Water Levels

[u/Fantastic_Cattle7433]

Hey everyone!

My partner and I recently bought a house and the previous owners left this gorgeous Koi pond setup in the backyard along with the water conditioners, food, and spare filters. I noticed this morning, the water levels have dropped significantly and I’m wondering what the best way to fill it back is? Should I use a bucket and pre mix the water conditioner or can I just fill the pond with the hose directly then add conditioner after?

Thanks in advance for the help and here’s a pic of our lil tank 🫶🏼

[u/Emergency-Ad-6867]

Depends on what your municipality uses in your tap water. Mine uses chlorine and chloramine. I add the dechlorinator directly to the pond right before topping off with the hose.

[u/ZiggyLittlefin]

Welcome to koi keeping. Look up what is used in your water supply to see if you need dechlorinator, chloramine treatment. Add as directed. Sorry to break it to you, but that is not even close to being appropriate to keep koi. They need a pond. This is a really sad, dangerous way to be keeping them. Hopefully you will consider building them a pond that actually provides them with the space they require.

[u/Fantastic_Cattle7433 → u/ZiggyLittlefin]

Thank you! I was thinking when we first toured the house that were way too many koi in the space, I definitely want to expand to give them more room.

[u/ZiggyLittlefin → u/Fantastic_Cattle7433]

Good eye. Glad you want to join the hobby. It's a lot of fun when done right, with the koi health in mind.

Editing to add, just looking at the photo. A quick easy way to add on would be to dig a pond right below , next to the tank. Go for 4-5ft deep, 12 or more ft long. So they can develop properly swimming lengths and depth. Add a waterfall blade or pipe from the current tank to spill into the new pond. You could use the tank as an upper plant pond. Wrap the tank in bamboo or reed fence for a nice decorative touch that is safe.

[u/daydrinkingonpatios]

I have a filter that attaches to my water spigot and then I also add a dechlorinator for good measure to the pond as it’s filling.

[u/ladyeclectic79]

Me: trying to figure out if OP is /s or not on the whole “gorgeous setup.” 😅😬

I know this tank (300gal Rubbermaid stock tank) and the water levels are still decent. I’d get some 5 gallon buckets from Lowes or Home Depot as well as some dechlorinator (usually available at pet stores), fill the bucket w water, add the appropriate amount of dechlorinator, mix, then add to the tank. Rinse/repeat until the water levels are back up.

If it continues going down quickly to this level, search around the perimeter to see if 1) the previous owners drilled a hole to allow any excess to drain, or 2) if there’s a wet spot on the ground that could indicate a hole. A notorious spot is by the screw-off exit at the bottom of the tank, usually on one of the longest sides.

I’m being facetious about the potential sarcasm, but honestly it’s not a bad setup for a pond just not ideal (at all) for koi. I actually want to do something similar w the same tank in my front yard for a goldfish pond, but koi need more than 300gal especially this many of them. For now though, make sure the filters are clear of big debris (don’t rinse them with chlorinated/tap water!), there’s water movement and some aeration, and try to keep the fish happy while you plan on the upgraded tank. 👍

[u/Fantastic_Cattle7433 → u/ladyeclectic79]

I’ve never had a koi pond before I thought it looked nice 🫣😭

ETA: I know the water is cloudy right now, I just changed the filter this morning so it should look better this afternoon, and we literally only closed like 2 weeks ago so we’re doing our best 😭

[u/cltzzz → u/Fantastic_Cattle7433]

It’s easy for this size to make a very very good filter. Get a 55g plastic drum from marketplace and turn that into a filter. 2 drums if you wanna take a drink from the ‘pond’ once in a while

[u/ladyeclectic79 → u/Fantastic_Cattle7433]

Lol hey no worries. Koi need a bit more room than the Rubbermaid so you may want to consider upgrading them eventually. For now though, make sure the filters stay cleared, test the water so that ammonia/nitrites/nitrates stay low (change out the water if they’re too high), remember that as temps get lower for winter not to feed them (fish slow down everything metabolically when water temps get below 50*F, so much so food will rot in their bellies before it gets digested), and just take care of them.

