Tamus-Thanks for saving my interest by reminding me how I started out in this hobby years ago. I lost my favorite koi today, she jumped out and I didn't find her until is was too late to save her. I was about ready to call it quits because of that and some other stuff.
Here's what I would do if I were you. You're paid for the stuff-make the pond larger, but especially deeper. You can buy tape that will seam liner together if needed to join a little bigger piece of liner to what you have, but make the new part as close to 4 feet deep as possible. Use your existing pond as a veggie filter, pump your water from the deep pond into the veggie filter and let it run back into the deep pond.Or let one pump put water in the veggie filter and the other pump spit it back through the frog. The plants will be safe from the koi, and the plants will help keep the water quaility up. Get a 55 gallon drum or a large rubbermaid garbage can and make yourself a filter. The internet is full of DIY plans. Go to
www.akca.org and order a couple of books on pond/koi keeping. Great reading.There is a list of koi clubs there too and many have web sites. You can learn a lot from reading their club newsletter articles. An inexpensive fence made of about anything can keep the young children away from your deeper pond area. Do some internet surfing using, pond, koi, water gardens, pond filters, etc. This is a great hobby even if you never have a 25,000 + gallon pond or raise a grand Champion Koi. You'll learn the names and how to say them too. In a couple of years all the lingo will roll off your tongue. And you'll have a great time doing it. Start learning and then don't ever stop learning. Keep with cheap koi for several years, once they've been in your pond 2-3 years and are still living, start to upgrade. By then you'll have another larger pond for the new koi. Ah, the adventure begins!
