Repairing koi pond in our new house

[PR615]

Let me first say that 3 weeks ago I didn’t know what a backyard water garden or koi pond was. I’m learning the ropes and am I DIYer. Bear with me on the elementary questions. The house we purchased had a quoit pond that had not been maintained for several years.

It has a waterfall which was turned on, but was very weak. I just drained the pond and found that there was a 3 foot tall layer of scum and debris in the bottom, and the 1 foot of water in the top of that was very dirty.

I’ve removed everything and have it down to the rocks, as seen in the picture. It has an aquascape 4000-8000 variable pump, and my rookie question of the day is would these dirty conditions impact the overall flow of the water or should I be prepping to get a bigger pump. I don’t know enough about water pumps to know if clean water will pump more efficiently than dirty water.

Next question, should I be worried that an aquascape pump operated in those conditions for a couple of months?

Posted some before the cleaning and then one as it is today.

 

[sissy]

welcome and congrats on your new house and new pond .Your pump is more than enough .But clean it and flush out the hoses .Do not over clean the pond ,the good muck left will help the pond and never ever power wash it

 

[PR615]

Thanks, I had no choice but to drain. Here’s the picture showing it before I dug out 4 feet of solid sludge.

There was no chemical or biological process I could wait on to try and get it clean. I feel like starting over from scratch is a better idea.

My goal is to add fish in about a year, the short term goal is to make it look nice and check it off the honey-do list.

 

[ROW FISH]

WOW What a fixer upper. Can't wait to see what the end product is.

Note: I would personally not wait a year before adding fish. You would be surprised with how resilient those guys are. Once you get it clean and filled, let is cycle for a few weeks and then test the water with some feeder goldfish. You will want those fish in there when summer hits to help manage the mosquito larva at the very least.

Hope you have fun with the project and welcome to the ponding life style.

 

[PR615]

WOW What a fixer upper. Can't wait to see what the end product is.

Note: I would personally not wait a year before adding fish. You would be surprised with how resilient those guys are. Once you get it clean and filled, let is cycle for a few weeks and then test the water with some feeder goldfish. You will want those fish in there when summer hits to help manage the mosquito larva at the very least.

Hope you have fun with the project and welcome to the ponding life style.

The ironic thing is, from the surface it looked ok and they had rigged the waterfall with a secondary pipe to bypass the biofalls tank. So the sound of the waterfall combined with the 8-9 inches of water with a few lilies really hid the problems.. The first owners invested quite a bit back in 2011 and it was constructed very well - the next owners neglected it for 3 to 4 years. I'm just happy I can see every rock now and had no idea how deep it really was.

 

[Angel]

3 foot tall layer of scum and debris in the bottom, and the 1 foot of water in the top of that was very dirty.

this part you want to remove. the rest just a gentle was with no pressure from your hose. I would not clean any filters yet it has good bacteria wich you need to reestablish your environment.

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

@PR615 I agree with the above about not going overboard with cleaning. Just get as much of the solid waste/"scum" out (which it looks like you pretty much have under control) and refill it with water so you can make sure the pumps operate correctly and the liner holds water properly. If the owners bypassed something it could be because it had a leak in a connection, but you won't know until you reconnect everything and turn it all back on. If you want to wait until you start adding nice looking goldfish I would at the very least add some minnows sooner than later because they will help keep mosquito larvae under control like @ROW FISH mentioned.