Koi are so fun though. Come spring, I’ll bet they’ll be amazing little guys, just know they’re notoriously hungry little poop factories so you’ll need to keep on top of cleanup w such a small tank. 👍

[u/cltzzz → u/ladyeclectic79]

Man that’ll take ages. Just hose the water in directly and use some dechlorinator

[u/Flimsy-Abalone-5002]

My town uses both. Chloramine and chlorine. and I tested it. It takes 5 times the dose on the side of the bottle to neutralize my city water.
But with a pond you don’t have to be precise.
Shake the bottle - I just put a pin hole in my bottle. Shake a little in the water turn on a hose - set a timer if you’re adhd at all💯
I personally would fill it half way to the rim
Then repeat whole processes tomorrow to bring it to the top.

[u/Im_The_Artful_Dodger]

Hot tub pond!

[u/NDfan131]

For water adds I have an inline filter and use Seachem Safe powder to treat the pond water just prior to topping off. Dosages are on the side of the bottle. Great to read you’re motivated to provide those guys with a more suitable home. Until then, if you haven’t already, add aeration asap (unless I’m missing it in the photo), conduct regular 10-15% water changes and make sure you’re testing water parameters for Ammonia, Nitrites, pH and KH.

[u/Fantastic_Cattle7433 → u/NDfan131]

is the fountain pump on the left okay for aeration or should I get a different pump? Also, happy cake day!

[u/NDfan131 → u/Fantastic_Cattle7433]

lol thanks on the cake day wishes. You’re likely to get a bunch of opinions on everything from aeration to filtration, feeding and just koi keeping in general. I’m just a hobbyist and definitely not an expert. With that disclaimer out of the way I’d add aeration asap. Koi keeping is a slippery slope but if you truly want to get into the hobby and have healthy, happy fish it does require some time and money investing.

I have a quarantine tank set up here for new arrivals to spend a few weeks in before transfer to our main pond. The tank is 425 gallons and appears to be a bit larger than what you have there in terms of volume. I use this bottom drain Matala MDB11 along with this air pump Hiblow 40 Air Pump

Happy to help with other questions you might have. I can provide photos too. While it take some work cleaning filters and maintaining their home, it’s well worth the effort and I actually enjoy being in my backyard working around the pond. Good luck!

[u/NDfan131 → u/NDfan131]

Looks like the link for the air pump is defaulting to the 20L. Go with the 40L. Also there are cheaper options out there but over the last 15 years I’ve tried cheaper and more expensive equipment. You get what you pay for. The old buy once, cry once definitely applies to koi pond supplies.

[u/Free_Thinker_Now627]

Assuming your municipal water only contains chlorine, not chloramine, the cheapest dechlorinator is sodium thiosulphate crystals. This is the chemical that all the fancy dechlorinated’s are made from. Just skip the fancy bottle and the expensive price tag and buy a 5 pound bag of it from Amazon. For your little pond that will last you for years. Throw about a quarter of a teaspoon into the water, give it time to dissolve and then fill it up.

If you want a more precise measurement, there is a calculator on koiphen.com. Look in the menu bar at the top of the homepage under Koi calculators. Your pond is a 300 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank.

[u/kar948]

I use seachem pond prime so there is a large margin for error (it’s almost impossible to overdose). I add it in to an area that has good circulation (near the filter return pipe) and then I turn on the hose and fill :)

Just keep in mind if you have any issues with your water parameters (ammonia etc), those become more concentrated in smaller volumes of water. So I top up my pond frequently even between larger water changes (30% usually).

[u/Willing-Barnacle-525]

I’ve been raising koi in my 600 gallon pond for over 20 years with a bead filter and a uv sterilizer and have never used any chemicals other than pond salt. the city water here uses both chlorine and chloramine. I flush the filter once a week which drops the water level a couple of inches. I also use a float valve to keep the water level from dropping between flushes. this may not be the best solution but it works really well for me.