Messages

91

Pond Chat / Re: is not oxygen is Parasites agrr or maybe pH?? Oh noo

« on: April 29, 2011, 07:31:10 PM »

Very easy to show ammonia in a brand new pond with no fish.  It is called cloromine (clorine bonded to ammonia).  Many of the removers will also give false readings on test kits.  Another thing came to mind when I remembered you said it looked like the fish had fungus that sloughed off.  I have seen this 2 times before in years past.  Both times it was discovered that funguside was the problem.  Once it was when I used silicone bathroom caulk instead of pure silicone for sealant on a small pond and the other was when I painted the wood around the edge with exterior grade paint.  Within a few weeks all the koi looked like they were shedding slimy sheets of mucus.  Bathroom caulk (even if it says 100%silicone) is not fish safe.  The same for many paints.  I did go back and look at your picture and it looks like your pond is painted.  Do you remember what type of paint or stain you used?

Mikel

92

Pond Chat / Re: is not oxygen is Parasites agrr or maybe pH?? Oh noo

« on: April 29, 2011, 05:41:01 AM »

Have been reading this for a while with interest and a couple of things stand out as possible problems.  The biggest issue I saw was the PH.  5.5 is very low and would cause your fish to slough off thier slime coat.  I would not worry about the fungus as it is most likely the type that grows on dead or injured tissue.  While that is a bad thing it is not the underlying cause.  the real problem would most likely be the low PH.  The reading of .5 ammonia says your pond has not cycled at all yet so I would think twice about adding fish yet.  I would also wait till I was sure that the ph PH and GH were stable.  As far as the nitrite that is good, but don't be surprisd if you see a little spike in it as the pond cycles.  Either the test kit is not sensitive enough for ntrate or likely not working if you are getting a reading of 0.  I have never seen a reading of 0 except in distilled water or completey sterile water.  Most people consider low reading of nitrate to be very good.  Nitrates in the water are the byproduct of fish waste and organics that have gone through the natural cyle in a pond and make great plant food so this may be why plants do not grow in this pond well.  bottom line is I would wait a bit before adding fish.

Mikel
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93

Pond Chat / Re: Heron on Campus

« on: April 25, 2011, 01:09:22 PM »

I was amazed to learn that herons can dance!  Quite a sight to see one doing a dance while tangled in the electric fence wire.  They even can keep perfect timing with the click of the solar charger.  skarol98 you are very lucky to be in an area that is not pestered by these nasty birds.

94

Pond Chat / Re: Barley?

« on: April 20, 2011, 04:26:14 PM »

Every pond is sifferent with different needs, problems, maintenence, construction, and eco systems.  What may work for one will have no effect or a bad effect on another.  I do not use barley and when I did I so saw no difference between using it and the natural clearing I get without it.  In your pond it may be of benifit (or not).  A respected aquaculturist and pond expert I know at a university once tried to set up an experimnt there to see if it was any benifit.  At it's conclusion he was unable to prove any benifit at all except for a few of the ponds had more water fleas and more organic matter (with lower water quality).  He recomended that I pour in a few bottles of plain old hydrogen peroxide to get a better effect cheaper.

Mikel

95

Pond Chat / Re: How to make curving, stepped falls? PVC tubing?

« on: April 18, 2011, 09:06:58 AM »

More of that @$%#@# white stuff here too Kathy.  I found that the boards I used were much cheaper than a purchased unit.  I mostly just used scrap wood.  I simply pounded two short boards in for each drop and then leveled and nailed the stream side boards to the inside of those  and angled them back to beyond the last  and a little wider to make the short stream wider beneath the last drop.  Then I nailed a few short boards to the face of the stakes to bring it up to the bottom of the side boards.   When finished with the boards I simply backfilled with dirt and packed it down hard (had to move a lot on mine-almost 2 1/2 feet).  It left a mound packed up to the top of the boards with a level stepped trough about 4 or 5 inches deep about 2 feet wide and made about a 1` foot stream when finished with rocks.  Hoping that white stuff goes away fast so we can get back to ponding.

Mikel

96

Pond Chat / Re: Shocked

« on: April 17, 2011, 07:41:55 AM »

Hope your fish recover from this.  Have seen shocked fish before and some recover and some don't.  Some are bent and twisted after the event permanantly.  YOU HAVE A BIGGER PROBLEM!!!!!
If you reset you GFI and it still shocked your fish you need to have a qualified person replace it.  You can replace your fish, but not yourself.  Please look after this first to protect yourself and others from a serious hazard.

