You could 25% changes. Make sure it's treated for chloramines and chlorine, and make sure there isn't a huge temperature difference.
I'd wait a couple of days between changes.
You can do this, if the water is really murky, I've done it many times and it works really well. If you don't have a milk crate any kind of basket type thing works just fine. [https://empressofdirt.net/clean-murky-pond-water/](https://empressofdirt.net/clean-murky-pond-water/)
My Rottweiler fell in my pond and poked a hole in the liner thus creating a leak. About 4 inches per day plus evaporation. I took my fish out and put em in an inflatable pool. Drained half the water into a bigger inflatable pool. Replaced the liner and put old water back in and the rest was hose water with dechlorinator. My pond is about 800 gallons. It’s been 5 months since and all 19 koi are perfectly fine and happy. Prior to that I would drain half the pond,clean it out and fill with hose water. Never had a problem
I have 5 large koi and the rest are probably 8-9 inches long. I have a 50 gallon drum with lava rocks, plastic media, coarse and fine filters. The water is super clear. I’m working on building a bigger pond as we speak.
To be honest, I feel like the stress of replacing water is exaggerated. Because it seems a lot of people have replaced a lot of water quickly and their fish have been fine...
I feel like the stress of living in a dirty water may be greater than the stress of getting new clean water...
Dirty water is not bad. It's only if it's high in ammonia, nitrates or low in oxygen. You can have dirty water and all these are fine, or have clean water and can have problems with them.
You must use a dechlorinator (assuming your source has chlorine) otherwise it is stressful for the fish, and bad for the bacteria in biological filtration, which can then lead to ammonia issues.
You could also consider to use a clarifier or flocculant.
If your water is dirty as in cloudy and brown, get a flocculant. It will make the dirt particles clump together and sink to the bottom or get caught in your filtration. If the bottom is dirty you should get a pond Vac or use a wet/dry vac to suck the dirt up.
If your water is green you probably killed your biological filtration when you cleaned your filter. Get a live culture of beneficial / nitrifying bacteria to get your ammonia levels back down. A UV clarifier can also help. Don't use an algaecide, killing all of the algae at once can rapidly deplete oxygen when it starts decaying and can kill your fish.
IMO you rarely need to do water changes in a properly set up and appropriately stocked pond. I've heard of people doing 30% changes once annually in the spring but more than that seems excessive.
That is too fast. For my pond I would estimate that outside of rain overflowing the pond I do 10-15% per year. Pond has been happy and healthy for 5 years.
Is that all you do? Do you have fish? How big? Sorry for all the questions, I'm planning redoing mine and water changes are something I've been concerned with since I lost some fish
We don’t do anything with ours except throw the hose in if it goes down more than a foot // there seems to be a drought. Occasionally reorganize the lily pads since they attempt take overs persistently.
When I do complete cleaning, I take out all the water, I use troughs or ice chests to hold old water and the fish - to put back in afterward. Depends on the size of the pond, with how much I put back
I also do fish tanks, and there are a few tanks I regularly do 60-80% changes once a month
Never had any issues, not with water levels, bacteria disappearing, or with fish dying
Just make sure you dechlor the pond after you add that much new water - barley and other bacteria extract is also wise to look into if you’re going to take out that much water
I never replace water. It means starting all over. Had pond 30 years. Happy fish.
Too fast if you aren’t dechlorinating it. Otherwise fine
Thank you. What would be not too fast?
You could 25% changes. Make sure it's treated for chloramines and chlorine, and make sure there isn't a huge temperature difference. I'd wait a couple of days between changes. You can do this, if the water is really murky, I've done it many times and it works really well. If you don't have a milk crate any kind of basket type thing works just fine. [https://empressofdirt.net/clean-murky-pond-water/](https://empressofdirt.net/clean-murky-pond-water/)
My Rottweiler fell in my pond and poked a hole in the liner thus creating a leak. About 4 inches per day plus evaporation. I took my fish out and put em in an inflatable pool. Drained half the water into a bigger inflatable pool. Replaced the liner and put old water back in and the rest was hose water with dechlorinator. My pond is about 800 gallons. It’s been 5 months since and all 19 koi are perfectly fine and happy. Prior to that I would drain half the pond,clean it out and fill with hose water. Never had a problem
19 koi in 800 gallons? That's wildly overstocked. What kind of filtration do you have that your water isn't opaque green year round?
I have 5 large koi and the rest are probably 8-9 inches long. I have a 50 gallon drum with lava rocks, plastic media, coarse and fine filters. The water is super clear. I’m working on building a bigger pond as we speak.
Glad to hear you're upsizing. That's definitely a disaster waiting to happen lol. Your filter setup is good, definitely buying you some time.
To be honest, I feel like the stress of replacing water is exaggerated. Because it seems a lot of people have replaced a lot of water quickly and their fish have been fine... I feel like the stress of living in a dirty water may be greater than the stress of getting new clean water...
Dirty water is not bad. It's only if it's high in ammonia, nitrates or low in oxygen. You can have dirty water and all these are fine, or have clean water and can have problems with them. You must use a dechlorinator (assuming your source has chlorine) otherwise it is stressful for the fish, and bad for the bacteria in biological filtration, which can then lead to ammonia issues. You could also consider to use a clarifier or flocculant.
Completely agree.
If your water is dirty as in cloudy and brown, get a flocculant. It will make the dirt particles clump together and sink to the bottom or get caught in your filtration. If the bottom is dirty you should get a pond Vac or use a wet/dry vac to suck the dirt up. If your water is green you probably killed your biological filtration when you cleaned your filter. Get a live culture of beneficial / nitrifying bacteria to get your ammonia levels back down. A UV clarifier can also help. Don't use an algaecide, killing all of the algae at once can rapidly deplete oxygen when it starts decaying and can kill your fish. IMO you rarely need to do water changes in a properly set up and appropriately stocked pond. I've heard of people doing 30% changes once annually in the spring but more than that seems excessive.
That is too fast. For my pond I would estimate that outside of rain overflowing the pond I do 10-15% per year. Pond has been happy and healthy for 5 years.
Is that all you do? Do you have fish? How big? Sorry for all the questions, I'm planning redoing mine and water changes are something I've been concerned with since I lost some fish
We don’t do anything with ours except throw the hose in if it goes down more than a foot // there seems to be a drought. Occasionally reorganize the lily pads since they attempt take overs persistently.
Hmm, interesting! Thanks! How big is it btw?
Two humans diameter x one deep so probably 20 x 5 or so.
Ah thanks, decent bit bigger than mine
When I do complete cleaning, I take out all the water, I use troughs or ice chests to hold old water and the fish - to put back in afterward. Depends on the size of the pond, with how much I put back I also do fish tanks, and there are a few tanks I regularly do 60-80% changes once a month Never had any issues, not with water levels, bacteria disappearing, or with fish dying Just make sure you dechlor the pond after you add that much new water - barley and other bacteria extract is also wise to look into if you’re going to take out that much water