I should have added some more to my post. Sorry, I was stressed out from the rain and ground water sump coming loose and spraying several inches of water all over the basement in the middle of the night. The brushes I mentioned direct the debris into a net for easier removal. While you can use just a net it isn't all that efficient. If you have aquariums you have used Activated Charcoal, Activated Carbon or AC. It works the same way for the pond. It collects odor and tannins from rotting debris. That water needs to circulate so look into pumps soon. You can put a sock or muslin bag of the AC in the basket of the skimmer to start. Run the skimmer for the circulation until you decide on a waterfall pump. You might want to use some Zeolite too. That helps neutralize organic material, nitrates and nitrites in the water. I understand about the manure odor. I think it has become nasty smelling because of the feed the animals get instead of grazing on grass and hay. There may be something dead in the water making the smell worse and hazardous to work with. I wouldn't stand in the pond until it was a lot cleaner and it is likely very, very slick. If there are no fish you may want to drain the pond. It would certainly make the cleanup easier. Starting the waterfall would help since that tub you mention is probably the biological filter. It may have filter material in it already but if it has been turned off all winter I hate to think of the condition of the filter material. Take a look at it and tell us what you find. Poly quilt batting is a good and inexpensive replacement material. You probably need to clean it up before you start pumping water through it. If there is water in it there will be anaerobic bacteria which will smell to high heaven. A handful of Bicarbonate of soda can raise the PH. I like to use a slug made from Plaster of Paris since it keeps the PH steady and only works when the PH is acidic. Once the PH reaches 8. or thereabouts, it stops reacting. Since there are important details about POP, you can do a search to learn about it. You will find plenty of info. If you are going to add fish or you have plants you would hate to kill, you really need to buy a good quality test kit. It will run around $25. Don't waste your money on dip stick tests. they are rarely accurate. The advice from the other posters is good. You will find lots of help here.

Waterbug guy, First I will talk a little bit about concrete in water. You say it is a myth that concrete in water can kill fish and raise the PH. When concrete first sets up the surface PH is 12.0. Which is the same PH as a drain cleaner called "draino". As it is exposed to the CO2 in the air the PH goes down. But water is a very good leaching agent and so water will continue to try and get the chemicals out of the concrete. So will the PH in the water be raised? If the water has normal PH of 6.5 to 8.5 the answer is yes. The real question should be "how much will it raise it"? That question isn't easily answered as there are a lot of variables. Just to list some the age of the concrete, the condition of the concrete, is the water flowing over the concrete, the natural PH of the water, is the water being changed, and the volume of the water versus the contact area of the concrete. In some cases the rise might be so low as to make it very difficult to measure. But in other cases it can and does raise the PH to 9 to 9.5. At these levels it can and does kill fish. If I remember correctly you have stated that you are a pond contractor. If you are I hope you having started using roofing liner in the ponds that you build. Most of the time a person on this forum is never going to have a problem with roofing liner. Can there be a problem with roofing liner? This should be the question. The answer is yes. The chances that there could be a problem is very low. The largest pond product manufacturer in the US sent out a letter to all their customers a number of years ago. This letter said that all their liner in the future would be tested to be fish safe as they got a batch in that was not. In other words they were selling roofing liner as pond liner. This company had been selling a lot of liner for 10 years before this problem. If it had happen today with the wide use of the internet I would have think that some lawyer would have gotten this information and started a class action lawsuit against them and they would be out of business. The lawyer could easily have sued them not only for the cost of the liner that they had sold but for the cost to replace all those liners in the ponds built with them going back to the first time they sold this liner. The largest liner manufacturer in this country has told me that almost never would you ever have a problem with roofing liner but you might. I think that as a contractor you can't take that chance. If you were unlucky and did have a problem and were sued over that problem the lawyer handling the case would find out that they would sue for every customer that you have that has this liner. In other words you would be out of business. So is roofing liner toxic? No most of the time. But there is a small chance that there maybe a problem. I have only talked about 2 of the 8 things that you listed. I could easily talk about many of the other things listed but my point is this. You listed these things as black and white but they are not black and white. The only thing that is black and white about ponds is that all aquatic life will die. Mike

