Building Mud Ponds for Koi

[dizzyfish]

Originally Posted by thefishsempai

Mitch,

All you points are well taken.

I plan to build dome over the ponds, which should take care of all wildlife problem - correct me if I am wrong.

How is the water system work. do I just drain water from the pond and refill with well water or how the water bed works. I am not sure if the pond will just refill or have to dig a well etc.

I do have well on the land already.

Again thanks for the help.

Sempai B.

Sempai,
I'm certainly no expert but I have been to several fish farms in Florida, and also to California Koi Farm in Fallbrook and Nisei Koi Farm in New Jersey. A lot of how you maintain your ponds will depend on your available water supply. How much rain do you get annually? How many gallons can you pump a day before your well runs dry? How many total ponds do you plan on having? The number of fish you keep in each pond can will effect water quality and growth rate. I would suspect there is much more food for fry in uncovered ponds versus covered ponds. Do you just plan on plastic wrap in winter and shade cloth in summer? How can the ponds refill with rain if they are covered. Different places require different approaches. I would suggest reading all the Born in the USA articles in Koi USA by Karen Pattist. Also if you didn't read the series called "The Art of Nishikigoi" by Mat McCann in Koi USA you really should get the back issues. I think it started about the middle of 2005. Try and visit some fish farms in your area. Good luck.
Mitch

[bekko]

I am not sure if the pond will just refill or have to dig a well

If the pond fills itself with ground water then it will be very difficult to manage. You want to be able to completely drain and dry the pond at will. Otherwise, too much organic matter will accumulate.

Typically, ponds are built with a cut-and-fill technique and the pond sits somewhat on top of the existing grade rather than being dug down into the ground. First, a drainage ditch is excavated and this soil is used to begin building perimeter berms. Then soil is scraped from the pond bottom to complete berm construction. There is a slight slope on the bottom so the deep end is adjacent to the drainage ditch. The slope of the berm is dictated by the type of soil. The top width of the berm is dictated by the type of access required (foot traffic, small carts, large trucks). There are software programs to do cut-and-fill calculations, but once you understand the concept it can be done with any spreadsheet or calculator.

-steve h

[dcny]

Take a look at this - Pond construction begins.

Steve and a bunch of other people have provided some great info on that thread.