Mikel

97

Pond Chat / Re: Frustrating day for ponding

« on: April 16, 2011, 03:47:06 PM »

Thanks Lawana.
I went ahead and bought a pump for that pond at Home depot, but I am looking for an inline anyway to help with the electric bill.  Wheather is still crappy and cold here so the fish don't seem to mind being a little crowded for now.  They say bad things happen in threes so hopefully I will have better luck next week when I get started repairing and moving the fish around. 

Mikel

98

Pond Chat / Re: Frustrating day for ponding

« on: April 14, 2011, 05:22:49 PM »

LOL Kathy.   A few thing did fly here.  My day was 3 and 0 for getting the lined ponds done.  Guess I should not gripe about the last pond as it is going on 17 years old now.  Am currently relying on flushing the 2 ponds with fish in them with well water.  It is probably warmer than what they would have had if the pumps were up and running.  Hoping that gets them by until I can get the plumbing and pumps fixed. I still have 1 pump but it is in the greenhouse being used for last years fry and I don't want them outside in this crappy wheather yet.  Gonna have to hustle when the wheather breaks for us because there are too many fish in them to risk it when they warm up.  Maybe if I won the lotto or something I could just pay to have all that work done.  I don't think I will bother buying a ticket today with the way my luck is running.

Mikel

99

Pond Chat / Frustrating day for ponding

« on: April 14, 2011, 03:42:46 PM »

Had a terrible day for ponding today.  I have been procrastinating getting the 3 lined ponds fully running due to the cold wheather here in MI. I started out today intending to get all 3 going full blast even though it was only in the low 50's and sprinkling.  First tried to change the pump back to the 3600 gph on one and turn on the waterfall (it has been running with the filter only and a 1200 gph).  The drive shaft on the pump broke.  Then I tried to start the filter on another smaller pond using the 1200 gph pump  and after running all winter on the first pond the shaft bearing failed shortly after I started it all up.  I then cleaned the third pond that was shut down for the winter and refilled it only to find out that apparently some water was left in it for the winter and it froze and shattered a 3 inch pvc tee at the back of the 2  100 gal biofilters.  Looks like it is starting out to be a crappy ponding season here.  Anyone have ideas on reliable submersible pumps at a reasonable price?  I want to use a 3600 gph, a 2000 gph, and a 1200 to 1800 gph on those ponds.                                                                                           

Mikel

100

Pond Chat / Re: How to make curving, stepped falls? PVC tubing?

« on: April 14, 2011, 02:55:36 PM »

Sounds like it will be beautiful Kathy.  If the falls are stepped enough and there is a flat surface for the water to drop from they will go over in a sheet.  The trick I learned is to have a small area beneath each drop for the water to fall into so it can flatten out before going over the next flat stone.  Once I built a small strean that dropped 5 times by doing this. I changed it to a 2 ft. waterfal and 2 4 in. drops though because I wanted to raise the stream so it was closer to the bottom of the bridge for a closer view.  When it was stepped I did not want to worry about leaks so I started with a 2x4" frame (sides and face of drops only) and then back filled it all with soil and tamped it down.  I then threw the liner over it and covered it with rocks.  It made it quite leak resistant because the liner beneath the rocks had several inches of board covered with liner to redirect the water.  You can easily angle the face of each drop to go in any direction you desire.  Remember to make the area that the water falls into wider than the falls at each step so that it will catch the splash or you will lose a little water at each drop.  The entire frame can be easily buried and hidden so that all you see is the rocks and waterfalls.  It never leaked or sagged in the 10 years it ran.  another advantage is that it makes it very easy to level each pool for a nice level drop at each location.  Remember to make the frame wide enough to accomdate the rocks too.     

101

Pond Chat / Re: Where do the ducks go?

« on: April 13, 2011, 06:47:48 PM »

Had a pair of mallards doing the same thing here.  Yesterday I found where the hen is.  I was raking leaves and other junk at the edge of a pond and accidently raked up two eggs.  I covered the remaining eggs back up and when I checked today she was there on the nest.  In years past ducks have nested next to the pond, but raccoons always found the nest and ate the eggs.  This time they nested on the island so I placed a trap on the bridge to see if the eggs will get a chance to hatch.  A person could walk right by the nest and not notice the duck there because she looks just like the pile of leaves and debri she made it from.  She must know that she is not esily seen because I walked to within 4 feet before I saw her and she never even flinched.

