I ditto tiller and others. Good advice from all so far. The only thing I would add about chemicals...is that there is one bottle of stuff you really should have, and that is a water treatment for Chlorine and Chlorimines. Chlorine is not that bad if you add less than 10-20% of your total amount at once. The fish can get Gill Burn if they play in the hose spray so put the hose in a area they can't get to. The chlorine will hurt your bacteria colonies in your bio filter but won't wipe em out. After a day or two contact with the air will dissipate the chlorine (it will go faster if you have an airator or waterfall). Chlorimines though are baaaad. They will never leave your pond without being treated with an additive. You can call your water company and see if they use chlorimines. If they do, then you need to get in the habit of using a neutralizer every water change. If they don't then you can get away without, unless you notice your plants being hurt by chlorine when you change the water. "Bad stuff" on the bottom are organic compounds like leaves, fish poop, dead fish etc. As it decomposes it will create a layer of mud called "muck". It's black and smells bad. If your pond ever has a sewer odor that's a sure sign that your muck has run amok and the fish are in danger. When this happens oxygen levels drop and you start getting brown algae and your water will look like rootbeer. Anaerobic bacteria start to go to work in the oxygen free environment. This is a fish death sentence. You should regularly scoop out the majority of the muck leaving as little as possible on the bottom after it settles back down. "Regularly" depends on your pond. More trees, dust, pollen, weaker filter etc mean you need to clean it up more or less than others. There is no rule about how often to clean. To clean out muck, you just need to scoop it out. You can do that by hand, with a bucket or shop vac. One thing I like is this little attachment that goes on the end of a garden hose. The flow of the hose water creates venturi suction that pushes the muck into a little nylon bag. Keep in mind that with any of these options you will stir up the muck and it will take a day or so to see improvement. If you do it regularly, the stirred up muck isn't a problem for the fish. But if you have a deep layer of it you might want to do what destany said above, and move the fish into a container for a bit (filled with pond water!) as all those bad compounds will be spiked during the clean. If your depth is closer to 3 feet I would still think about either getting rid of the goldfish (donate them to a pet store or other ponder) or the koi. With either 3 koi or 11 goldfish you have about the right fishload. But with both, you have about double what you will need in a year or so when they get big. If you are dead set on keeping all of them, you need to plan on losing some to stress or plan on getting a heavy duty biofilter and/or doing regular muck sweeping.

If you take an old sweater and tie up the bottom, neck and one sleeve securely with wire or string. Insert a hose from your pump into the other sleeve and secure it also. You have now made a filter bag that can sit on the shelf of your pond. You may have to tie it onto a peg or something to stop it from falling into the pond. The sweater bag will collect and hold all the particles that the pump sends up. It will require emptying and hosed out as you proceed, but it does a wonderful job. I place my temporary "sweater/batting filter" in a tub which has a return spout out into the pond. Instead of using an old sweater you could line a tub with poly batting or old net curtains, Etc etc. Place something in the bottom of the tub, like a vegetable colander for example, to stop the filter material from plugging up the exit pipe Keep your eye on it as it picks up the dirt very quickly. "Horton"

There is no airstone in this pipe but just air. An airstone produces more tiny bubbles which give a more bubble-saturated column of water, thus a more steady flow and yes in the event of using raw organic materials it might clog. I had not thought of that but was wanting more of the "gurgling" effect produced by not using an airstone...thinking it will aerate better? Maybe. The works are very simple. You can do some easy experiments just by inserting a piece of tubing from a small aquarium air pump into the bottom of a piece of pvc pipe and stick it into a bucket of water and note the results from where the air is being fed at what level of pipe and water depth. Airlifts are commonly used to pump water out of very deep mine shafts, dredging for treasure on the ocean bottom and used in places where there are a lot of solids to deal with since they need no filtering to work and are more efficient than pumping and aerating with two separate pieces of equipment. Air mixed with water in the column simply causes the surrounding water in the reservoir to rush into the bottom of the pipe to fill the space as if there were no water in the pipe and forces the air/water mixture out the top. It also causes a pretty powerful suction on the bottom as the water is filling the space. We would commonly use a 2" airlift to suck grit, rocks and sand from the old sewer plant 1st stage aeration from a depth of 20 feet. We also find coins, rings, loose stones from rings and various other things people lose down their sinks and toilets, lol! Yes the stuff is always disinfected prior to handling... Anyway, thinking about local nutrients, yes it would be very cool if we could come up with a standard method of sorts people could easily and cheaply duplicate from handy sources. But like our resident chemical engineer noted, there will be sediment problems if raw materials are used in the working and there is a timeline to consider in which the beneficial bacteria will be alive and present to enable the necessary actions for plant nutrient uptake from the materials. In a wastewater environment the bacteria are constantly being fed a steady new supply of "food" to eat as it circulates through the system. Lots of air and stirring are necessary to ensure the bacteria survive. In due time though, they die and become what's known as "waste sludge" that is dumped on sand pits to drain and dry. Once out of the aerated liquid environment, this stuff turns septic very quickly (anaerobic) and can contain all sorts of nasty bacteria as the good ones are unable to reproduce. Honestly I don't know just how long the same container of organic materials churning in aeration will remain viable for plant growth. It would seem that as long as there is adequate stirring, aeration and addition of fresh food for the bacteria, the mixture would stay "sweet". We'll just have to see. Any foul odors coming from the container will mean something is wrong and could even make you sick or even kill you if you get some bad e-coli or something.

Thanks, Teresa, I don't think I've ever seen a chicken pie recipe without vegetables, that looks really interesting and efficient, because Bud and Makayla wouldn't have to pick out the pieces of veggies, LOL. Ruthanna, the chicken pudding looks good, I'm going to try a couple of these as meals when Elery's family comes. I'll have 11 visitors for 5 days over the 4th of July weekend, so I'm going to have to find things that I can bake ahead or multiply to get enough servings. The following week is Fair Week too, so Bud and Makayla are spending the night tomorrow night, the fair entries will just have to be baked and frozen, then thawed for the fair. (shrug) Just as well, they're getting too complacent about all those ribbons every year, make 'em work at it this time! Ryse, where are you that you need to move to Tennessee for a better climate? I live in North/West Michigan and I really like to process chickens in the fall, far fewer flies and I don't rush so much to get the birds on ice like I do when it's warmer here. sleevendog, the traffic cones actually worked pretty well, but they weren't quite deep enough. Hey, I'm creative! I didn't have enough room to partially freeze all those halves before packaging, that was part of the problem, I think. On another food related note, the second calf of the year was born today, hooray. I left Mama to tend it and didn't bother them by getting close enough to determine whether it was a heifer or bull, I'll know soon enough. Oh, and Elery and I had chicken on the grill last night. No salting or pre-brining, because I wanted to see just how it was. Elery cooked it slowlyl on the cooler side of the grill and it was moist, juicy and delicious. I'm happy. Annie