| Oyagoi
Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Northern California Posts: 1,537
| Well, a couple of years ago I started an adventure in pond building. The first one was typically novice--too shallow, under trees that shed copious amounts of leaves, raccoons enjoyed the snacks in there, and to add insult to injury, the insecticide overspray from the orchardist next door annihilated every last living thing in it.
Meanwhile, I made a slightly larger and deeper pond above ground (about 600 gallons), lined the bottom with about 3" of adobe clay, introduced plants, snails and bloodworms to get an ecosystem going, including, yes, string algae which lined the sides. No filter, only a mister to keep a continual flow of fresh water. It became the spawning pond for my Sarassas. I've never had to do much to keep it perfectly balanced, and though at first it was quite cloudy from fish rooting in the bottom, eventually the roots of the plants held the clay fast and it has forever after remained very clear, 7.9ph, 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia. It supports around 30 Sarassa ranging in size from 8" adults (10 of them), to last year's 2-3" fry. Had 3 successful spawns. Lost not one fish to disease, but of course about 75% of the fry that couldn't quite get the hiding game down were eaten. The quality of the adults really bloomed in this habitat (as well as their surviving offspring). Vibrant reds, bright whites, and good growth. The adults were pretty washed out when I put them in there.
The new pond will be designed much larger--15' x 7.5' x 4' deep. Not big, but good enough to experiment with. It too will be an artificial mud pond, lined with a liner, and that lined with several inches of bentonite clay (if I can find enough) or adobe like the other. Over that will be cleaned river sand. I've found that this silty and slightly coarse sand holds the clay better so it won't be as cloudy at first like the previous one. It'll be planted on the bottom with homegrown hornwort, snails and worms. Now instead of using misters on this substantially larger pond than the last prototype, I'm going to make a personalized version of a Bakki filter/waterfall, circulate the water from the other end to the filter for a slight current and provide some good aeration (that's the hybrid I was talking about--not a formal koi pond, not a natural mud pond). It will also be greenhouse covered so no overspray from the orchards or leaves from the trees can contaminate the water, and air will be circulated inside the greenhouse by a swamp cooler, which will keep the heat down during these hot summers we have. I'll let it percolate and see what happens.
No great expense in any of this--it is an experiment in trying to recreate a natural habitat for koi. If it will balance as well as the Sarassa habitat, then my few koi I have in tanks will go in. Then it's a wait and see game how it will hold up. If by the grace of God this is successful, expect I'll next be borrowing the neighbor's backhoe for something much bigger and more permanent.
The hubby surprised me this morning and dug half of it by hand. Tomorrow that should be finished. I am framing it with 2 x 12's which will secure the liner, making the depth 5', but I won't be filling it past ground level. Then on Monday I will ferret out the materials for the filter/falls. I am thinking of trying pumice stones as a filter medium--but we'll see. That's still in the planning stage.
So that's what is in the works. I'll let you know if it is a success or an utter failure.
Marie
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04-29-2006
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