Hello everybody! I'm Chris, and this is the koi pond i built last year. my wife and i were having coffee at the pond this morning, and she just started snapping picture after picture. she did awesome, thanks baby!! I've got about 5000 gallons here, 4' deep and 17-18' circumference irregular circular pond. The skimmer houses 2 pumps, one for each waterfall. The koi i have range in age from 1 month old (the 1" little babies are everywhere this year!) to over 5 years old (several adult koi were given to me) and a little over 2 feet long. i also have over 50 goldfish, shubunkin, comet, etc. There are also quite a few frogs that live here, i took the liberty of naming them all Fred, because i cannot differentiate between them 
I constructed my backyard around the pond, it sits directly off of the deck and is the focal point of the yard. The pond has matured quite well, and the biological filters (i.e., the waterfall tubs) really, really keep the water clear and filtered. I didn't spend a ton of money on filter media for the waterfalls, i used a bunch of loofahs (those puffy things that my wife uses in the shower, actually, i think they're loofahs lol) i bought from the dollar store and packed them into the falls tubs. i made about 20 trips in my truck to pick the rocks from a drained lake that is local here, there were thousands to pick from. the liner is fish safe 40 mil black rubber, with an underlayment. it took me about a month to build the pond itself, but if i did not have a bobcat dig the hole, i probably would have still been out there digging a year later. i hope everybody likes it, it's my favorite place in the world to be. if you have any questions how i ran the pipes, overflow drainage, how i found the water line for skimmer placement, etc etc, please let me know and i will answer you as best i can. feel free to use any of my ideas if you find something you like, and i hope my pond brings a little piece of sunshine to your day!! thanks for looking!!
I constructed my backyard around the pond, it sits directly off of the deck and is the focal point of the yard. The pond has matured quite well, and the biological filters (i.e., the waterfall tubs) really, really keep the water clear and filtered. I didn't spend a ton of money on filter media for the waterfalls, i used a bunch of loofahs (those puffy things that my wife uses in the shower, actually, i think they're loofahs lol) i bought from the dollar store and packed them into the falls tubs. i made about 20 trips in my truck to pick the rocks from a drained lake that is local here, there were thousands to pick from. the liner is fish safe 40 mil black rubber, with an underlayment. it took me about a month to build the pond itself, but if i did not have a bobcat dig the hole, i probably would have still been out there digging a year later. i hope everybody likes it, it's my favorite place in the world to be. if you have any questions how i ran the pipes, overflow drainage, how i found the water line for skimmer placement, etc etc, please let me know and i will answer you as best i can. feel free to use any of my ideas if you find something you like, and i hope my pond brings a little piece of sunshine to your day!! thanks for looking!!
