For a person planning to build a first pond suited to raising koi, I do not believe there is a single book that will help get them over the knowledge bar. Koi Kichi is superior to Koi 2 Kichi for that person, although it is showing its age in pond technology. The fundamentals are on point and surpass many 'koi books' published more recently. Beginning a couple of issues ago, Steve Childers has been writing a series of articles on pond design in KoiUSA. Once he gets through these, there will be a solid overview that can give a person the ability to evaluate what they are reading. Steve's series inherently is geared to a top-of-the-line pond, but the teraching can be adapted to less costly liner ponds, etc. Much of the koi and pond literature in the U.S. is hopelessly out of date and overly influenced by watergarden/goldfish pond design. AKCA has a small, inexpensive booklet on pond design and construction put together a few years ago. IMO, it tried to hard to cause no offense to anyone, and as a result does not provide clear guidance regarding the problems and limitations of some of the types of filters, etc. discussed. However, if you get Koi Kichi, the AKCA pond design/construction book and read KoiUSA from the Jan-Feb 2007 issue forward, I think you will get a decent DIY education.
BTW, you will hear that the least costly koi pond is the one that is done 'right' the first time. I absolutely agree. However.... my current pond is about as close to being 'right' as any I'm likely to ever have. It is the third pond intended for koi at that spot in the yard. If I had not started with a much less costly pond, I'd never have gotten a koi pond. In retrospect, I should have done a modest-sized pond 'right', and reserved a spot in the yard for the large pond in the future. Then I'd have the two ponds I wish I had now.
