# Thinking about a Goldfish Pond



## Bluewind (Oct 24, 2012)

I was thinking about eventually building a goldfish pond (in a year or two) and my friend will be building one next year and would like some advice. What is a good minimum size (depth, width, and length) for someone with limited space. Are filters necessary or will plants with a bubbler do like in our tanks? Is it best to be sloped or uniform depth? If it should have a slope, how steep should it be? (degrees)

I live in Arkansas between zone 7 and 8 and have a LOT of temp fluxuation (as low as teens and as high as 120!). She lives in NC (have to look up zone). What special things should we do to keep our future ponds healthy? Again, would like the minimum size for year round stocking.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## Bluewind (Oct 24, 2012)

I looked it up and she is in USDA Zone 8 in NC. Also, I have well water and she has city water, so that might mean different approaches for each of us.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## Bluewind (Oct 24, 2012)

Anoying fish lady says Wake Up People!
*tanks out giant ornate gong*
BONG!!!
BONG!!!
BONG!!!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## thekoimaiden (Oct 19, 2011)

LOL! Sorry I didn't see this sooner. Ponds are a lot of fun! I'll try to answer as many questions as I can. 

Minimum size should probably be about as large as you can go. It's pretty easy to upgrade a tank when you realize you want a larger one. It's not so easy with a pond. This going to mean at least a 6 ft square area to offer the goldfish enough swimming room. As for depth, you want it about a foot and a half below the frost line. I am in Zone 7 and 2 feet is plenty deep for my pond. However, you don't want to go too shallow because then the water will become too warm on your hot summer days. The deeper a pond is, the cooler it will stay when it gets warm. 

Filters (or at least some kind of water movement) are very necessary in a pond. What kind of water movement you chose can depend on the design of the pond. A natural pond might have a waterfall were as a more modern pond might have some kind of fountain. In the summer, water movement keeps the water oxygenated, and in the winter water movement prevents the surface from freezing. Depending on how close trees are to your pond, you might also want to look into a skimmer. 

As for slopped sides, this depends on a few things: what kind of design you want, how prevalent heron are in your area, and what volume of water you want. In a natural-like pond you'd want sloping sides to mimic the different depths and also so you can easily plant marginal plants like cattails and iris. But if you have a lot of heron in you area you're probably going to want to discourage them from wading in your pond; the easiest way to do this is to have straight sides. Also, straight sides will maximize the volume of water you can have in a small pond (and make total volume much easier to calculate). Bigger is always better. 

As for a min volume (I'm guessing that's what you mean by size) shoot for 100+ gallons. Again, bigger is honestly better. The larger the pond is, the more fish you can have and the larger and more impressive those fish will grow. 

Having well water is great in that you won't have to invest in a pond-strength dechlorinator when it comes time to clean the pond. I only buy it twice a year when I turn off the pump and a lot of water drains out. 

One last piece of advice I can give you is to contact a local pond-building company. Having a professionally installed pond makes a world of a difference. It's like the difference between a hole the backyard with water in it and a water feature in your backyard.


----------



## Bluewind (Oct 24, 2012)

What great details! Thank you so much. 

One question though. If I have plants, a bubbler or something to move water, and water clarity is not a problem (as long as it is healthy), is a filter still necessary?
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## thekoimaiden (Oct 19, 2011)

I'm always happy to help! 

If you have enough plants and only a handful or so of fish I don't think you'll need a filter. But you might get a lot of gunk accumulation on the bottom and need to vacuum it out. The main purpose of my filter is to collect debris and make it easily removable. Some filters for heavily stocked koi ponds will also provide biological filtration, but if you want a low-maintenance pond keep the stocking level pretty light and I don't think you'll need a filter.


----------



## Sharpchick (Mar 3, 2013)

I live in Arkansas, too. Just finished converting a water feature I had for the last five years into a goldfish pond, and I built a bog filter for it. (My soil is way too rocky and full of tree roots to dig much deeper than about 14-16 inches.)

I am having a hard time with error messages trying to upload photos to an album, so I'm using my photobucket code for these.


----------

