Go Big or Go Home, First Timer Building a 2500gal Koi Pond

[eroyal93]

Welcome to our forum!

Even if small the bog will help. I filter 11 ponds with nothing but a bog, ponds from small to big.

Thanks for the info! I found the master post with your bog building info in it, super helpful! I think I may be able to omit the shower filter altogether, or at the very least move and minimize it. Maybe put it the bog after the vortex filter, and then a 1 tier shower after the bog with pumice or the like to catch the last bit of the nitrates. Yay!

 

[addy1]

I love the bog, basically my pond is maintenance free, except pulling all the excess plants that grow.

 

[Lisak1]

@eroyal93 - let me just add one comment... and feel free to ignore me if you'd rather.

Your research is indeed very impressive, but I would encourage you to keep your plan as simple as possible. My concern is you are trying to use ALL the ideas, instead of narrowing your focus. Is this a dedicated koi pond that requires extensive filtration because you're keeping more fish than a simple biological filter can handle? You started off by introducing this as your dream zen garden pond, but I worry that you're making it all way too complicated and will spend all your time keeping your various filters clean and functional. While there are "parameters" for a bog regarding surface area as it relates to the pond, my bog doesn't even come close and yet it works like a dream. We've never had green water, never struggled with water clarity, from day one. The surface area really relates more to the amount of plants that you are able to incorporate and much of the more current information points to the gravel being the real workhorse in the bog. My bog is four feet deep - not anywhere near what's standard, but again - it functions beautifully.

Honestly, I read your plans and my head starts to spin... but again - maybe that's just me. Just one ponders opinion!

 

[Tula]

You may enjoy reading about dedicated koi ponds and their filtration on https://www.koiphen.com/forums/

Their site is strictly for koi and has extensive information on various forms of filtration.

 

[eroyal93]

@eroyal93 - let me just add one comment... and feel free to ignore me if you'd rather.

Your research is indeed very impressive, but I would encourage you to keep your plan as simple as possible. My concern is you are trying to use ALL the ideas, instead of narrowing your focus. Is this a dedicated koi pond that requires extensive filtration because you're keeping more fish than a simple biological filter can handle? You started off by introducing this as your dream zen garden pond, but I worry that you're making it all way too complicated and will spend all your time keeping your various filters clean and functional. While there are "parameters" for a bog regarding surface area as it relates to the pond, my bog doesn't even come close and yet it works like a dream. We've never had green water, never struggled with water clarity, from day one. The surface area really relates more to the amount of plants that you are able to incorporate and much of the more current information points to the gravel being the real workhorse in the bog. My bog is four feet deep - not anywhere near what's standard, but again - it functions beautifully.

Honestly, I read your plans and my head starts to spin... but again - maybe that's just me. Just one ponders opinion!

It seems complicated, but it’s only because I plan everything down to the most minute detail—like an engineer’s blueprint. More than that though, complex or not, I’ve lived my whole life screwing up left and right because of my ADHD. Since being diagnosed and getting treatment last year, my confidence is slowly building, so the last thing I want to do is try something this huge only to discover I didn’t account for something or made the wrong decision in construction/design, and it’s going to be expensive and complicated to fix, and the result is less than ideal.

SO. I just want to make sure I’m putting in everything I might need, or at least accounting for the space in the design if I should need it in the future. Because “simple” to me would have been digging a hole in the ground for a preformed liner, filling it with the garden hose, MAYBE checking the pH, and plopping some koi in. No filters, no aeration, maybe some fake plants. Yeah... I would have been left with some dead fish that suffered for weeks until they gave up, and a stagnant ever-worsening reminder in my backyard of how much of a failure I am after I quickly became overwhelmed trying to fix it and gave up.

...and I like drawing pretty pictures?

You may enjoy reading about dedicated koi ponds and their filtration on https://www.koiphen.com/forums/

Their site is strictly for koi and has extensive information on various forms of filtration.

I’ve visited that forum a lot as well while doing research, but thanks for the link!

