Bought a pond today! Now what?

So even though I know I shouldn't impulse buy.... I bought a pond today. It's one of the 145 gallon pre-formed liners from Menards. I also got Tetra's kit with the filter, pump and fountain. What else do I need to do?

I know I need to get it cycling but I'm curious as to whether it is the same concept as a tank (6-8 weeks for full cycle) or different? Can you use TSS in a pond? I have NOT bought any fish yet (c'mon, I'm not THAT dumb ) so a fishless cycle is ok with me. Obviously I'd rather have them sooner but I can force myself to be patient. I'll just buy pond plants instead

I guess I basically need a run-down of what a pond entails. How often do you clean it, do you do water changes or just top offs, do you use a water conditioner like Prime or something else, etc.

 

Go swimming?

 

You can use TSS in a pond, just like a tank. I would go ahead and set it all up with your plants and all and let it run for a week or so. Then test your parameters to see what it shows. I can't give you a whole lot of advice on the cycle, since my pond has basically been running on the same bacterial colony for the past 30 - 40 years.

I clean approximately twice a year. More, if the pond gets too dirty (dust storms, or too much debris blown in, or neighborhood kids playing in it). I top it off when it gets low (evaporation, wildlife drinking from it, Mom watering the plants with pond water). I only do major water changes when I clean it. I haven't used a water conditioner for years. Not even when I do a major water change. My sister uses Prime and Aquarium Salt anytime she adds even a drop of water to her pond. It all depends on the water and what your fish are used to.

 

Thanks for the advice Gremlin! We got the pond finished today so I thought it was time to show off some pics!





We're planning to get some plants later this week and then start planning what fish to put in. I'm so excited!

 

Looking good! What plants are you going to put around it?

 

Thank you! I'm planning to do water lillies in the pond and I think maybe some red and white dahlia in each corner of the flower bed.

 

Sounds good. Dahlias get tall, so they would be good in the corners. What ground cover are you planning? I put dichondra around mine - it matches the lily pads...

 

I hadn't really thought about it but I like that idea

 

looks great, can't wait to see it with plants, or even better, FISH!!

 

no help from me, but looks great so far.

 

Wow nice pictures. Good luck and I hope this works out really well for you?

 

Ahh, a heart shaped pond. Looks good.

 

Should I add a substrate to the pond? Like river rocks or something?

 

Only if you want to. I made some tunnels for my fish to hide in, but I prefer to have a bare bottom pond. It makes it easier to vacuum it out. And to rake out the leaves that fall in.

 

Good point, thanks Gremlin. I think we'll stick with bare bottom too. Got a pic of our koi!

 

They're so cute!

 

They're so cute!

Yeah, but my cat would SO be fishing for them!!!

 

Yeah, we used to have a small pond, and we lost all our Koi to cats and birds >.<

 

Nice looking Koi!

 

You must have some scary wildlife around your parts Akari... 2 years with the pond now and I've had no problems with fish being snacked on. Neighbour's dog going for a swim, yes but..... Which really annoys me because it knocks all the potted plants off the ledges, and broke the airline for the pump another time >

 

Shine, living in Florida we have stray cats, shore birds, raccoons.... Ugh! We used to have a 10 inch Oscar in the pond, and no body ever bothered him, but once he died, we wanted Koi, so we got some little ones, and they started disappearing one by one

 

Thank you all! I don't think we have too many cats running around, but we do have raccoons and a family of foxes that live nearby us. I'm a little concerned about them but so far our koi are so timid they hardly come out of their rock caves at all. It's all we can do to get them to come out and eat. Are we doing something wrong? ???

 

Naw, just give them time

You may consider a plastic milk crate turn on its side on the bottom of the pond while they grow out, though, so they have somewhere to hide incase some one with a hungry tummy comes along.

 

stick a dwarf crocodile in there, freak out the neighbours!!

 

stick a dwarf crocodile in there, freak out the neighbours!!

I actually did that for Halloween one year. I have a rubber crocodile - it's about 2-3 feet long. I strung some black wire across the pond just at water level and set the crocodile on the wires. It looked like it was floating in the water like a real one. The waterfalls made the water move just enough, and the water movement moved the crocodile just a bit so it looked like it was moving on its own. Then, I floated a bowl in the pond that had dry ice and water in it so I had fog floating all around the top of the pond. It looked really cool. Everybody that came up that night though the crocodile was real.

 

I actually did that for Halloween one year. I have a rubber crocodile - it's about 2-3 feet long. I strung some black wire across the pond just at water level and set the crocodile on the wires. It looked like it was floating in the water like a real one. The waterfalls made the water move just enough, and the water movement moved the crocodile just a bit so it looked like it was moving on its own. Then, I floated a bowl in the pond that had dry ice and water in it so I had fog floating all around the top of the pond. It looked really cool. Everybody that came up that night though the crocodile was real.

That's just... So exciting! I want to do that when I get a pond LOL

 

Looks great.... but i'd exchange the koi (spectacular though those koi look) for a few goldies. That pond is waaaay to small for koi - and you'll need an epic filter to cope with them.

I wrote an article on koi recently, and from all my research the bare minimum per koi is 200gal (that is per single fish). Most suggest 300gal or more per koi.

Good luck with the pond!