102

Pond Chat / Re: Feeding fish for the first time, coming out of winter

« on: April 11, 2011, 11:54:06 AM »

It's Springtime!  Finally it is warming up.  Most people start feeding sparingly with good quality feed when the water temp hits 50F and remains close to that or above.  I slowly begin a little before that.  I do not use high protien feeds until it is much warmer.  When the water is cool only feed as much as they will consume quikly because they are still moving quite slowly due to the low temps.  A small amount ounce a day is a good way to start.  Some people feed cherios to start because they go through the fishes system easily.

103

Pond Chat / Re: spring cover and spawning

« on: April 10, 2011, 07:05:06 PM »

I use the strips of the same material used in spawnimg bags for spawning material.  It is just synthetic fabric and looks like gorilla fur.  It can be found at most large fabric shops by the yard.  One advantage is that it can be removed so the parents and others do not eat the eggs.  If you sew it into the shape of a bag (use syntetic thread or fine fishing line so it won't rot) you can simply turn it inside out and leave it in the pond with an airiator for hatching.  This will protect the eggs and fry and gives you a lot more baby fish.

104

Pond Chat / Re: Inconceivable!

« on: March 24, 2011, 11:27:12 AM »

Sorry you got the snow tootsi.  It went by just north of me (SW of Lansing) but we did get the cold.  It was about 12F this morning here so I guess I won't be raking the ponds today.  Was kind of hoping the global warming thing was gonna bring me palm trees (and tropical water lilies), but it sure has not made this spring any warmer for sure. 

105

Pond Chat / Re: Fish loss

« on: February 21, 2011, 04:00:01 PM »

Sorry to hear of your fish losses.  One thing I do keep fish loss low in winter is to strip the pond down for cleaning in the Fall instead of the spring like most people.  Cutting back all the plants and removing organic matter before winter helps me a lot because there is not as much material rotting and using up O2.  This cuts down on the toxic gases too.  Most people in my area here in MI that do not do this and let thier ponds go into winter dirty have major dieoffs of thier fish by thier 3rd winter if they last that long.  I know it is not popular to get into a cold pond in the fall.  Unfortunatly planted ponds with rock bottoms are not the best habitat for fish in cold areas.  While salt will help thicken the slime coat on your fish so they can withstand poorer water quality it can stunt or kill many types of plants too so be cautious.  Another thing that I have done in years past is to float a black styrofoam box upside down over the bubbler or heater.  Even if the heater goes out it can take a longtime for the water to freeze under it.  Blasting the crud out of the rocks and off the bottom with a hose in fall is a big help too.  Hope your setback does not make you want to give up on fish and you have better luck next time.

Mikel

106

Pond Chat / Re: I'm coming down with something.

« on: February 05, 2011, 01:17:12 PM »

Just got back from San Jose and Sacramento California.  Was a lot of fun, but a big disapointment to see all the snow here in Mchigan.  Was great to see the many koi and plants at suppliers there.  Wish I had the growing season.  They have fantastic choices available to ponders there.  Guess I will have to just hang out here for news and pictures till spring.

107

Pond Chat / Re: Snow

« on: January 26, 2011, 05:31:45 PM »

Been kinda quiet here.  Even though I am in MI there is only about 4 or 5 inches on the ground(some drifts are a lot deeper).  I am in the center of the state SW of Lansing and it is usually the dry part of the state for snow.  Lake effect snow peters out to a dusting usually by the time it gets here.  Heavier snow stays 30 to 40 miles north of here.  The heavy wet snow comes through about 20 to 25 miles south of here.  We get wholloped only very occasionally and not at all so far this year.  It is bitterly cold though.  Without the snow cover it will be tough on the plants and ponds.  Kinda wish we had more snow so the ground will not freeze so deep.  Like Kittyzee I am sick of black and grey and white!   I am going to bail out on MI for next week and head to California to visit family (and maybe a few koi shops, heh, heh).  Hoping for a nice warm, wet, and sunny February.  Still waiting for global warming to bring me my palm trees up here in the cold north.