About a week ago I posted regarding problems with getting my Sequence pump replaced under warranty. Current status is Canadian Pond co waiting for a replacement seal as MDM insists that will fix the problem even though Canadian co told them the shaft is bent on the pump. At any rate it will be another two weeks before I get my pump back or more if I have to get a new one. In the meantime my fish are still in the garage, water lilies are growing in the pond but I have no filtration going or pump. My setup has a retro bd to a 300 gal sc. From the sc it plumbed to the external pump and up to the biofalls/skippy filter. I have one large bag of filter media (net bag full of about 100 scrubbies) in the pond that is growing algae all over the bag. I do have a 1950 gph submersible pump. I also have matala mats that fit into the 3 ft square settling chamber. Would it be feasable to put this filter media in the sc and the submersible pump (in a milk crate to keep from sucking up the filter media)drawing water through the bottom drain and use the discharge hose on the submersible up over the pond edge and back into the pond? I'm not that worried about putting the fish back in the pond as the water temp in their tank in the garage is only 55F but I would like to get the pond running and could move some of the fish out just to get the pond cycling again. Thanks for your suggestions. I am frustrated with this warranty thing and so is the Canadian co as we had arranged this exchange in the fall. Unfortunately the guy we arranged it with is no longer with MDM and the new guy is balking at replacing the pump.

In response to your first question concerning the pump. What you didn't mention is the performance of the pump at different head, i.e. how much water flow does it deliver at the highest point. You also need to calculate the head loss of the piping/plumbing you use. Most pumps (at least here in the states) include a chart showing the pumps capacity at various head levels. Also keep in mind that head is measured from the water surface and not ground level. Question 2. Koi and goldfish love a strong current in the pond as long as they have some little area they can go to rest. They will often be found playing in the strong currents from a waterfall or under water return. Question 3. Koi and goldfish are "coldwater" fish and will survive winters just fine as long as you keep a small hole in the ice and the water in the pond doesn't freeze solid. They may appears listless or dead in the spring but as the water warms they almost always come. I think your pond is deep enough that you won't have to worry, especially if you keep a tank heater (like the ones farmers use it stock tanks) in the pond in winter. 4: I would use goldfish and not too many. Koi will get big and make a lot more waste than the goldfish. Oh, and don't use the "fancy" goldfish as they are not as hardy as the regular ones. 5: You can go either way on this one. Some people I know turn their pumps off other (like me) keep them running year round. The main issue is to keep enough oxygen in the water for the fish. In any event with your winters I would put in a waterfall bypass and return the water directly to the pond and not use the waterfall during the winter. Running water in the waterfall during the winter is a request for disaster. The water will gradually freeze and often will cause the water to escape the confines of the normal water column resulting in a drained pond and lost fish. 6: Just keep the pump running to keep the water oxygenated. 7: I am not an advocate of putting gravel in the bottom of a pond. It is a recipe for disaster if you have fish. All the fish waste gets in and under the gravel and it is very hard to keep it clean. This results in a layer of nasty bacteria beneath the gravel which will eventually be harmful, even fatal, to your fish. A gravel less bottom makes cleanup easy There are a lot of aquatic plants that will grow in your environment. you can use marginals and set them on the "steps" and maybe one hardy water lily in the deep or next step up. Floating plants do will in a pond as well. Of course this all depends on how much sun the pond will get. DO NOT use any "potting soil" in the pond. You can plant most plants in pea gravel and they will do fine. Some people use regular old clay soil with nothing added but I find that the fish like to dig in it and then it gets all over the place and the plants end up floating out of the pots. I'm sure you will get lots of good advise from the users of this forum. everyone here is very helpful and knowledgeable. Best wishes on your journey into ponding.