20 year old koi pond

[Artemis]

I was in high school at the time, had been keeping aquarium fish for many years, and suggested to my parents that we build a koi pond. As my dad is big into DIY everything, and my mom is an avid gardener, they were sold on the idea in short order - between the three of us, we had the bases covered.

Aided by one or two small pond books (we didn't have internet access - long-distance dialup was our only option - and I don't think there would've been any pond content available even if we did), and the mail-order catalogue to That Fish Place, we laid out plans for a 1500 gallon 2.5' deep pond (zone 7), bought a liner, pump, 100-gallon stock tank plus lava rock, a bunch of vinyl hose and plumbing fittings, and started digging.

About two years later, my parents divorced (the pond had nothing to do with it) and I went off to college, though I was home in the summers. My mom is now in her late 60's and has arthritis - she has a terrible time trying to do maintenance. The giant wood pergola we built over the pond is falling apart, and the liner has a huge crack in it (fortunately it doesn't seem to be leaking hardly at all). Most of the koi that we first stocked the pond with are still there; several others were spawned right there in the pond or 'rescued' by me from wal-mart; all of them are mutts but I've certainly enjoyed their company. One of my rescues and one of the spawn are both at least a foot long and eat out of my hand.

As you might imagine, I've learned quite a bit (at least 51% about what NOT to do ). But this particular chapter needs to come to a close, and soon. Having a pergola crossbeam collapse into the pond would not be good. My mom does not have the finances to replace the pergola (the posts are bridge timbers, and the shade slats on the top are cedar; I think it's close to a 20'x20' structure - not trivial). I have no idea how we'd tear it down safely with the pond still underneath it. The crack in the liner is 6' long at least, and under a foot of water - I say 'crack' because the liner seems brittle at this point. Why it's not leaking a noticeable amount of water, I don't know.

There are about 15 koi from 9" - 15" still in there (several years ago I realized the pond was overloaded since the fish had grown so much, and started encouraging my mom to give away fish - there used to be 25 at least). We're going to try to find homes for all of them - if you are willing to travel to western Oklahoma to pick up free koi, please PM me - though obviously we're not going to do anything until the water warms up.

Here's a video of the fish taken last summer:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1xN_a77vLxTTUVxNUZROTA1alU/view?usp=sharing

I'm toying with the idea of building a 1000-gallon pond for my favorite 2 or 3 koi where I live (Texas) - it's not financially wise of me (my income is way low), but I've really been enjoying reading about all the new-to-me techniques and tinkering with the design of an easy-to-maintain pond for as little money as possible.

 

[Dave 54]

Hi @Artemis and welcome to the forum sadly my friend this is the wrong time of year for moving koi it being winter its far better to move them in the summer months .
It sounds like your mums pond liner is coming to the end of its days as well as the pergoda which you would be better off removing from over the pond.
A pond liners life span is around 20 years and the liner above the waterline will become brittle, you could try adding a patch to stop it from speading .
As to building a pond we managed to build a pond for £600.00 UKP and its the same size as the one your thinking about making at your home in Teexas however its slightly more as the UK gallonage is measured imperial yours US and the Imperial gallonage works out to be slightly more .
Like yourself weve not got a relatively low income but weve been able to afford keeping koi for 29 years now 30 this year .
The pond was a former QT pond from a koi business as are all but one of the filters which is a skippy filter that you could make yourself to cut down on your costs

Dave

 

[Becky]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

 

[Artemis]

sadly my friend this is the wrong time of year for moving koi it being winter its far better to move them in the summer months .

I know, hence "we're not going to do anything until the water warms up." I would rather let folks know in advance.

...as are all but one of the filters which is a skippy filter that you could make yourself to cut down on your costs

If I do build a pond, I plan on making the filters, i.e. re-using the stock tank that has been the bio-filter for my mom's pond - though I'm going to ditch most of the lava rock.

 

[sissy]

welcome but sometimes you have to do what you have to do .I had to do mine Feb. and March of 2014 ,no choice moles chewed through the liner in about 6 spots and they were not small holes and managed to do it all in less than 3 weeks and also dug the pond bigger from about 3000 gallons to over 6000 gallons and I was 60 years old at the time .

