Steve, a 1000 gal pond? That's a whole 'nother kettle of fish. ( Which your pond could become if it doesn't get enough shade.) That 'tap water' had us all thinkin about the kitchen sink and a little goldfish bowl. If your tap water is safe to drink it is usually safe for your fish after sitting or 'aging' for a while. Sure, their is all kinds of stuff in the water, but unless your supplier has issued some kind of warnings they are usually not worth worrying about, especially in a pond, with the exception of the chlorine and chloramine, which is used in someplaces instead of chlorine. Chlorine usually evaporates within 24 hours, chloramine usually within a week, but call your water supplier and ask which they use, how much and how long they say it will take to dissipate. You can buy an inexpensive chlorine chloramine test kit at the pet shop. You can spend more and test for all sorts of stuff.
After you have the substrate, fine gravel or coarse sand, in your pond fill it up with the 'tap water' ( I'd call it water from the hose, I think that's what threw us off, and lets not get into what kind of hose to use, if the hose is safe for your yard, its safe for the fish.) Let the water sit a couple of days at least, a week if you can (mosquitos can mature within a week). Turn on the pump if you have one, the movement and aeration will help dissipate the chlor. and help the temperature stabilize. If you have a filter use a coarse medium, you are going to have a lot of sediment stirred up and ya don't want to clog it up too soon, the filter will help some against the mosquitos.
Before putting in any fish put in your plants, you want plants, they will shade the water and act as a filter and will remove and stabilize some of the chemicals in the water, as well as just looking good. The best filter plants are floating ones with a bunch of hairy lookin roots hanging down. After a few more days, a week is better, and the plants are stabilized and you're thru movin um around a stirring up more mud, you can start adding fish and stop worrying about mosquitoes.
Start with a few cheap goldfish, ( my local pet shop lets me pick and choose the 'feeder' fish some of which, while not 'show quality,' look just fine when viewed from above.) You don't want to take the risk of somethin bein wrong and your expensive fish croakin. (your pond should attract some frogs who will do that, sometimes annoyingly so.) After about a week of the cheap fish you can start adding your fancier ones. Do what you want with the cheap ones leave um in there or if the kids haven't named them and if nobody's lookin' sorta toss um over into the neighbor's yard where you don't have to watch them gasp, or find somebody who has a hungry Jack Dempsy. It's up to you, but regular ol'comets will had some movement and interest in with those fancy things with such fat bodies and flowing fins that they can hardly move.
When you need to add some water to the pond because of evaporation, you don't have to worry about letting it sit or age. Most of the 'experts' say it is safe to remove and replace 1/4 of the water in an average stabilized 20 gal or larger aquarium, after letting the new water sit just a few hours, Innes and Axelrod actually say 1/3. You are not going to be adding near that much. Most drinking water is treated with less than one part per million (ppm), of chlor. if you replace 100 gallons of water in the established 1000 gal pond, you will wind up with less than .1ppm; your pet shop test kit won't even detect it. If you do not have some kind of automatic float system, just add water once or twice a week or more often if you want. Straight from the hose, not too strong a flow that will disturb the plants or stir up to much sediment, close to the pump inlet so it will mix faster. Once a month or two you can pump out a hundred or two gallons from down near the bottom and then just refill from the hose, or the fancy filling system you installed.
Comments
Waited two days; fish seem to be doing fine. Thanks.
by Steve Townes on April 11th, 2006
I've replaced up to 1/2 the H2O in my 2200 g pond from the tap with no adverse effect on fish
by ptrask on April 11th, 2006
i would like to toss you into the neighbours yard, but i would enjoy watching you gasp
by Mogsie_M on February 3rd, 2011