The differences between a water garden and a koi pond.

[Auntiesue]

Quote: Originally Posted by schildkoi Sue, shall we talk about structures and "rock hard clay?" Oops, sorry, couldn't resist Steve

LOL!! OH, WHAT A FLASH BACK!!! ARRRGGGHHH!!! I still tear up over that summer incident!!! Sometimes it takes a few times "listening" to "get it"!! ROTF!!!

Steve, I think it was that incident where I really really learned to listen!!!

Talk about lessons learned!!!! I just HOPE that others learned from THAT BOO BOO!!! I would not wish that on my worst enemy!!

[Graham]

Quote: Originally Posted by JasPR Good catch Graham, a 5X35 Stream is actually 420 inches X 60 inches The formular as rectangle would be : L X W X D divided by 231 (a constant) 420 X 60 X ( 3inches of average deep?) = 75,600 75,600 divided by 231 = 327 gallons.

LOL you can always tell the aquarium people...we use 231

[Auntiesue]

There is some great information offered here. May I have permission to reprint some of the quotes for our club's newsletter (giving credit to the author and the board of course)?

[MCA]

as long as you buy a round in Orlando in March

[aquitori]

Quote: Originally Posted by kent wallace If we only had "smellavision". I rebuild lots of ponds and this is how we start.

Man I remember cleaning out one that size earlier this year, man did I yack it up!!! One can only count the hundreds of dragonfly larva in that pond..

[PapaBear]

Quote: Originally Posted by MCA as long as you buy a round in Orlando in March

I'll take Scotch, neat... in OKC come May

[Graham]

make that 2 please

[dick benbow]

Her Mom and I watched her like a hawk cause she always wanted to reach up and grab things. We explained to her many times about the electric stove burners being "hot" and that they would hurt her. Well the inevitable happened, much to the parental units dismay but fortunately nothing bad happened other than to re-enforce what we had warned her about.

We bandaged her fingers, kissed them, comforted her and as she grew, she knew she could always come to her mom and dad. No be-littling, no," I told you so", just love and encouragement. Well 25 years later she graduated top of her class and is many years into a teaching career. She knows there are many students that learn differently and on their own level. Broken homes, drugs,alcohol make it a difficult task sometimes to be able to reach some students. Many have graduated and come back to thank her, for her investment in their lives.Some, but not all , were her top students.

I share this story as a reminder that some of the best lessons are learned the hard way. It's the olde expression about leading a horse to water. You can beat the horse because it didn't drink, you can tell others that the horse is
less than intelligent, but if your responsible for caring for the animal, well you've failed in your responsibility. better to allow the horse to realize when it's thirsty that you knew all along what was best for it, and eventually when it goes for water it will carry you on it's back (gladly)

[Lam Nguyen]

When I first saw Joel's post that a watergarden and koi can co-exist and I saw those lovely rocks on the bottom of the pond and the long waterfall underneath a heaven of pine trees, I told myself, "Oh boy, here we go again." While I have never had the pleasure of having a rock bottom pond, I can attest to what the elders are talking about: I made a mistake of building a 1,500 gal "bog filter" because several sources said that it was good for the water. Well, within a few months I had the sledge hammer out and undid my wrongdoing. I can attest to the stench as I had to shovel the pumis that I used for the waterlillies/watercrest/mint.

My only recommendation to those who are into koi and building ponds themselves is to listen to these elders as they have been there and done that, and while I agree with Dick that some lessons are best learned the hard way, wouldn't it be better to be patient and learn from others' mistakes? I have learned tremendously (I think?!) from the koi-bitoers, and I hope that Joel will do the same and not be offended by the invaluable opinions of these individuals.

[RookieKoiGuy]

Dick,
Not sure if you had seen Joel's pond when it was finished....
If you have can you give us your estimate on gallons?


Tom