice I’ve had to weigh them down.

They love standard fish food pellets and flakes, maggots as a treat, corn … you name it my tench eat it.

My crucians are the most tame fish going they follow you round the pond glued to each others hip. Again they eat most stuff but they are only light feeders. They must be eating naturals because they don’t appear to eat much that I feed them but my god they’ve grown the fastest.

My perch are again light eaters and mostly at night but they are obviously more picky. The bigger 3 will devour worms maggots and prawns where as the smaller 3 seem only interested in an odd maggot. The smaller ones won’t eat anything that doesn’t move. I’m trying not to give them too many maggots as I want them to get onto a better food source but it’s going to take time and hopefully when they get bigger they’ll eat other things.

My chub obviously love a maggot but I know they are getting their fill on the naturals as they shoot around nabbing mozzys and anything that moves through the water column.
They like a bit of bread as a treat but not interested in food pellet or flakes just yet.
They are all very young and small with different eating habits. It’s going to take time to get them all onto a good balanced diet but they’ll get there as they grow.
I like the fact that most of them are taking advantage of the natural food accumulating in the pond
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Good stuff. Once you’ve established a colony of freshwater shrimp (a gravel pit with weed growth will be abundant) the fish will have a constant source of food and very importantly good environmental enrichment for them to keep them busy grubbing about. A weed rake, bucket and a good clean gravel pit will produce a good seeding colony of various invertebrates
 
Richard Isaacs said:
That’s a proper professional one Lee. Nice
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I’ll get some better pics up soon pictures still has winter covers on to keep the heat in

Shed at the back is the filter shed which is to small

I often think should I have built a natural pond but love the colours
 
One of the best things for cycling a pond with no fish is a dead fish soon builds up good bacteria
 
Don’t forget the waste water after filter cleans etc is brilliant for the garden , a great fertiliser. We had a Koi pond back in the ninety’s , but could never get the Koi to grow , turned out to be too much iron in the tap water , got told (wrongly ) that good old Yorkshire Tap water would be fine , should have bought a water filter . It was a steep expensive learning curve . Just thinking about digging that hole makes my back hurt lol

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Lewis Baldwin said:
This is something that does concern me Cliff as we have herons regularly within 100 yards of the garden due to a stream and 2 settling ponds that are very mature within a stones throw.

I've currently got fine fishing line across the pond and have dug it so the herons can't walk into or land in the pond with any ease. I plan to put more plants in and some Lillie's in the deepest part to provide cover aswell.

I don't want to go down the net route as it's quite ugly.
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Install a shishi odoshi Japanese deer scarer
 
Kevin Brown said:
Don’t forget the waste water after filter cleans etc is brilliant for the garden , a great fertiliser. We had a Koi pond back in the ninety’s , but could never get the Koi to grow , turned out to be too much iron in the tap water , got told (wrongly ) that good old Yorkshire Tap water would be fine , should have bought a water filter . It was a steep expensive learning curve . Just thinking about digging that hole makes my back hurt lol

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I’ve used a declorinater for my water changes from day 1. A worthy investment and not too expensive. You just connect it in the hose line
 
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