New to forum and ponding!

[bao]

Hello all!

I just wanted to say thanks for having such a great place to find answers in regards to koi ponds and water gardens.

I am fairly new to ponds, just built my first pond myself with the help of my brother and 2 friends this past year. I'm really excited, but at the same time i think that i didn't build the pond deep enough and big enough for my kois. the pond is 14 feet long, and 10 feet wide. It is narrows towards the shallow end where i put the skimmer. The depth is 1' near the shallow and 2' deep at the wide end.

the construction of the pond is with the use of a pond liner. Now i'm having serious thoughts into taking everything out and digging it deeper so that my kois will be happier and healthier. But damn, lifting all the rocks and attaching another liner to support the deeper depth is going to be a pain in the butt!!

What should i do? I currently have 11 large beautiful kois (15"-18") and 6 medium to small kois (4"-13"). Is that too much fish in such a small pond? my water parameters are good, no ammonia or nitrates/nitrites. I have a good biological filtration system in place that can handle the fish waste.

Here are some pics of my pond. I was think about just making the deep end near the waterfall deeper and wider.

any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome!

Instead of digging deeper, have you thought about building up the sides of your pond?

 

[bao]

Hello and welcome!

Instead of digging deeper, have you thought about building up the sides of your pond?

that's a good suggestion. I'm going to look into that. But maximum height i could get out of building up would be around 5-6 inches. Looking to add another foot to the pond depth.

 

[sissy]

welcome and yes deeper is better I went to over 4 feet deep cooler in the summer for them and built a bridge for over my pond to shade it .Gosh my pond is 25 x10 and only 2 koi over 2 feet long and 2 filters going and have other fish 19 now and soon less as I get rid of the babies

 

[sissy]

looks like you will be digging deeper looks like you have a sidewalk or patio on one side .But does look like your pond gets some shade

 

[dieselplower]

Wow awesome fish! How did you acquire those beasts?

 

[bao]

looks like you will be digging deeper looks like you have a sidewalk or patio on one side .But does look like your pond gets some shade

Yes i know that deeper is better. Too bad i didn't realize this until after the fact. Did all the work myself with some friends. Learned a lot on youtube on how to construct a pond. Saved me a bundle!

So if and when i do decide to tear things up and go deeper, it's going to have to be sometime in the fall/winter when the weather is a lot cooler here in Arizona.

 

[bao]

Wow awesome fish! How did you acquire those beasts?

Thanks and order my koi's from one supplier in Hawaii. They have awesome koi's with really good prices. Here's there webstie: www.kodamakoifarm.com. They also sell on ebay, that's how i found out about them.

 

[dieselplower]

Thank you

 

[capewind]

Welcome to the group ... very pretty pond, but unfortunately, even with the filtration working well, as your koi grow, it's going to be very crowded. If you are going to lift the liner to dig, I would go closer to 5', as much of the pond as you can, to give you more room, so the fish wont be as crowded later ...

 

[addy1]

Deeper will keep it cooler also, my pond in arizona stayed around 85 degrees (phoenix)

 

[Becky]

Welcome aboard! Beautiful pond and stunning back drop! :wave: