To start off with I took 2 dollar store organization bins, about a square foot each.

I drilled holes on the bottom of 1, filled it with 6 filter bags full of activated charcoal and ammonia neutralizer, and 2 layers of fish tank filter material.

The filter material, charcoal, and bags cost about $40.

I drilled a bunch of holes in the side of another. I places the filter box on top of the other, and placed a pump (had hanging around, previous project) in the pond, pushing water through a 1/2 inch tube to the top box, and anchored it down.

It worked, but was ugly.

Last night I ripped it apart. I took the bags of filter material and layed them into the channels of the current large fake rock waterfall. It is about 3 feet high and 4 feet wide, with 4 levels. I placed the hose on the top, and buried everything in real rocks and fake frogs and turtles. I forced the water flow to go from bag to bag, when done going through multiple bags of charcoal that are hardly seen.

Much happier now.

I told my neighbor he can deliver the rest of the fish. I'm going to teach them that tapping the rock leads to feeding, which in turn hopefully gives me a pavlov's feeding reponse. I'd also like to teach them to be hand fed.

He said you can't kill them if you try. In winter, the pond can freeze solid. When it thaws, they will start swimming again. I'll toss a heater in it anyway.

It is amazing as the people walk by. Sure, standard kid / family hang out, but the real fun comes from the tough guys getting all melty from the pretty fish.

I assume they were simply gold fish that got big. 3 gold, 1 albino with red eyes.
About a foot long each.
The rest haven't shown yet.

But boy, I have a hell of a waterfall going now. 3 pumps running all the time.

I have to add tadpoles, algea eating fish, and plants.

I went to the local real pond and grabbed a bunch of pond seaweed. The fish like it. It's a start.

I also drained about a 1/4 of it, pouring it in large buckets into my side growing area (the plants should love it), then put in about 40 gallons (still not back full) in, an 8 gallon bucket at a time after using a bit of this in each:
http://www.seachem.c..._pages/Prime.html

I care about it for the chloramine on the new water, I'm not worried about the rest.

I realised there is a "current" in there today. When we first got the fish, they swam in circles all the time. As I added pumps, they stopped. They are still swimming, just the water is passing by while they stay in place most of the time.

I'd say the whole pond gets pushed to the top of the rocks and runs the filter path every few minutes. The bottom of the rocks is a 6 inch drop so it aerates as well. Pushes up the local ion level. People love hanging out at waterwalls for that.

M told me they responded to the tapping before feeding by coming to the surface and swimming to her side. I thought they were, but I was waiting for someone else to tell me in case I was imagining it.