Pond Maintainance And Goldfish Care

(I'm sorry in advance for writing so much)

I have a 1600 gallon pond with around 30 singletailed goldfish. The pond needs to be drained for a couple of days at some point this summer (the pump in the filter needs to be changed, some of the pipes need replaced and cleaned and another layer of sealing stuff needs to be applied to the concrete sides among other things).

I will need to catch the goldfish and keep them somewhere else for a few days. I am planning to drain the pond using a pump with the intake covered up with some fine mesh. Once the water is quite shallow I will attempt to catch the fish since it is virtually impossible to catch them when the pond is full. If anyone has any tips on catching them please let me know since it seems they are faster and cleverer than me! lol I also have a few plants I will need to take out including one very large and beautiful lily.

I am not sure where to keep the fish while the pond is empty. There are roughly 30 goldfish (shubunkins, comets and commons) ranging from 2"-9". They bred last year but I don't think they have this year so the smallest are 2". The majority are around 5-7" long.
Here are the options I have come up with so far:
1. Storage tubs. This seems like the easiest option. We have a lot of Really Useful Boxes, probably at least five 17 gallon tubs. These are fish safe and I often use them as quarantine tanks. They are a bit longer than 24" and quite shallow. The problems I can see with this idea is that 17 gallons is not very much for a 9" goldfish, especially one that is used to a 1600 gallon pond. Also while I have a lot of boxes I only have a couple of spare filters.
2. I have a 63 gallon tank with platies, danios, a BN pleco, dojo loaches and some snails. I could move the platies and danios to a 17 gallon tub and keep the largest few goldfish in the 63 gallon with the pleco and dojos. The other smaller goldfish could go in some other tubs.
3. Not sure about this one but could I possibly keep the goldfish in our bath? I would be concerned about soap etc. in the bath. Maybe I could line it with something?
4. I have a 200 gallon fancy goldfish pond with 1 ranchu and 1 ryukin. I could move them into a 17 gallon tub and put some of the larger singletails in that pond. My issue with that plan is catching them again afterwards. There are loads of small places for the fish to hide in that pond that a net can't get into. The pond is also heavily planted. The fancies are easy to catch from that pond but the singletails would be a lot trickier.

Also, any tips on keeping the lily happy? I am not so concerned about the other plants. This lily has very long (maybe 3ft) stem things going from the leaves and flowers to the base of the plant. I am worried about accidentally snapping these stems.

Finally how should I keep the pond cycled? It has a huge filter with loads of media. The filter will be shut off for a couple of days and the media will dry out if I leave it there. There's no way I could fit a significant amount of the pond filter media into my indoor filters to keep it cycled. I don't have enough cycled media in my indoor tanks to instantly cycle a pond for 30 goldfish.

Thank you very much for any advice

 

One of my guys has a catfish stock pond. When he had to do matinence on his (fish count and plumbing) he used a few horse watering toughs (like 20) to house the fish. They are like 300 gallons each so they would hold a decent amount of the larger ones. They aren't super cheap, but not super expensive either. He used that with some water pumps to keep it circulated. You could try something similar with both the fish and the media, just on a much smaller scale lol. I think it took him 4 days total to do the matinence after draining.(that took a week)
We just hopped in with waders and a drag net to round up the catfish after the water got low enough but I don't see why a bass net wouldnt work for you.
He had water overflowing in all the tanks the entire time to keep it fresh, but daily water changes might be a thought until you get it filled. Hope this helps.

 

One of my guys has a catfish stock pond. When he had to do matinence on his (fish count and plumbing) he used a few horse watering toughs (like 20) to house the fish. They are like 300 gallons each so they would hold a decent amount of the larger ones. They aren't super cheap, but not super expensive either. He used that with some water pumps to keep it circulated. You could try something similar with both the fish and the media, just on a much smaller scale lol. I think it took him 4 days total to do the matinence after draining.(that took a week)
We just hopped in with waders and a drag net to round up the catfish after the water got low enough but I don't see why a bass net wouldnt work for you.
He had water overflowing in all the tanks the entire time to keep it fresh, but daily water changes might be a thought until you get it filled. Hope this helps.

Thank you! I will look into getting a horse watering trough. I have a pretty big fishing net and I'm hoping my Dad will come and help me round up the fish.

 

Come to think of it a decent sized kiddie swimming pool might be a cheaper option and more practical since goldfish won't stab through it.

 

Catching the fish should be easy with an umbrella net mounted on a long handle. Put it in, leave it until the initial panic subsides, scatter some food on the surface above the net and then lift up when as many fish as possible are over the net. Even a smaller model, say about 4 x 4 feet, will let you catch many fish simultaneously. It works best if you don't feed for a few days prior to using it.

 

I have found quite a large Stanley storage box in our shed. I can't find anywhere whether it is safe for fish or not so if anyone can weigh in on that that would be helpful. Right now I am either planning to get some pond liner or something and line the bathtub and this large storage box with it so they are both fish safe and keep the fish in there.
My other plan would be to get an inflatable paddling pool. Slightly concerned about this option ending in my house being flooded though lol