 

[Ax01]

so if i don't go big and need to go home, i should just walk from my backyard and back into my house? easy-peasy. j/k.

i look forward to your build. the plans look very exciting.

 

[eroyal93]

Progress is slow thanks to the monsoon we’ve had here recently, but it’s still progress!

We’ve borrowed my husband’s grandmother’s tiller to move things along a bit faster. Managed to get the rock shelf basically outlined/done, it’s just a slow grind to move all the mud out of the middle.

Hopefully the retaining wall will start going up soon, still trying to find a good source of concrete block that won’t break the bank! Got a guy lined up to come and pour the footer and set the rebar. Hopefully. With all the rain I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s backed up for a month himself!

Also, managed to repot my Lotus flowers—they were in a makeshift tinfoil pan in my son’s old baby bathtub haha. Now they’re in their final dishes filled with proper aquatic plant media submerged at a few different depths in this tub. (It’s a cheap one so I’ve had to brace it to help it hold the water on my uneven patio.)

 

[eroyal93]

I recommend adding a cost of power per square inch per year calculation. That would take into account the variance of cost, size, and service life.

I have to calculate in the cost of power for my water change pump, but so far the only “continual cost” is that of my pumps, which is like $62 some per year? I’m doing a triple pump system to save on power cost, so I’ve got three 900gal 24w pumps to move the water. With the head calculation, they should be running between 2200-2400gal per hour, which is enough to turn the pond over once per hour—the minimum recommended for Koi, if I’m not mistaken.

 

[eroyal93]

Solar calculator, perhaps.

OH! I see! Yeah, like I mentioned in an earlier post—solar turned out to be a bit impractical for our set up. The expense obviously, but we also have a lot of trees and aren’t oriented optimally either.

 

[Jhn]

I have to calculate in the cost of power for my water change pump, but so far the only “continual cost” is that of my pumps, which is like $62 some per year? I’m doing a triple pump system to save on power cost, so I’ve got three 900gal 24w pumps to move the water. With the head calculation, they should be running between 2200-2400gal per hour, which is enough to turn the pond over once per hour—the minimum recommended for Koi, if I’m not mistaken.

In a pond your size I would be shooting for the 1.5-2x per hour standard, especially for koi. You could probably get away with 1x per hour in a larger pond......

 

[eroyal93]

In a pond your size I would be shooting for the 1.5-2x per hour standard, especially for koi. You could probably get away with 1x per hour in a larger pond......

Well, I’m hoping the once will be enough with good filtration! I spent I don’t know how many hours comparing pumps and trying to get the most GPH for the least KWH. But, the plumbing I have planned should support more if I need it to! We’ll be keeping an especially close eye on the water quality in the first few months and can then add another pump or adjust the filtration if needed.

Speaking of filtration... Yay for bog filter design! Took a lot of info from @addy1 ‘s bog filter masterpost and had too much fun.

 

[poconojoe]

Here's some pictures from my bog build:

My water turned from pea soup green to totally clear in less than a week.

 

[addy1]

I planted all of mine naked, the plants not me! That was before I had fish, I put the plants in the fall, they grew well in the spring, a bit of yellow. But once I could add fish (acidic water issues) the plants took off and have never stopped.

One plant per sq foot.............. lol mine was so neat and organized first planted it stayed that way one summer, then the aggressive growers took over. Some died over winter, some exploded. Now it is a tiny bit organized, just because one group of plants have stayed on one end, another on the other end of the bog with a lot of blending. I tend to be that type of gardener, no concern on real organized growth. But with a bit of constant pulling purging a bog could be real organized. But the bog keeps my pond crystal clear and great water for the fish.

 

[Lisak1]

I planted all of mine naked,

Ha! We all KNOW you turn the cameras off for those moments!

1 plant per square foot always makes me LOL. It reminds me of the good intentions I always start with... and then my plants try to show me who's boss.

 

[addy1]

and then my plants try to show me who's boss.

Mine show me who is boss!