Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Cecil envy

Luckily spring is almost here or I would be doing the same thing out in my shop. And if I did that I may have to move to my shop, because the wife wouldn't tolerate it. Of course, if I blamed it on Bruce she may be OK with it.

Last night I checked my Po'Boy RAS. My yellow perch are getting considerably bigger in overall mass. You can't really see it in length increase as much as you can overall body condition. I drained and cleaned the tank and made the following observations.

1. 7 perch have gotten way, way bigger than the others. These fish are presumably all females, but I'm not willing to risk the health of my pond by stocking them just yet. They are 6-7 inches and do not show evidence of egg production. Great body condition with a big ol' hump on their backs.

2. Vast majority of fish still range from 4-5 inches. I removed a total of 60 of these fish and will give them away. They are feed trained, and in wonderful condition, but I don't want to risk the whole system by keeping them.

3. I had increased water flow, and my overflow system wasn't quite keeping up, so the water was splashing over the side. One perch had escaped and was lying on the floor drain, but was still alive and I put him in with the perch I removed. The biggest perch look like they'd eat minnows in a second if I chose to put a couple of them in. I'm a little hesitant because of the fact that I've been disease free for the entire winter. Maybe I could buy some fatheads and quarantine them for a couple of weeks.

This should leave me with 135 YP in the tank.

Bruce I think it is best to keep the perch on "fast food" until you pond stock them. Minimize your risk.

Bruce :

That RAS must be getting crowded. What about a temporary use of the other RAS and comparison. If you put one RAS in the light lower the water temp and then raise the water temp. you may get eggs. What about a bath in a 5 gal bucket ( with water treatment to kill bugs/fungus) for the FH then feed them to the hoard in the second RAS. They could probably use some fish oil lipids and might catch up in size. No risk to the first group.

Sounds like the YP RAS is working great.

Thanks for the update Bruce. It's great to be able to follow your progress!

Is that really an RAS? Are you using any biological filtration? If not it sounds more like a flow through to me.

You're exactly right, Cecil. Not a true RAS. I priced those at 3-4 thousand dollars. It's a Po'Boy because It only cost me a couple hundred bucks and I "borrow" the water that was going into one of the other ponds anyway.

Cecil, Lusk has also got me interested in adding an RAS feature to the tank. He's going to try to let me know how to recirc some of the water, filtering it along the way, and use the filter to grow snails. That way I could move the snails into the redear sunfish tank that I'm starting for a snack/treat.

Ultimately, I'm just hoping to help my little ponds out by being able to add some primo feed-trained individuals into the system, and give me an option for overwintering redears and oversummering yellow perch. I have had the added benefit of giving my girls something fun to watch, which may be the best bonus of all!

I have the afternoon free today if I can get out in the blizzard. Does anyone have any ideas on a way to use an aquarium pump to lift and filter some water? Coffee filters perhaps? I want something that I can throw away as opposed to cleaning. Cleaning things stinks.

If you're going to do a gravity drop through the filter from a low energy pump like an aquarium type, coffee filters might just be the thing. I would suggest the culligan, et al. type cylindrical domestic water supply filters, but I think that would require a fair amount of pressure - maybe so much that the inlet would suck fish as well as dirty water.

I foresee an aquarium filter pump, dumping water into a used Mr. Coffee (each $5 at a yard sale) that not only filters but heats the water to the optimum temp as well.

So how many GPM might go through a coffee filter with gravity instead of pressure? All of the solid waste that accumulates in my tank from the yellow perch sits in one particular area, so I could put the pump inlet in that spot. I priced little home waterfall pumps at about 30 dollars that did about 2 gpm. If that falls on a coffee filter it will just spill up and over the top, right?

Bruce, how about a fiberglass filter like is used on a central heating unit? I buy them for about a buck and change them out every month.

Tell me more. How could it be used? Are we talkin' about a rectangular shaped filter?

If I ever drank coffee (instead of DMD) I might have an idea of how fast a coffeemaker dumps a specified amount of water through a filter. Let's see ... 2 GPM is 32 cups per minute, about a cup every 2 seconds - that seems like a lot for a coffee filter to handle, especially after some amount of clogging has occurred.

The A/c filter is not a bad idea! But I would use the poly material instead of fiberglass. It can be bought in rolls 24" to 72" wide & 50 to 100 ft long. You could cut it fold it stack it any way you want.
I purchase it for apx. $30 for a 24" X 100ft roll.

