Hey everyone, a new year and springtime has brought some changes! I discovered hundreds of baby goldfish/Koi!!! Dozens of schools. I am pretty shocked and can only guess that the adult fish got busy!
While taking photos, the high resolution allowed me to see that a film is on the water already, I can only assume it is algae. This is not a surprise since we had a pretty bad algae bloom last summer. (Pond/house is new to us last July.)
I haven't done anything but drop in the lime at this point. I would love to put in an aeration system, but just can't afford to do it. Too many other things on the to-do list.
I was about to buy a cutter/rake to start getting rid of the water plants. Now I am wondering if I should do that or focus on something else? The massive increase in fish is going to reduce oxygen, but they should eat vegetation, too, right???
Last year I had a professional come out and paid him to analyze our 0.4 acre pond. It came back with:
- Add lime - Done
- Install Vertex Air 1 System - $1400
- Add Complete and Digester - $650
- Add Grass Carp
While those might be the "best" things to do, I want to try and avoid spending that much money and also am wondering what this influx in new Goldfish/Koi will mean to my plans...I'd also like some validation that those are the best things for me to do.
Is removing the plants a good or bad thing? What else can I do that isn't overly expensive? I was originally thinking about turning this into a small LMB pond, but, priorities are elsewhere right now so just looking to do what I can to help without blowing a large wad of cash!
Hopefully some pics will help!!!
Here's a picture of this spring's fish explosion, the orange blobs are schools!!!:
Here are some pictures from last summer/fall:
Thanks for your help!!!