 

[Smaug]

welcome but sometimes you have to do what you have to do .I had to do mine Feb. and March of 2014 ,no choice moles chewed through the liner in about 6 spots and they were not small holes and managed to do it all in less than 3 weeks and also dug the pond bigger from about 3000 gallons to over 6000 gallons and I was 60 years old at the time .

That would be me heading to the local farm and family for a big stock tank! No way I woukd be digging a new pond in 15 deg weather with frozen ground without a backhoe.

 

[sissy]

I had to use 3 stock tanks and had filters set up and a heater I had to keep moving from one tank to the other .3 snow storms and a lot of digging but I got there .I should have put the stock tanks in the basement .I only put 1 in there .I posted pics on here and it sure was not easy .I have a lot of sympathy for rebuild people with a leak .It can be a nightmare .I had to think every thing out since it was only me .Even moving the bridge off the pond had to be thought out .Planning is the key to being successful .Good luck .I also had one of those pop up kiddy pools I got end of season

 

[Artemis]

sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

Ironically, I was thinking, "yeah, sometimes you have to euthanize all the fish, order 5 cubic yards of dirt to fill in the pond, tear down the rotting pergola, and call it done." You chose to keep your fish, and that required fixing your pond, and you had the physical ability to choose to do it yourself instead of paying someone else to do it. Please understand that not everyone's situation is the same, and not everyone's health is the same. Not everyone has the physical or financial ability to recover from needing a major overhaul / repair job.

My mom doesn't want to keep any of the fish, and I'd like to keep 2 or 3 of them. My mom's health is hers to look after and preserve, and I'll not be encouraging her to spend several hours a week indefinitely on the pond if it's becoming a maintenance nightmare to her, nor to spend the thousands of dollars it would take to fix the pergola, and especially not to dig out 1-3x the volume of the current pond to make a bigger one. She has rheumatoid arthritis. She has the beginnings of osteoporosis. I have tendinitis in my hands and feet. We both work full-time or nearly so.

On the financial end of things, when I presented the pond idea to my parents, they were still married, and I had no reason to believe that they wouldn't still be together and financially capable of dealing with whatever the pond needed done to it. Life threw a curveball and that didn't happen. It would be lovely if $10,000 fell out of the sky and I could re-build the filter system, have someone replace the pergola, get another liner to slip in on top of the first, and use a stock tank as an above ground pond to expand the capacity. But short of it raining money, that isn't happening.

I don't want to euthanize the koi if homes can be found for them. But if I step away from this situation and leave my mom to handle it, what's going to happen is this: Her ability to maintain the pond gradually goes downhill as she ages, until fish start dying off. And that happens until they're all gone. I would much prefer the alternative of re-homing most or all of the fish, and possibly bringing two or three with me to my home.

No one likes to think about what happens when their health eventually declines to where they can't take care of their pond anymore, or if there will ever be a time when they can't afford repairs. Or if you can stay able-bodied right up until your death, who takes care of the pond once you're gone? What will happen to your property, the pond on it, and the fish in it? It's an unpleasant thing to think about, but it becomes necessary at some point.

 

[sissy]

Best thing is put an ad up to give the fish away ,You can go to a local garden center they may even know some one .That is how I got people to take all my baby fish.Garden centers are great at knowing people or letting you put up a post to give them away .I even have a list of people who want babies from me next year.I built my own filters and it was the cheapest way to go .I don't have big money to spend on my pond I am retired .I spent enough to rebuild the pond and then the well pump went then pressure tank on the well went and then the heat pump went .Now rebuilding the decks and building pergolas 12 and 16 foot long deck boards are not easy to load and unload .I am 62 years young and trying to stay active at this point ,that is as long as active does not kill me .

 

[Artemis]

That's a good idea, seeing if the pond stores have boards where you can post stuff. It's been so long since I've physically been in a store that I'd forgotten that as a possibility. Thanks!

I've suggested to my mom in the past that she put an ad in the classifieds - she's got concerns about 'crazy people' coming to her house and won't do it - so my sibling and I volunteered to run the craigslist ad for her, and only send people to her once we'd vetted them. She seems to be amenable to this, so I'm hopeful about re-homing all the fish.

 

[sissy]

I have been lucky because all the people who contact me seem to also need help with there ponds in one way or the other .