| Well, please do not put gravel or rock in the bottom of the pond. LOTS of people do that too....claiming they can make a "natural ecosystem" for their fish.....which is pure crap. The only way you can provide a healthy environment for fish is to keep the pond bottom clean. A bottom drain is the easiest way to do that. A pond vacuum works too...but vacumming the pond is very labor intensive and good pond vacs are expensive.
Filters....I like Nexus filters a lot. I have one on one of my bottom drains and a DIY version on the other one. the DIY version works just as well and cost a fraction of the price. I use W. Lim pumps on both filters. Those pumps are fantastic....but a little pricy. Sequence pumps are also pretty darn good and are cheaper. There are LOTS of filters on the market. Make sure whatever you pics you size it for koi. In other words, if the filter says it is rated for 1000 gallons, it will actually handle about 500 gallons. Koi are big eaters and make a mess so you need to oversize the filter. Also plan to circulate 100% of your ponds volume every hour.
check AZponds.com web site. It's a pretty good place to start. |