Hello everybody. Been reading on here for a while lots of good info thanks. So this is my second year ponding and i built a new pond this year. My first one was a 450 gallon in full sun with a 20 foot creek that caught way to many pine needles. Bought five koi and they all lived. Kept them in the house all winter in a way to small of a tank but they all grew. 2 where 2 inches long now 7 inches and the 3 5 inchers and now are 10 12 and 15 inches. I did alot of water changes all winter. I new my pond wasnt big enough so off to the store to get a new liner and pump.
Now for the build. I have moved it out of full sun to a full treed area and where i have extened the deck to the edge of pond and now it sees sun first thing in morning and then shade till about 5ish then sun again till 9. It ended up being quite big but i'm gald it did, its 5 feet wide by 18 feet long roughly and 30 inches deep for the most part and 14 or more deep in the rest due to pine tree roots and another tree which made a nice outline between layers of water. It is also 20 inches above ground due to my gasline that runs right through the middle of the pond and i wasnt about to go about finding that (been there done it, not fun, another story). Heres the only pics i took of the build and i even own a pretty nice camera just never use the thing.
Now it is all done and been up and running for 8 weeks with only one water fall leak and it was my own fault. My filters and filters are:
1st 55 gallon barrel filled with the round pot scrubbers, scorring pad things like the skippy ones and then white rock on the top holding them all down. that is fed by my diy bottom drain and 2500gph pump with two air stones on the top of BD and two in the filter. then has two 2 inch discharges to the water fall
2nd is a 1100gph pump make shift 5 gallon skimmer pail because my water is to deep for the in pond skimmer box at homedepot i was going to use, but the pail does the job pretty good job for the time being until i build something new. now that feeds to under water jets and my 4 layer bakki filter filled with lava rock that was in my filter from the tank filter which drains into the top of the barrel which then feeds into the water fall
now to the problems or not i dunno if a should worrie or not. The pond has been up for two months nows. I waited for 4 weeks to add fish, 4 little kois i got from a friend. And water temps to come up to 14 degrees C. Then added the rest everyother day two weeks later. so now have been in there now for a total of two weeks and all seems to be good accept one. Reason being is that when i moved them they went from a 17 degree tank to a 14 degree pond. I caught each one in a bucket then put the bucket in a big cooler filled with pond water for a hour then let them go into the cooler for another hour then into the pond and they loved it and were swimming and spawning all over the place and chasing the little ones. Once the last fish was in the pond it rained for two days 65 some mm and dropped my pond temp to a wopping 7 degrees over the course of two days. and its rained just about everyother day for the last two weeks. Not fun but my temps have leveled out at about 11 degrees and fish are pretty active some what mostly at night when the lights are on. All seem to be doing good accept one, been home all weekend and notice that hes doing some flashing but only at night and only a couple times. I've been feeding them just a very little bit the past couple of days because they have totally destroyed my plants and seem to be hungry and they all eat and want to eat more. its suppose to be in the 20s this week and no rain which i highly doupt because the weather man is never right, but should i be looking into a heater or just let nature take its course. The fish were in a state of hibernation last week for sure but are doing much better and is the flashing just do to extreme temp changes? And i will answer the question that everybodys probally wonder after reading this. And thanks for reading will get finished project pics tonight with good camera and not my phone if sunny
GH 120
KH 80
PH 7.5 did drop down to 7 at one point added ph up
NO2 .5
NO3 0 did spike once at 20 for a day or so
This is over a two week period testing everyday with api 5 in 1 strips(not the best i know i just got a pile of them) Thanks again and will have pics soon when ever the sun decides to shine when i'm at home
Now for the build. I have moved it out of full sun to a full treed area and where i have extened the deck to the edge of pond and now it sees sun first thing in morning and then shade till about 5ish then sun again till 9. It ended up being quite big but i'm gald it did, its 5 feet wide by 18 feet long roughly and 30 inches deep for the most part and 14 or more deep in the rest due to pine tree roots and another tree which made a nice outline between layers of water. It is also 20 inches above ground due to my gasline that runs right through the middle of the pond and i wasnt about to go about finding that (been there done it, not fun, another story). Heres the only pics i took of the build and i even own a pretty nice camera just never use the thing.
Now it is all done and been up and running for 8 weeks with only one water fall leak and it was my own fault. My filters and filters are:
1st 55 gallon barrel filled with the round pot scrubbers, scorring pad things like the skippy ones and then white rock on the top holding them all down. that is fed by my diy bottom drain and 2500gph pump with two air stones on the top of BD and two in the filter. then has two 2 inch discharges to the water fall
2nd is a 1100gph pump make shift 5 gallon skimmer pail because my water is to deep for the in pond skimmer box at homedepot i was going to use, but the pail does the job pretty good job for the time being until i build something new. now that feeds to under water jets and my 4 layer bakki filter filled with lava rock that was in my filter from the tank filter which drains into the top of the barrel which then feeds into the water fall
now to the problems or not i dunno if a should worrie or not. The pond has been up for two months nows. I waited for 4 weeks to add fish, 4 little kois i got from a friend. And water temps to come up to 14 degrees C. Then added the rest everyother day two weeks later. so now have been in there now for a total of two weeks and all seems to be good accept one. Reason being is that when i moved them they went from a 17 degree tank to a 14 degree pond. I caught each one in a bucket then put the bucket in a big cooler filled with pond water for a hour then let them go into the cooler for another hour then into the pond and they loved it and were swimming and spawning all over the place and chasing the little ones. Once the last fish was in the pond it rained for two days 65 some mm and dropped my pond temp to a wopping 7 degrees over the course of two days. and its rained just about everyother day for the last two weeks. Not fun but my temps have leveled out at about 11 degrees and fish are pretty active some what mostly at night when the lights are on. All seem to be doing good accept one, been home all weekend and notice that hes doing some flashing but only at night and only a couple times. I've been feeding them just a very little bit the past couple of days because they have totally destroyed my plants and seem to be hungry and they all eat and want to eat more. its suppose to be in the 20s this week and no rain which i highly doupt because the weather man is never right, but should i be looking into a heater or just let nature take its course. The fish were in a state of hibernation last week for sure but are doing much better and is the flashing just do to extreme temp changes? And i will answer the question that everybodys probally wonder after reading this. And thanks for reading will get finished project pics tonight with good camera and not my phone if sunny
GH 120
KH 80
PH 7.5 did drop down to 7 at one point added ph up
NO2 .5
NO3 0 did spike once at 20 for a day or so
This is over a two week period testing everyday with api 5 in 1 strips(not the best i know i just got a pile of them) Thanks again and will have pics soon when ever the sun decides to shine when i'm at home
