Thoughts on Koi Pond Build

[Gordo33]

I'm in the planning stages for a second pond build or maybe redoing the current water garden gold fish pond . With the gold fish pond doing good I would like to try a koi pond..
I'm hoping to get input from koi keepers for the following questions
1. How many koi do you have and how many gallons is your pond..?
2. What do you use for mechanical filtration?
3. What do you use for biological filtration ?
4. What would you do different with your pond if you could start over?
5. What differences need to be accounted for when designing a koi pond vs gold fish / water garden pond
Any input with success and or failures would be appreciated

 

[sissy]

1 -5000 gallons 2 koi over 2 feet long 2 no mechanical 3- 2 filters with lava rock and plants in them .4- nothing 5 -only koi .I find koi need lots of filtering and lots of aeration and water movement and winter they seem to still produce waste so I net it at least once a month and they are not fed hardly anything in the winter .The summer I only feed them 2 or 3 times a week .Then when they get bigger they love to kill frogs and suck the insides out and you have to net the rest out .Mine have been doing this for 8 years now .

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Are you planning a dedicated Koi pond or a hybrid installation?

 

[Gordo33]

1 -5000 gallons 2 koi over 2 feet long 2 no mechanical 3- 2 filters with lava rock and plants in them .4- nothing 5 -only koi .I find koi need lots of filtering and lots of aeration and water movement and winter they seem to still produce waste so I net it at least once a month and they are not fed hardly anything in the winter .The summer I only feed them 2 or 3 times a week .Then when they get bigger they love to kill frogs and suck the insides out and you have to net the rest out .Mine have been doing this for 8 years now .

Thanks for the input. So are you able to not have mechanical filtration because the volume of water to koi is 2500 gal. Waste production and how to deal with it scared me away from keeping koi when I built my pond. You said you find koi need a lot filtering but only use plants and lava rock which i assume is providing mainly biological filtration. Poor frogs .
what do you use to produce the aeration and water movement?

 

[Gordo33]

Are you planning a dedicated Koi pond or a hybrid installation?

My questioning is for a dedicated Koi pond.
Can you define hybrid installation. I am going to make an assumption that would also include gold fish and plants. If that is true I am considering tying my current water garden gold fish pond with new pond that would house exclusively koi. Haven't thought it threw enough at this point to figure out how to accomplish that .

 

[Meyer Jordan]

The reason for the question is that a dedicated Koi pond requires a somewhat different approach to filtration considering the fact that the fish are the sole objects of view. A hybrid pond will include plantings at some level. An eco-pond is an attempt to duplicate Nature and how the natural processes are provided for.
The two ponds can be connected but I fail to see any real reason to do so. If the fish are allowed to intermingle then this will not be a dedicated Koi pond.

 

[sissy]

I use an aerator and 2 pumps and one pump goes to each filter and extra goes to ball valves that move the water in the pond .Plants in my filters really help clean the water of fish waste .I have a spitter in my small waterfall pond that has plants in it also .I have given most of my other fish away .But even if they did breed with them it made no difference to me .I know some consider a dedicated koi pond to be hard but I want plants to help filter the water and not all that fancy expensive stuff they sell .I feel the simpler you keep it the better it is to understand when something is wrong .My pumps are a 2400 gph and a 2900 gph and then a small one that I use for the uv in the summer .The aerator has 12 outlets and there is one airstone in each filter and the rest are in the pond

 

[Jimmy Gibson]

OK here is my new pond....due to the fact that I have very little available space and that space was on a hillside I went with a elevated wall pond....when I filled my pond up the first time I took pictures of my water meter before and after.....it was 2998 gallons....so after filling the filter and the waterfall I figured 3150 gallons....I have two friends that have long time ponds and after talking to them I took some of their wish list and listening to their wisdom and experience and decided that I was going to make this pond as maintenance free as possible.....so I have a Savio waterfall with a whole roll of springflow in it As my first biofilter.....I have a Savio skimmer with a half roll of springflow in it....my main filter is a Ultima 6000 ..... With an AquaUtlraviolet 57 watt UV Filter....My main drain is an Easyflo 3" aerated drain....And my pump is rated at 180 gallons per minute with zero head, with all my piping being underground, filter located 80' from my pond and lots of fittings .... So I figured I have between 90 and a 100 gallons a minute flow.... So with this being said did I go overboard ....probably so..... But Sarah and I are both in our 60's and wanted low maintenance.....just my opinion....good luck with your pond build Jimmy

 

[sissy]

I ignore my pond mostly and it takes care of it's self and I try to never over think anything or spend much money .I was brought up with a pond my dad and I built and he used lava rock and a stock tank filter and it worked .We had a farm so the pond had to work on it's own .My dad had 3 jobs so we had no real time but it worked .

 

[Jimmy Gibson]

I ignore my pond mostly and it takes care of it's self and I try to never over think anything or spend much money .I was brought up with a pond my dad and I built and he used lava rock and a stock tank filter and it worked .We had a farm so the pond had to work on it's own .My dad had 3 jobs so we had no real time but it worked .

