Hi scottspond, some how didn't think she would, Florida vs Manchester, no contest really ;-) The area I live in is New Mills, in High Peak in Derbyhsire. If it doesn't ring a bell, it's just past Lyme park, Buxton is about 2 miles away, Stockport 9 miles and Manchester 20 miles (all via road) Handily the railway station is about 5 mins away from my home, so trips to Manchester are pleasent through the countyside and don't require I use the car ;-) And in summer I get to hop on the odd steam trian, every boys dream. My Mancunian mates reckon I've gone "all posh" living here, as I was born and grew up in Fallowfield and went to school in Rusholme. Regards ChrisC.

Maxio, I hope you're getting your questions answered for you. I think Nance has done an excellent job of pulling together some background information to consider regarding your problem with what to do with the Koi pond water. Also, Gary and NancyM's suggestions are very helpful as well. Cityworm, rather than hijack this thread further away from it's original posting why don't you open a thread and present your case about what you view is the correct way to buffer the water and how you operate your Koi pond. I for one like to learn new things. I would be very interested in your point of view, the logic for your stance as well as whatever scientific basis you have for your practices. The beauty of this website is that folks share information. We may not always agree but hopefully we are able to educate and learn in the process. ---David

Hi, Gary, You said, the most important thing is to decide WHAT you want to keep in it. With that much water an ornamental or edible fish pond would be the obvious choice . I will have plants and edible fish. I'll check with the University Extension service to see what they recommend. I have a friend who fishes from a lake. Maybe I can convince him to bring me a few! (Then he won't have to drive so far...) You could grow magnificent Koi or pan fish for sure. Next consider your climate I'm sure you have mild winters frost but no freezing??extremely hot summers?? Winters are pretty mild. We get a dusting of snow once in a while, But I doubt I have to worry about this pond freezing. Yes, we do get to about 113 a couple of times during the summer, and the temps stay over 100 for over 90 days in a row. Your fish will grow gigantic and probably reproduce like crazy so this will dictate what types of plants to go with them. If I have pan fish, do I need other kinds of plants? Lilies and hornwort won't work, or in addidion to? Since fish are divided into two catagories as are water plants how far do you want to go to keep temps up or down? What does that mean, 2 catagories? I won't be messing with temps at all. They live or die in what's there. Low temps are much more of a problem than high But there are MANY species that will tolerate both. Filtration is far more important for fish than plants again by species but with that much water it should be very easy.lol If you want an edible or ornamental water plant garden design the filtration and management around them. It is certainly possible to have both but requires different choices. Where do I get that information? water gardening is far easier than terrestrial gardening particularly in a hot dry climate. I hope so. I never learned about gardening. So decide what you most want out of the pool, now pond actually more of a lake lol and go from there!!! You're right, aren't you? It really is more of a lake than a "pond". thanks for your thoughts. What other information do I need? Ella

There are several different ways you could go at it. If you want to keep it easy to convert back to "swimming pool" and keep the cost down for both factors, here are some suggestions. Leave the color as is, the blue isn't that big a problem with algae and a black swimming pool might not be as easy to sell. Some shade for the pool will help against the algae as well as would having it coated in black. Let the water age to get rid of the chlorine. (What source of water do you have for re-filling if you were to need to do any water changes? If you have city water with chloramine you might need to look into some water conditioner.) What is your existing pool pump/equipment? In some arrangements, you could simply continue using the existing pump/filter. Or you could shut down and drain (like for winter storage the pump and sand filter, if you do this properly, the equipment can be hooked back up when wanted for a pool again.) Then you can get a submersible pond pump and a bio falls basin. Put the pump in the pool and hook up to the bio-falls basin sitting on the edge of the pool and you are set to go for small numbers of fish. Add some aquatic plants (make sure they are in large plant baskets with gravel, no dirt.) Place potted plants around the falls tub to dress it up a bit and away you go. Now this might not turn your swimming pool into a perfect ornamental pond but it is the cheap way to do it. Make sure to choose an energy efficient pump as you will probably be running it 24/7. In warm water you need to keep it flowing or the fish can run out of O2. It is best to start out with smaller numbers of smaller fish and keep the feeding light until the system has stabilized. Now if you want to make it really fancy, it will of course get more complex and costly. If you want large or lots of fish, then you will definitely need to learn more about Aquaponics, bio filtration, fish keeping etc. Here is a link that might be useful: www.TCLynx.com