new to the hobby

[chuysvt]

hi guys,i have had fish before salt fish,reef,and fresswater fish,but now i have starded a pond, its about 14 ft by 8 ft by 2 feet deep..im still working on it.. i dont have any fish or water in it...i wanted to get some info first.. for pond how much filtracion do i need.. how much water movement, and how many fish can i have in my pond... and for fish im going with koi fish.. and gold fish can you mix them..
any help plz... and what do i need to add to the water to start with.

 

[fishin4cars]

14 x 8 x 2 x 7.5 = 1680 gallons, great gold fish and lily pond, NOT good for Koi, needs to be 4' deep at least and 5-6' deep would be better. You'll be fighting the cold in the winter and the heat in the summer and unless very low stocked will probably lead to problems with lossing fish if you don't go deeper.
Filtration I would check out the DYI and read up there, there are several filters that can be made that will handle that size pond fairly easily. But remember that filtration is based on how well the water is maintained and condition your pond is, high out put of waste need a bigger filter.
Goldfish and Koi, can co-exsist but you need to be aware of overstocking as goldfish will readily breed and koi will interbreed with them leaving you with pretty much useless junk fish.

 

[fishin4cars]

LOl, to sleepy to keep typing tonight, I'll get bacl on and post more when I'm not falling asleep.

 

[sissy]

I have had goldfish and koi together for 9 years now and no problems ,well except aggie and bert 2 of my koi are over 2 feet long and pond may be getting to small for them .When I got my koi they were only a couple of inches long and are now over 2 feet long and they need more aeration and more filtering .I( also have butterfly and fancy tail and shubbies and fantails .13 fish and my pond is slightly over 4 feet deep and I have 2 filters 2 waterfalls and an aerator going

 

[addy1]

I have a large pond, but just goldies, shubunkins, they are really beautiful and not as touchy as koi.

 

[Becky]

Welcome to the forums! We'd love to see / hear more about your plans, have you got any photos?

 

[taherrmann4]

Welcome to the forum....

 

[fishin4cars]

BTW, welcome to the forum,

 

[j.w]

chuysvt

 

[chuysvt]

well there no way to make it deeper ..there is but that would be to much work...

 

[sissy]

If you can build up the sides you do not have to dig it deeper as my pond is almost 2 feet above the ground.Just back fill with more dirt and wet the dirt and tamp it hard and keep doing it until you have it to the height you want it

 

[chuysvt]

So what your saying is to make the walls taller.I have one more question the walls have small cracks.what can I use for that.

 

[addy1]

So what your saying is to make the walls taller.I have one more question the walls have small cracks.what can I use for that.

small cracks? concrete or is it just the dirt with cracks, if you are doing a liner it will cover up the cracks, they won't matter

 

[sissy]

what addy says is right and you can get liners on ebay cheap or even northern tool if you really want to keep the cost down .To keep the cost really low you could go with 20 mil liner from lowes also .If you really are looking at cost savings that is the best way to go and a cheaper pump you can get them at harbor freight or even northern tool sells them and you can get free shipping on some stuff .Just put an underliner in and carpet or carpet padding is good for that .Make sure there are no sharp rocks or edges in the pond that can puncture the liner .

 

[chuysvt]

ok..how much should i pay for liner...can someone tell me how to make the wall taller to make it 3 ft...theres sharp rock on the edges.. i have one more problem.. theres a small brige that i dont want.how can i cover it up.