I agree with you completely Sissy....Sarah and I were both raised on West Tennessee cotton farms....both had parents that were teenagers during the Depression....so we have lived our 43 years together pretty frugally.....believe me I spent over a year researching on how to build a pond...and I spent from July last year to last weekend building it.... I know my pond is not for everyone but the biology is still the same ...What I have learned is that you cannot have enough bio filters....and I know it looks "Stark Now.....just wait until July after Sarah and her keen eye for putting plants out and my ability with a shovel....What can I say.....To put it in Southern terms....."WE SPLURGED "...LOL Jimmy

 

[Gordo33]

The reason for the question is that a dedicated Koi pond requires a somewhat different approach to filtration considering the fact that the fish are the sole objects of view. A hybrid pond will include plantings at some level. An eco-pond is an attempt to duplicate Nature and how the natural processes are provided for.
The two ponds can be connected but I fail to see any real reason to do so. If the fish are allowed to intermingle then this will not be a dedicated Koi pond.

Can you elaborate why the dedicated koi pond needs a different approach to filtration. If I understand Sissy's response her pond only has koi and uses primarily plants ,lava rock and aeration to filter her pond. From reading dedicated koi forums they insist on bottom drains, skimmers , settlement chambers and various forms of bio filtration. I have used a similar set up to Sissy for my gold fish pond with clear water to 2.5 ft and good parameters when testing.

 

[Gordo33]

I use an aerator and 2 pumps and one pump goes to each filter and extra goes to ball valves that move the water in the pond .Plants in my filters really help clean the water of fish waste .I have a spitter in my small waterfall pond that has plants in it also .I have given most of my other fish away .But even if they did breed with them it made no difference to me .I know some consider a dedicated koi pond to be hard but I want plants to help filter the water and not all that fancy expensive stuff they sell .I feel the simpler you keep it the better it is to understand when something is wrong .My pumps are a 2400 gph and a 2900 gph and then a small one that I use for the uv in the summer .The aerator has 12 outlets and there is one airstone in each filter and the rest are in the pond

I have a similar set up to what you discribe for a water garden gold fish pond. My pond is 4 years old and is going great. From reading dedicated koi forums I have the impression they believe without all the bells and whistles a koi pond is bound to fail. I'm glad to see you have had success with a simple approach. You stated the plants in the filters helps with the fish waste. What kind of pumps do you use and where are they placed . I would think the pumps would churn up the fish wastes . Do you back wash or flush your filters to rid the waste?

 

[Gordo33]

View attachment 97307 OK here is my new pond....due to the fact that I have very little available space and that space was on a hillside I went with a elevated wall pond....when I filled my pond up the first time I took pictures of my water meter before and after.....it was 2998 gallons....so after filling the filter and the waterfall I figured 3150 gallons....I have two friends that have long time ponds and after talking to them I took some of their wish list and listening to their wisdom and experience and decided that I was going to make this pond as maintenance free as possible.....so I have a Savio waterfall with a whole roll of springflow in it As my first biofilter.....I have a Savio skimmer with a half roll of springflow in it....my main filter is a Ultima 6000 ..... With an AquaUtlraviolet 57 watt UV Filter....My main drain is an Easyflo 3" aerated drain....And my pump is rated at 180 gallons per minute with zero head, with all my piping being underground, filter located 80' from my pond and lots of fittings .... So I figured I have between 90 and a 100 gallons a minute flow.... So with this being said did I go overboard ....probably so..... But Sarah and I are both in our 60's and wanted low maintenance.....just my opinion....good luck with your pond build Jimmy

First your pond looks great! Thanks for sharing your set up. How many koi do you have? I think low maintenance is everyone's goal. Can you elaborate on what maintenance you do with your set up?

 

[mrsclem]

I have 2 dedicated koi ponds. Koi only, they will interbreed. total gallons around10,000 gallons. one is filtered with a Savio waterfall filter as well as a 3 barrel filter filled with Springflo and Matala material. It also has a 500 gallon bog. The 2nd pond has 2 300 gallon stock tank filters with Springflo. I have window boxes on the sides with plants and run the pond water thru those. As for how many koi, too many! 9 adults in one and 7 adults with 2 dozen 1-2 year olds. As soon as I am able this spring, I will be reducing fish number to 10-12 total.

 

[sissy]

thing is it is all about the money and if you are willing to spend it they will take it and they don't care if you fail or succeed ,they will just sell you more stuff that they will swear will work .I think it is what you make it .If you go broke building a pond is it worth it and how will you explain it to your better half .I keep my filters in liners that if they over flow it will run right back into the pond .I don't need that to worry about .My fish were cheap and so was my pond and at least if I failed back in 2004 I did not put a lot of money in it .I did not fail but still not sure I have succeeded either and will never claim to have either .I just know it works the way it is .I put a small pump in the bottom of my filters and if I do have to flush them I just plug the pump in for a minute .With plants in my filters I do have to trim the roots on the plants at least once a month on the ribbon grass .Both of my pumps hang from a pipe in the pond and both are lagua and the aerator is laguna also .gph 's are 2400 and 2900 and reason for 2 pumps is I had one go out the second year of my pond and learned rural means you can't get one fast .Since I have always used 2 pumps and 1 small pump for my 18 watt uv .When all are running total watts used is less than 200 watts in the summer