Yay! Some pond questions

[AlaskaMatt]

Yay! my dads gonna help me build a pond . I have not consulted with him yet as to how big its gonna be but its gonna be 1000+ gallons (i could make anywhere from 1000-20,000gallons but i doubt he would let me make it THAT big ) Ill be sure to take lots of pictures (hopefully i will remember to!). Now i had a few questions. First off, this year it got to -30F so how deep would this pond have to be for my fish to survive the long and cold winter (winter is like from Late October-April) . Second question, i was wondering if i could keep channel cats in this pond year round, if not ill just bring em inside. Im pretty sure that i couldnt keep any type of natives in the pond due to the long winters up here, but im not sure. Any other advice or tips you can give me would be awsome! I'm not a totall newbie to the whole pond thing, i used have a nice sized pond in washington state for a couple years before the herons started eating all my fish !

 

[AlaskaMatt]

Here are some pics of where the pond is going to be placed. Right now we have it narrowed down to 3 spots.

Site #1

Site #2

And site #3

Oh and a pic of the local wildlife

 

[AlaskaMatt]

No tips or advice for me?

 

[Crazy8svt]

I live in MO. so the freeze line is less the 2 foot. So I can't imagine what Alaska's is, so that would be your first step I made mine 2' deeper than our freeze line. another thing to help the health of our fish would be to keep a hole in your ice in the winter which might be a chore there. Doing this while let toxic elements out of you water ensure healthier water and fish. I don't know much about cat fish except they taste good I went with Koi. Here are some pics of my 2500 gallon pond. Good luck!

 

[BIGgourami]

tip:
move to florida

i have no idea whta the freeze line is in alaska but i bet it 5' or more. there's not a lot that can survive a winter there so i hope you're going with local fish.

 

[TheBloodyIrish]

How do you find out the freeze line?

 

[AlaskaMatt]

Heehee, well i looked online at the Fish and Games website, and they wont let me have any native fish from alaska or otherwise (Including channel cats , though i might smuggle some minnows into my pond ). So ill have Koi and Goldfish . I doubt the freeze line is super deep, i think on the 3-4 feet. Though on some of the larger lakes are converted to snow machine tracks, and i see RVs parked on there all the time. I plan on putting in a couple heaters for a hole in the ice, and putting a cover of some sort so there aint 3 feet of snow on the ice . Thanks for the advice guys. Oh and i believe you can find out the freeze line by looking at the building construction regulation or whatever its called, that should tell you.

 

[Crazy8svt]

you can find out your freeze line by how deep they put your water service in your area

 

[spike_lee]

hey matt. i'm currently in chicago but will be moving to girdwood in less than a month. how are the aquarium stores up in anchorage? tough to find much stuff on the web about it. any place to get any peacock bass? wut about salt water supplies>?

wut kind of fish you gonna put in your pond?
by pops has 3 little ponds in his backyard ...biggest is like 20x10
just has koi.

 

[spike_lee]

oh yeah where in AK are ya?