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[Cookie]

Happy New Year from Arkansas
Well let me see. My son built me a garden pond a couple of years ago for Mother's Day. I love it. I go out and set by it first thing every morning & last thing every night. It has a small fountain in it. The pond is a 4x6x3. I had goldfish in it. Then last spring the water snakes found it and good bye goldfish. I didn't put anything back in it. But now I have a Koi that a birthday gift. So I have to get the pond set back up. But how do I keep the snakes out of it?
I want to add a waterfall to it too.

 

[koiguy1969]

Well, let me be the first to welcome you to the forum and say "HAPPY NEW YEAR BACK TO YA" . I've yet to see a water snake in my pond, a smaller mesh size net over pond would be the only thing that comes to mind for me but then i've not had to deal with this problem.

 

[DrCase]

welcome to the forum Cookie....happy new year!!! a bigger fish may help...i have seen small snakes by ,and in, my ponds over the years ...never been a problem..

 

[Cookie]

The snakes were at least 4 ft.
My koi is not but about 6-8 inches, it's still a baby.
Thanks

 

[DrDave]

Welcome to the Forum Cookie. I think that before I invest in any small Koi, I would try to get a handle on the 4' snakes. I have seen Gopher snakes here, but never in the pond. I have one living in my woodpile.

 

[Cookie]

I was given a Koi for my birthday.The snakes were only there in the early spring. So I'm waiting til late spring before I put any fish in my pond. I'm going to do the moth balls. I don't have trouble with any other critters.
I need more info on the pond set up and filter please. The pond I have isn't going to be big enough before long for the Koi. He has grown in the short time I have had him.

Have A Good One.

 

[DrDave]

Search this Forum for "Skippy" and "bio" DrCase and I as others have all built these and they seem to be far superior to anything you can buy.
55 gallon drums are the best to use.

 

[Cookie]

I have a problem with that the 55 gallon drums are almost as big as I am. I have no one to built it for me.
Can a swimming pool pump/filter system work?

 

[DrDave]

Smaller filters mean having to take them apart to clean them and the bio part (anerobic bacteria) will die if you do that. You will need to filter the water first with that method then flow it through a bio filter to strip the nitrates and nitrites from the water.

There are a lot of ways to do this, the bio filter can be fed from the bottom with the output of the pool filter and the overflow goes back to the pond.

 

[Cookie]

Where can I go to read up on this?

 

[koiguy1969]

google DIY BIOFILTERS or DIY POND FILTERS

 

[Cookie]

Ok Thanks
My Koi is cream colored with a lite yellow highlights with black down the center of his/it's back is there a name for that color Koi?

Have A Blessed Day!

 

[koiguy1969]

if your ponds that small, A five gallon bucket filter may be large enough to accomodate your single fish. or do you have others.

 

[Cookie]

I only have one Koi, no other fish. Do I need to get at least one more Koi so the one I have isn't by it's self?

 

[koiguy1969]

yup! no one wants to be alone,thats for sure! they will get slong with goldfish too, and gold fish create a lot less bioload, so a smaller pond will sup[port them alot longer than koi. tancho golds, japanese,(i forget their name) and a couple other breeds look like koi too, minus the barbels. they are all carp.