New Pond Construction

[miafunk]

I am pretty experienced with salt water aquariums but i now want to venture to a koi pond. Im thinking about a 7 by 7 ft pond 3 ft deep and a watterfall maybe a foot higher. What size liner would i need and what other equipment would i need. I dont want the best equipment not enough $$$ but something good so please mention brands. Also would you recomend a regular filter or a pressrized filter. What is the difference?

Thank you

[CarolinaGirl]

One of the most inportant things to remember about koi is that they get BIG. They can easily get 36" long with proper care. So now picture a 36" koi swimming in a pond that is only 84" across. Not a very comfortable enviroment for them. And 36" deep is not really deep enough either. Koi are powerful swimmers and there is nothing more beautiful that seeing a school of koi powering themselves the length of the pond, leaving a wake behind them. Koi need a bare minumum of 300 gallons each, although 500 gallons is much better. You proposed pond is only a little over 1000 gallons. You should really consider making it at least 12' across and 48" deep which will give you around 4300 gallons. Be sure to include an aerated bottom drain and skimmer that gravity feed to a settling tank and filter. You don't need to spend lots of money on filtration....there are a lot of good filters you can make yourself. The pond is still going to be expensive though. If you really don't want (or can't afford) to build a pond this size, you may want to consider a goldfish pond/water garden instead. There are many varieties of goldfish that are just beautiful and do not need a pond nearly as fancy or expensive as koi do.

[miafunk]

thank you for the quick reply. Im sure ur advice is great but i really cant start wih a 4000 gallon pond. I have seen many pond on these forums holding 5 or 6 koi wih a 1000 gallons. If i need hold less fish than i will do that. Second what are good brand names for pumps and filter and how many GPH will my pump need to be to filter out that much water. What is a good turnover rate w/o being overkill.

Thank you for your great advice

[CarolinaGirl]

Well, please do not put gravel or rock in the bottom of the pond. LOTS of people do that too....claiming they can make a "natural ecosystem" for their fish.....which is pure crap. The only way you can provide a healthy environment for fish is to keep the pond bottom clean. A bottom drain is the easiest way to do that. A pond vacuum works too...but vacumming the pond is very labor intensive and good pond vacs are expensive.

Filters....I like Nexus filters a lot. I have one on one of my bottom drains and a DIY version on the other one. the DIY version works just as well and cost a fraction of the price. I use W. Lim pumps on both filters. Those pumps are fantastic....but a little pricy. Sequence pumps are also pretty darn good and are cheaper. There are LOTS of filters on the market. Make sure whatever you pics you size it for koi. In other words, if the filter says it is rated for 1000 gallons, it will actually handle about 500 gallons. Koi are big eaters and make a mess so you need to oversize the filter. Also plan to circulate 100% of your ponds volume every hour.

check AZponds.com web site. It's a pretty good place to start.

[miafunk]

thank u once again.I had read not to put rocks at the bottom. Thanx for the help on pump brands.This is going to be an above the ground pond is there anything i should do differently between an in ground and above ground when it come to equipment? Also should i use a pressurized filter or a normal filter