I'm searching for a source on line. Here's one for aquariums: http://www.polyflopondfilters.com/

Here's another but still not what I was refering to: http://www.pondliner.com/PolyFlo.htm

This is it but I don't see pricing: http://www.aero-flo.com/tackified.html

Yeah, I use the cheap ones that are rectangular. 18 x 24, but they come in different sizes. The ones I use have cardboard sides but they make some with aluminum. I agree with Ric on the poly. The cheap ones are fiberglass. They are sold at hardware stores or Home Depot or Lowes. Go wander around and ask questions. They aren't all that efficient at stopping all dust so you might want to look at them and experiment a little.

Now we're cookin'. Ideally I'd want mechanical filtration instead of biological filtration. I'd just like to get the solid waste out of the tank and some of the iron as well. I'd want it to be cheap enough to just throw away.

I take a solemn vow right now to not create additional work for myself!! I'd just like to take the filter media out and chuck it, then fold up some more and put it back in.

Could the filter material be placed in a bucket overhanging the tank and let the water trickle through? Don't forget that this will help oxygenate the water AND give me some backup aeration if my aerator fails while I'm away.

You guys are gonna be SO, SO JEALOUS when I'm putting 8 inch, feed-trained age-1 bluegill and chunky 10 inch yellow perch into my pond. :p :p :p Maybe each fall I'd seine my smaller pond and collect some redears and feed them crawlers all winter.

They should have something like Ric is talking about. I've never seen anything that small in the preformed ones. If you buy a 50 ft. roll, you should be set.

Where at?...and could it be rolled up in a two or three gallon bucket with holes drilled in the sides of the bucket?

Bruce, in my tank I have a small pump that pumps the water up and drops it into a small basket full of quilt packing. I bought the quilt packing (which is synthetic cotton just like the aquarium stuff) from Walmart years ago. It came in this big box that I believe was ten pounds for like nine dollars. I just pull off the size I want and throw it away when it's dirty. The only thing I don't like is the small amount of splashing.

I buy it from local HVAC wholesale stores. United Refrigeration is normaly the one I use & they are nation wide. As Dave mentioned I'd think the Home Improvement stors would carry it.

It can be rolled to fit in a bucket. When used as an air filter it has to have a frame to support it since it's very pliable.

I would think cutting large holes in the bottom of the bucket would be best & letting the water filter all the way down through the media.

Bruce, I just checked prices, all they had in stock was 25" wide X 90ft long roll for $60.00. I would think that's more than you need but if you can't find any I'd be glad to pick some up & ship it to you. I Should be able to order a shorter roll.

I'll start looking. Thanks, Ric! That's very thoughtful of you to offer to do that.

Here's the latest. Went to the farm this morning with the intent of changing the feed of the yellow perch. I special ordered some floating Aquamax 400 (smaller size) with 45% protein to mix in with the sinking Ziegler feed. Every time I go to check on the tank, I drain the check valve and some cruddy pellets shoot out. I had observed that when I feed the perch, the Ziegler feed sinks slowly, and if they are hungry they will hit the Ziegler on the way down, but really aren't interested in it once it hits the bottom. The same holds true for hand feeding crawlers--if they see it on the way down they'll nail it, but once it hits the bottom it may be ignored for large periods of time. I'd like to get the fish entirely on floating for the following reasons.

1. Hopefully the food stays available for a longer time so that it all gets utilized.

2. Faster growth because of the previous.

3. More "esthetics" in watching the pellets eaten at the surface after I stock in my pond, so I hope they're trained on the floating.

4. Better able to determine correct feeding rates in the pond because I'll be able to see if all the food is eaten. If they're trained on a slow sink, then I may not know when in the fall to discontinue or decrease feed rates.

I also took out ten more perch to get the number down to 125 or so. These fish went in a 20 gallon tub with an aquarium aerator.

I also took Bill Cody's advice and resisted the urge to put in minnows, and I have yet to create the filtration system. If I'm feeding at a higher rate this summer I think I'll definitely need one.

Bruce - Your RAS perch may not readily accept surface pellets until the water temperature is above 50F. My pond perch will eagerly accept softened & rolled sinking pellets at temps below 48F. Between 47F and 50F they start gradually coming to the surface for floating food. Above 55F there is very little hesitation to come to the surface for floating food. I am interested to see how your perch behave toward adapting to surface feeding.