108

Koi Corner / Re: spring wakeup

« on: January 20, 2011, 05:30:30 AM »

Sounds like you have the right idea about doing things to ease the spring transition for your fish.  I am in a much colder area than you too, but I would not just automatically use medications like a shotgun to prevent problems.  I belive a better way to go may be to buy a water test kit and monitor the water quality parameters.  Test for amonia and nitrites as your bio filter restarts.  If the water quality is good the fishes imune system will have an easier time coping with problems.  Partial water water changes are great for keeping water quality parameters up.  Salt works well for thickening the slime coat on your fish and it helps protect them when the water gets a little funky, but keep in mind that it can effect your plants.  As far as your fish being ready to spawn this year I would doubt it.  12 inches is pretty small for koi to breed.  Females are usually at least 3 years old before they are ready in my area and at that age they are usually far larger than 12 inches.  I have heard of some fish that were precoious or stunted that spawned at that size though.  Several years ago I had a 3  1/2 year old female that was only 12 inches long spawn, but the eggs did not hatch at all and there were not very many eggs.  I kept that fish for another 2 years, but it never did spawn again and never did grow much more.

109

Pond Chat / Re: Koi in the dark

« on: January 10, 2011, 06:10:07 AM »

Stevo

Thirteen fish of that size in 300 gal is a very high concentration of koi.  Even with large biofilter it is more dangerous than any concerns about lack of light.  Do you have the capability to do regular partial water changes?  Have you considered raising the salt level to protect against nitrate levels?  At that heavy of a fish load I do not believe I would feed them at all.  Most fish can go for months without eating if thier water quality is good and there is enough O2.  Feeding them would only overload an allready overloaded system.  As far as the filter shutting down from cold I believe that if the water is colder there would be more O2 and the fish would be producing far less waste.  The filter shuts down (not completly) but will stay alive.  One big concern about being colder is that the fishes imune system begins to shut down.  This is risky if the fish are battered, stressed, or infected with even minor concentrations of pathogens.  There are lots of variables to deal with here and lots of different ways to deal with them.  Regular water testing for amonia, nitrite, nitrate, and other parameters might help you get an early jump on heading off any problems.  hope your fish do OK this winter, but please report what happens here so that the rest of us can learn from your experiences.

110

Pond Chat / Re: Koi in the dark

« on: January 09, 2011, 04:31:39 AM »

I keep koi through winter outdoors covered for often 4 months.  There is very little light penetrating these covers.  In the spring these fish are brilliant in color and healthy.  There is a big difference though, between your way of overwintering and mine.  The 60F temps are far warmer than mine which are as low as 40F.  Mine do not get food till spring either, but at 60F most people still feed at least some food.  I have kept fish indoors at higher temps for the winter, but without supplemental light thier colors often faded and by spring were far more dull than those kept colder.  In years past fish that were supplied with supplemental light during winter indoors were a little brighter, but still not as bright as the fish I keep outdoors.  Is it the winter fast, the cold water, or some other factor?  I do not know. I just know what works for me.   If you are not raising show fish does it really make a difference to you?  Are you heating the fish to 60F for some reason like growth or other factor?  How large are your fish and how big is your system and filter?  All these things can be factors too.

111

Pond Chat / Re: Promises, promises

« on: January 03, 2011, 04:57:55 PM »

Only a little further west of perplexed in MI, but it did hit 32F today.  Hope it is not our January thaw.  Even the plants in the greenhouse are suffering from the short grey days here.  About the only ponding I am doing is cutting brush on the edge of one pond while it is frozen.  Just for fun though I did put a bunch of last summers fry in the 1000 gal tank in the greenhouse.  At least I get a little pond fix from that.

112

Pond Chat / Re: So many NEW members

« on: December 23, 2010, 08:38:35 AM »

Having recently joined after checking out this site I am not surprised it is growing.  I have been intermitantly active on several other sites for many years and see a big differece with this site.  Several other sites I have visited through the years have become quite narrow in comparison to this one.  They have become very narrow in thier scope or thier experience level at ponding.  It has been enjoyable for me to visit here and see such a wide variety of topics openly posted and answered in such a friendly and informative way.  The diversity of info and skill levels presented here is great!

113

Pond Chat / Re: Majic Goldfish

« on: December 16, 2010, 06:02:50 AM »

Yup!  had the same problem many years ago.  In my earth bottom pond I ended up pumping it down to a puddle and heavily salting it to whack any goldfish and eggs remaining.  In a lined pond I gave everything a potassium permanganate bath and then nuetralized it with peroxide and then returned the koi.  PP also works well for sterilizing plants before adding them to the pond.

114

Pond Chat / Re: Greenhouse in the winter

« on: December 13, 2010, 03:54:53 PM »

Very interesting!  How low are your water and air temps at thier coldest?  Have thought about trying some tropical lilies indoors.  Right now the water in the indoor pond is running in the high 50'sF and I keep the air temp no lower than 45F.  I know that with the months of cloudy crappy wheather here in MI I would probably have to supply supplemantal liight.  Many terrestrail plants in there I have to water sparingly so they do not grow too much and get gangly or rot.  Especially from early December to the middle of February.

