Sunny San Diego ponding

[Amercian Koi]

Greetings from San Diego. I have a well established 8000 gal pond that includes a stream, 2 large settling areas and a bog.Lots of plants on the sides and in summer I have water lilies in part of the settling areas as well as water hy's in the main pond. I have a home made filter that in conjunction with the stream and side areas does a great job. I have about 60 koi and maybe 75 goldfish at this time.
Now before anyone starts on the overcrowding issue all the koi are healthy and just fine. they range in size from 3 inch young one to over 24 inches on the older ones. My pond has been running for 7 years at this location and 20 of my koi i have had for 12 years got them as fry from a friend. Water quality is good I test it once a week and in summer 2x a week.I have never lost a fish to illness or have had any sores or issues with their health. i have lost small ones to birds and a couple larger ones have jumped out of the pond (2)

I do koi rescue in San Diego so far since September i have re-homed about 70 koi most are in the 12-18 inch size. I find that most of the koi i re-home come from older established healthy ponds. just way too many koi in them. my plan is to re-home 20 koi from my pond this month.these 20 are all from the same pond and are over 12 inches and of different classes.

I personally like the long fins, europe doesn't know what it's missing.The club show in San Diego has a longfin class and there are always a number of large long fins entered..This year i hope to enter 2-3 longfins and some standard fin, Know that i do not have high end expensive show koi but I still like them.
I firmly believe that keeping a koi pond is a rewarding experience in a number of ways and if you pay attention to your pond understand how it works and know what is normal behavior for your koi you will have many years of pleasure from the pond.

With that being said it's a pleasure

 

[Lisak1]

Well, you do have a LOT of fish! But it sounds like it's all working, so good for you!

 

[Mmathis]

Welcome! Can you post pics of your pond?

 

[addy1]

to our group! Nice looking fish

 

[JohnHuff]

Beautiful!

 

[Amercian Koi]

If you would like to see some pictures of my pond and filter here is a link. I have since changed the internal workings of the filter. I have installed 16 sq feet of high density foam (8 inchs thick) I have also added 23 24inch brushes in front of the foam. There is also about 100 feet of bird netting as a prefilter and foam and brushes at the water exit of the filter the water has sinc become crystel clear and all the little floaties that were suspended in the water are gone. I do vacume the bottom 2 a month the main filter gets cleaned every 4 months Major clean out of filter is ever 6 months.I clean the bog and settling areas as needed I lower the water level slowly and then use a wet dry vac to clean out the muck. (garden loves that stuff)(https://koiclubofsandiego.org/jerry-s-pond.html I do have a bead filter sitting by the pond but I do not have it hooked up because i am happy with the way my system is working. The pump is torpedo pump from cal pump 10000gph thru 3 inch pvc to the main filter and 2 inch to the stream and a 1 inch to one of the settling areas.No real bottom drains to speak of and no skimmer. the water from near the bottom of the pond goes thru a grid (helps keep leaves from fouling the impeller) up a 3 inch pipe to the pump then into the splits to the other areas of the pond.
..

 

[sissy]

welcome and I knew nothing when I built my pond 11 years ago and just used common sense .I have only lost 1 fish who jumped out and I did not see him and my koi were a couple of inches long and 11 years later are over 2 ft long .I only keep 13 fish all my babies go free to new homes every year .New ponders love free fish

 

[DrCase]

Welcome to the Forum

 

[Tula]

Welcome. I really enjoyed reading about your pond and looking at the pictures. You also enjoy grading…just lovely! Kim

 

[Becky]

Beautiful photos, welcome to the forum! :wave: