Pond Current vs No Pond Current

[Akai-San]

Getting down to the nitty-gritty...I have this pet-pieve about trying to maintain a good current within the pond. After visiting a few ponds and noticing relatively "quiet" waters and slow moving lethargic koi, I was just wondering if there are benefits in providing higher velocity "moving" water within the pond to force koi to work their bodies to maintain good muscle tone and swimming condition. With this so-called "moving" water will the koi have to consume more feed to maintain growth? Are there any trade-offs for "moving" water in relation to size of pond? Of course the larger the pond the better, but would the forced activity have similare effects of just having a larger pond? Just thinking outloud. Thanks.

[dick benbow]

It would be like in humane beings, those that are couch potatoes and those who excercise. As in all things in life, you can carry it to extremes. If it was a perfect world your koi would have a quiet time and a time to excercise. also concern has been expressed that if the current flows but one way every time then they develop muscels to compensate against the current and not on the opposite side. therefore if planning current have the ability to do clockwise and counter on a revolving basis.

if growth is an objective then run your current quite a bit. if conditioning is all that is desired then just for a few hrs.

[MCA]

I think we do current in ponds for two very different reasons. The first reason is that we want a constant swirling action that causes the same effect as flushing the toilet. We want all debris no taken by the skimmer to go to a bottom drain. This flushing action does not take much current, but it takes a constant current.

The second idea for pond current is create a signficant current for X hours per day to give the koi a workout. I am sure some folks do put in a special pumps and plumbing to create exercise currents.

I definitely build my ponds to fulfill reason 1 (the constant flush). But with our new pond being 8 feet deep, I don't yet see a need for exercise currents. My koi have plenty of vertical and horizontal room to exercise.

MCA

[MikeM]

I agree with Dick & MCA, but your use of "lethargic" has me wondering if what you've observed is the result of low oxygen content. A current sufficient to create some ripples on the surface greatly increases oxygenation by increasing exposed water surface and turning over the water in contact with the surface.

[aquitori]

Current is always good...What I seen with the 1500ton pond at Momotaro was alot of current...Since the depth of the pond is deep it gave some koi the chance to swim in the current and it gave some to rest on the bottom. But interesting to me was how much water was being pumped back into the pond...I guess if we all had a 400,000 gal pond like the one at Momotaro we would be pushing alot of current too. But to me current is good to keep the koi's conformation good, especially through heavy feeding months...

[B.Scott]

I think there alwayus tend to be some place for the fish to rest. Even salmon in a raging current can find shelter.

B.Scott

[swordfish]

Current are strongest at the outlet of the water pump. My koi swim close to the outlet against the current. They enjoy the water force. The pipe outlet where the current come from seem to be their target cos once they manage to touch it they swim off & repeat the same activity. They'll go somewhere around the pond once they had enough.

SF

[Tom C]

On my pond all the water is returned through TPR's. The down side is I can get to much current in the pond without throtting back the pumps. Can you have to much current? I would have to say, yes. This will keep some of the waste from settling into the drain or skimmers. This happen with my pond. If I open up all four water pumps all the way the water really moves. I'm guessing about 18,000 per hour. You can see this amount of flow moving the surface water on the pond big time. Also you can see the koi working it a lot harder to keep up with it. So I would say you could have to much. This is way all my pumps are throttled back.

I think ponds need two things to move the waste to the drains. One being some flow in the pond. The other is diffuser drains. Now that winter is here I have my pumps cut way back and the diffusers were off for about three days. This was the first time in 6 months of the pond running I saw a little waste on the bottom of the pond. I kicked on the diffusers and the waste was down the drains in less than a hour. So I would say, yes on adding flow, and added diffuser drain are a big plus.

Tom