115

Pond Chat / Re: Goldfish keep hugging the deicing ring. What's up?

« on: December 13, 2010, 03:43:13 PM »

Hopefully they are just hanging around the heat.  I have a cool greenhouse pond for small fish that has a 1000  watt heater on it set at 58F.  In that pond they always gngregate around the heater too.  If they are not gasping, sluggish, or clamping thier fins maybe they are just enjoying the added heat.

116

Pond Chat / Re: Goldfish keep hugging the deicing ring. What's up?

« on: December 12, 2010, 10:12:48 AM »

Jax, 
Two things come to mind when you described thier behavior.  One is that tyou said "fat" goldfish.  Are they fantails, lionhead, oranda, or some other thick bodied goldfish?  If so, I have found that these varieties are not nearly as cold hardy as comets, shubunkins, and some other varieties.  The other thing that comes to mind is something I have seen in frozen ponds here in mid winter before.  Many people here have rock or even gravel bottom lined ponds that are often filled with lots of pots, plants ect.  These ponds tend to collect organic matter (fish poop, leaves, and other waste material) that fills nooks and crannies in the rocks, gravel,
and plants.  To make matters worse the circulation is low or nearly non-existant in winter.  These materials continue to rot even in winter and without the O2 circulating through these areas they go anarobic.  This can raise the hydrogen sulfide gases which affects thier gills and makes them gasp at the open water holes in the ice.  I have seen die-offs of all the fish in ponds that are over 3 years old that have not been stripped to remove the sludge.  A good telltale sign is the rotten egg smell you get when moving rocks and plants around in the pond.  Having koi,  I have found that I have far fewer problems with fish health and water quality in winter and early spring by cleaning the ponds thourghly in fall instead of spring like most people do.  Hope this helps. 

117

Pond Chat / Re: Qu. for Pondman... "Unusual Oxygen Requirements" for Koi .. .. ??

« on: December 08, 2010, 05:56:33 AM »

Scott,  I often forget about the very warm water temps you get down there.  They simply are not seen up here in MI.  Have heard that when the water gets into the 90'sF they just sit and gasp and do not even spend the energy they need to eat.  Still, I wish I had the warmth for growth and I do miss having the ability to see my fish for 3 to 5 months of the year.  You are right about the cold water holding more O2.  I use that fact in winter and stack about twice as many fish into insulated covered ponds for protection. I have two ponds built just so they can be covered for winter.

118

Pond Chat / Re: Qu. for Pondman... "Unusual Oxygen Requirements" for Koi .. .. ??

« on: December 07, 2010, 03:37:12 PM »

I think that if you do a little research you will find that for fish the same size (speaking about goldfish and koi) the O2 requirements are pretty close to the same.  The thing about koi is they get much bigger.  If you weigh 200 two inch fish you would find that they weigh about the same as one 12 inch fish.  Imagine what the O2 requirements are for a 20 or 30 inch koi are.  Those figures alsokinda blow up many theories about how many gallons of water are needed per inch of fish.

119

Pond Chat / Re: What's the temp of your pond water?

« on: November 17, 2010, 07:00:23 AM »

Cold!, just plain cold.  I checked them with a thermometer today and here is the list.  Earth bottom pond is 42F,  4500 gal. is 46F (covered with 2" insulation), 2000 gal. is 47F (also covered), 1000 gal. cool greenhouse pond is 51F, all other ponds are shut down or just being ignored.  One thing that is really surprizing to me is the fact that there are still bright green lily pads on the earth bottom pond even though we have had many nitghts down into the 20's.  Usually by now they are at leasts frost burned if not frozen.  I am sure that with nights being so cold and the days being variably warmer that there is a lot of temperature change from morning to evening.  This is the time of year that I miss seeing the large and medium fish for months. They are in the two insulated ponds.  Hope they all make it till March.

120

Pond Chat / Iris seedlings

« on: October 27, 2010, 08:33:20 PM »

Does anyone here have any exprience with Iris seedlings?  I took some seeds from a variety called Game Cock last year and they have now sprouted.  I have lots of  this variety that all came from a single plant I aquired several years ago.  The only other varieties I have are yellow Psuedocoris and a wild blue flag from a nearby swamp.  Will the seedlings have flowers like the parent Game Cock or will they be different?  Will Luisianna iris cross with Psuedocoris?