I'm hoping to get a pond in our front yard sometime but i need to know what I need. I live in southeastern South Dakota, and the temp in winter can drop to 20 degrees below zero. So I would like to know what kind of heater I'll need and what to feed my gf,etc......


Or I suppose I could only have my gf out in the pond when we have our 50-100 degree weather season.

*ouch* A heater for a pond is like very expensive. In your case I would be looking to winter them inside.

You need to allow a minimum of 50 gl's per goldie, some experts say allow 100 gl's each, depth is important also. You don't want to shallow for critters to be able to get ahold of the fish! You would also want a net to keep fish eating preditors (Osprey,eagle,heron,coon, otters,mink) out, as well as large debris and leaf, regardless.

Like a aquarium, you need filters, pump adequate to turn over the whole at least once per hour. And of course, carp are downright messy fish so over filtering is a plus! Small things like Trickle Towers can also be a help. A UV light.

Of course these things can't be run in temps like that in winter, it will super cool the water and just make things go from bad to worse. Not to mention risking the loss of pumps freezing up etc and breaking them.

Water test kits, same as the ones you would use for AQ.

In the heat of summer, O2 needs to be watched also and they do make air pumps and such for ponds.

Do a search on Ponds and take a look through folks websites, a lot will have construction photo's and information plus you can check out pond kits too.

thanks, that let me know a lot more about goldfish ponds.
It turns out though that I am unable to get a pond due to parents..

thnx