Putting the Pond Fish Back Into the Pond

Hello, steemies!

I keep my pond goldfish in the greenhouse in a big water tank during the winter. Every spring, I bring them back out to the pond until late fall when I bring them back into the greenhouse. The reason that I do that is because in the winter, the pond can freeze solid, and that would kill the fish if I left them in the pond. I could leave them in the greenhouse tank all summer, but the tank takes up space in the greenhouse that I would rather use for growing tomatoes in the summer.

I have 2 ponds in the yard, one is close to the front porch and the other one is out in the middle of the front yard. The one by the house thaws out sooner than the one out in the yard. I think it's because the ground thaws out next to the house faster because of the heat from the basement walls.

The pond by the porch has been ice free for a couple of weeks, and I had brought the pond plant back out to the pond already before I decided to bring the fish back out to the pond. I've been working on getting the greenhouse ready for spring planting, and I needed to clear the space that the greenhouse tank was sitting on. Because it was a sunny day outside, with temps in the high 50s F, I knew the greenhouse would be nice and warm for working in.

The first thing I had to do was to move all the stuff that was in the way of getting to the tank.

After I got all the stuff out of the way, I removed a lot of the insulation from the tank to make it easier to catch the fish. Then I got my fish net and started catching the fish.

3 fish in the net, 6 more to go.

I took the first 3 fish out to the pond and put them in.

Here's a better look at the pond. The water is pretty green right now, I need to hook up my algae killer pretty soon.

I took the steel support rack off the greenhouse tank to make it easier to catch the fish.

After I got the rest of the fish out of the tank and out to the pond, it was time to empty the water out of the tank so I could move it. I used the pond pump to pump all the water out of the tank and into the blue barrel. I wanted to keep the water to use as thermal mass in the greenhouse.

Once the tank was empty, I moved it out of the greenhouse. That gives me back the corner space for my tomato pots.

I moved the top layer of pavers out of the corner so that the space would be the same level as the rest of the floor where the pots sit. Having the tops of all the pots at the same level makes it easier to set up the irrigation system for the pots.

I was able to set all the pots up to prepare them for being filled with fresh potting soil.

Now all I have to do is mix the potting soil with a bit of vermiculite, and then fill the pots. It will be at least a month before I can start planting in the greenhouse, but I should be ready by then.

That's all I have for this post, thanks for checking it out!