[The Pond Digger]

Quote: Originally Posted by The Pond Digger I'm liking the direction of this thread. Might I suggest we move it to the Pond Construction Forum. I have consulted with several koi pond designers on this topic and ONE (well know) Koi pond specialist delivered to me perhaps the most valuable piece of info. That is: All Koi Kichi people will agree on three mandatory requirements in koi pond construction and debate for days, weeks, years or forever on the best way to accomplish them. In my travels and research I have found this advise to be absolute. The three mandatory koi pond design elements. 1. Get everything out of the pond. Fish waste, wind blown debris, etc. 2. Settle solids 3. Nitrify the water and return........ Here is my opinion for minimum American Traditional Koi pond construction using these fundamentals. Mind you I am in Southern California so we will not deal with extreme winters. However we experience triple digits summers so the air drain and aerator are mandatory in my book. 10' Radius x 30" to 36" sides tapered down to 48" in the center. One Bottom Drain with Diffuser One External Pump One Settlement Tank with Static Pre-filter One TPR Pond Skimmer (Ran into the settlement tank) Biological filter U.V. Clarifier EPDM Liner Aerator This will be approx. 3000 gallons. Allowing 500 gallons per Koi will give a conservative stocking rate of 6 koi fish however I suggest stocking the pond with and odd number of fish. The daring could stock the pond with 7 koi or hold back and stock it with 5 koi. I will look forward to the debates on how to accomplish the three fundamentals listed above to broaden my horizon. The Pond Digger

Face it. Once you build this pond and fall in love with raising koi, then you build a larger koi pond and this one becomes your quarantine tank, right! That's the addict in my talking.

The Pond Digger