fionainc Posted April 15, 2011 Report Share Posted April 15, 2011 Hello everyone. I would like some thoughts about a renovator’s delight outdoor fish pond. I am new to outdoor fish keeping – being a tropical tank girl myself (hooray for guppies!). My brother has purchased a new house and with it, a 5 tier outdoor pond. I’m going to take it on as my new project and intend to stock it with goldfish of some type. This pond appears to have been empty for some time (at least through the several months of house inspection and settlement period). It comes equipped with an Aquapro A3000 water feature pump – although I haven’t climbed through the garden yet to see what filter (if any) it is attached to. There has been lots of rain in Melbourne lately and the pond looks quite clear and is full of water (apart from some green algae clumped in areas). It also has one large potted plant in the main pond area (with some green algae growing on this too). The pond is in partial shade under some ferns. My main conundrum is what to do to the pond before stocking it with fish. I don’t know the history of the pond, so I don’t know if the previous owners had troubles with any diseases or anything. I also don’t want to disrupt an established nitrogen cycle – so I’m not sure how aggressive to be with cleaning the pond. My other thoughts were to get some floating plants so the fish have something to hide under. I was also thinking of stocking more nimble goldfish with fairly plain tails so they might be faster to hide from birds and the like (it just seems that fantails, although pretty, might be a bit slow off the mark… any thoughts?) I have spent some time calling plant nurseries with respect to outdoor aquatic plants, and the advice I have had is to go to Gardenworld in Braeside where they have Lotus Watergarden specialty centre. Has anyone had any experience with them? Comments, ideas, advice would be greatly appreciated! Cheers, Fizz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbites Posted April 15, 2011 Report Share Posted April 15, 2011 throw a couple of small goldfish in first and see what happens..... if they are ok keep adding fish a few at a time ...... that is after you get the pump going.... plenty of real aquatic plants are always appreciated by goldfish - they will eat elodea (think its legal in Vic) as a food if you don't feed them pellets.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted April 15, 2011 Report Share Posted April 15, 2011 I was at Garden World last weekend. Had an issue with a pump that had a non-standard sized hose fitting. The guy fixed it for me in about 2 seconds. But I wasn't there for pond related stuff so didn't really look around. I think it's definitely worth going in to have a chat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fionainc Posted April 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2011 Thanks for the replies. I'll let you know how my Gardenworld expedition goes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fionainc Posted April 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2011 My trip out to Gardenworld was very quick, and I wished I had more time to look around. They did seem to have a big variety of water plants, and I got (what appeared to be - to a novice) good advice. When I got home, I cross referenced the plants I had purchased to various internet sites and it looks like I got the right stuff. They also had quite a variety of cold water fish species that all looked quite healthy (oodles of different goldies to choose from). They also had a Murray River cod (not sure if it was just for display purposes though). Whish I had spent more time for browsing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbites Posted April 17, 2011 Report Share Posted April 17, 2011 what plants did you get? Sounds like the pond is going to get a royal make over and look really great.... re the murray cod - one LFS up here is selling fingerlings for $25 each.... put one of those in your pond and you won't have any problems with guppies or any other small fish - they'll clean them up fairly quickly!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fionainc Posted April 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2011 I got a Myriophyllum papillosum (native water milfoil), Triglochin procerum (water ribbons) and Nymphoides geminata (water fringe) for some surface cover (all natives). I also got some duckweed for fishie munchie value. The pond already had a pickerel rush in a basket (the only plant in there). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbites Posted April 17, 2011 Report Share Posted April 17, 2011 Plants sound good... the little yellow water lily will give some nice colour on top and surface protection for the fish.... be careful of the potted plants that they don't take over too much swimming space with their roots and stems.... the milfoil might get a bit of chewing from goldfish and the duckweed is great food for them - my goldfish eat any duckweed that floats in open water areas.... How big is the pond? with 5 levels it sounds like its quite a few metres in size so the other plants will really look good as marginals around the edges... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fionainc Posted April 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2011 (edited) The main pond is a variation on the kidney shape - but is about 2m by 1m and about 1 foot deep (on average, it has some shallow and some deeper bits). The other tiers are pretty small and are more for effect - they are sort of shallow hand-basin size (the whole thing is one of those pre-fab jobs). I think I am going to have to pull out the pickerel rush and tidy up the base. The garden around it is pretty neat and trim already - it has rocks surrounding the pond area with some nice ferns and trees around the outside of the rock with tanbark over the bare soil. The main annoying thing is a green hose that you can see sitting at the bottom of the pond that is attached to the pump to push water up to the top tier. I'm looking forward to arranging some of the foliage (once it grows a bit) so you can't see it. EDIT: See if I can include a pic. Edited April 17, 2011 by Fizzy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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