new guy, new pond, new fish fanatic!

[CountryEscape]

Spottted both the koi and shubie in the first pic ... and you have a frog!

 

[crsublette]

Welcome Diesel !!!

Yeah, the size of your koi will depend on the fish genetics so not all fish will get huge. Koi imported from Japan are known to get up to 32"~36" long.

See, now there you go. Perfect design example of how to do a wet/dry filter, except you could difinately change the plumbing a little so it performs as better bio-filter. These filters don't have to be huge towers with algae growing all over it as "one person" I know likes to present them as such. Your wet/dry filter (also called trickle or shower tower) efficiency will improve if you could dramatically bump up the gph flow rate into it, but ya might have to punch more holes in the bottom of the trays to be sure the trays lets the water pass and does not hold much water. High turnover does not hurt fish at all; actually, a new design of ponds calls river or stream flow ponds are around 2,000 gallons with 20,000gph turn over. The efficiency of the wet/dry filters are amazing. You won't need any other bio-filtration if you build the wet/dry bio-filter properly, but it's good to have a secondary bio-filter in case electricity fails, preventing water to be pumped into the wet/dry bio-filter.

Diesel, if you are dead set on doing a bog, look into doing an anoxic design of a bog. ((a little warning, the thread gets a bit dramatic so don't let that disuade ya)). It uses far less gravel and the plumbing is off to the side a bit versus a bog. The only construction difference between the anoxic and the bog is material compartmentalization and diffusor placement, but the inner workings of the anoxic is far more efficient than a bog.

 

[dieselplower]

Here are a couple different views of the pond while i was still landscaping.

 

[crsublette]

Heh, Diesel, you could also make a paste to adhere pea gravel and such to the trays and add some fake plants onto the side walls of the trays. Might actually look like a nice tribal rock column sort of thing.

 

[j.w]

Wow cool and pretty setup Diesel, and thanks for showing us more pix. You could add one more box to the top of those and put live hanging plants in it draping down all over the rest. Love your fish and froggy :razz:

 

[dieselplower]

I am not dead set on a bog filter. I have until about april to consider all options.

I like the idea of sprucing up the planter boxes. Thanks.

 

[Ruben Miranda]

Hello
Nice setup for sure

If I may say so (looking at the pics)
You may want to look in to mointing those planters better after a season or two they tend to bet brittle and crack unser preasure.
So with that and the weght of water they could pull out of the mounting and fall to the pond and if you are not it could be a disater.

Also is it my eyes or the pic but the water has a blue tint or turquoise to it is that the blue water liquid they sell ?

Ruben M.

 

[dieselplower]

Hello
Nice setup for sure

If I may say so (looking at the pics)
You may want to look in to mointing those planters better after a season or two they tend to bet brittle and crack unser preasure.
So with that and the weght of water they could pull out of the mounting and fall to the pond and if you are not it could be a disater.

Also is it my eyes or the pic but the water has a blue tint or turquoise to it is that the blue water liquid they sell ?

Ruben M.

Good call, the planters are sagging a bit. I plan to take the setup down before winter and try to improve the design next spring.

I believe in the second and third pictures there is blue dye in the water. In the first pic it has pretty much all diluted away. I put it in when i first started the pond but feel now that i like it clear better.

 

[Ruben Miranda]

Hello
Oh good here

Ruben

 

[crsublette]

I believe in the second and third pictures there is blue dye in the water. In the first pic it has pretty much all diluted away. I put it in when i first started the pond but feel now that i like it clear better.

I was wondering that as well. Very kool man. I've never seen the dyes in action; well, in very heavy doses i've seen it done which does not look good. It being very light like that, make it look like a turquoise, like it kind of is in florida key's water, is very very interesting. I might just try that. :claphands:

 

[dieselplower]

It takes a very small amount of the concentrated dye to get the light blue. Id say 10 drops would do it in my pond.

 

[callingcolleen1]

A HaPPy WeLcOmE to YOU! I see that you are very creative with your filtration , I like the box trickle down filter, and you could even add some REAL trailing pond type plant snips to your boxes in the future.

Your pond is coming along very nice! I like that your pond is so deep, and bluetiful!! and the fish appear very happy!

Just Beautiful! Can't wait to see the pond next spring!

 

[DrDave]

Hi everybody. Cool forum. Lots of good reading. Im Jason. I have had a 150 gallon preformed pond and a 250 gal preformed pond in the recent past but it wasnt enough. This summer i dug a pond that is about 8'x9' and steps down from 1' to 2' to nearly 5'. Rough estimates put is at about 1500 gallons. I have about 30 goldfish in it, all less than 2 years old. I also have 2 koi which are all less that one year old. Oh and there are a few frogs that have shown up as well. This is not a super fancy pond but i think it turned out ok for my first try. I have a 1300 gph pump near the bottom and what i thought was going to be inadequate filtration that i was going to have to increase. Turns out with a bunch of plants and mostly small fish, i didnt have any issues this year. I really enjoy this pond a lot.

That is an interesting Cascade you have there. Can you elaborate on it? Mabe another photo side view?

 

[Mmathis]

Oh, I didn't even realize at first that the planter boxes were your trickle filter! Cool idea and it looks nice, too!

 

[Fishylove]

Oh yes, I would surely put that trickle filter to good use Even if you do build a bog this spring you could still keep the trickle filter and as Colleen said put trailing bog plants in it. Tho as Ruban mentioned above the plastic planters become brittle after 1-2 seasons so you would have to use something different if you didn't want to have to replace them all the time or as he said have them break on you. Maybe tericotta ( although it would be heavy, so metal supports would be in order) or possibly stainless steel would be better if it's in your budget. can't wait to see what you decide!