My Summer Pond Build

Two Knots

Wow, that's quite an undertaking.
We have a pond since 1997, It's has a EPDM liner, bottom drain
gravity fed system. It is completely a DIY with three mechanical
filter tubs and also a 200 gallon biological pond located 18 feet
away that helps service the main pond via underground tubing.

I see that you're going with a 3" bottom drain, I would recommend
a 4" drain (if it's not too late)

Is your goal to raise fancy koi? Our goal when we started was to
enhance the landscaping as we're avid gardners. The koi was a bonus,
thus the second year we added on a 6 x 13 addition.

Good luck with your pond build, your adventures are just beinning.

BTW are you planning on butterfly koi?

JohninSC

I also would recommend the 4" BD I used 2 of them on my 12x19.

CplDevilDog

Thanks for the pics guys.

I am using a KASS Bottom Drain (BD) which is 4" but I was going to neck it down to 3" just before the settlement chamber. Mostly to save a few bucks over a 4" Ball Valve.

We don't have much leaf debris and our fish load is going to be pretty light but I'll look into the price swing for keeping the BD 4" all the way.

I think we are going to start with some inexpensive Fancy Goldfish for at least a year, maybe two before we try any Koi.

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Two Knots

Cpl. I thought you were building a koi pond, as you said you
hung out at koiphen. They tend to go for the ultra sophisiticated
koi pond set up. Our's is basic, with just three rubbermaid tubs
daisy chained together.
As far as the 4" drain...we have a rock lined shelf all around
the pond and the koi dig in the rock constantly, especially in the lily pots...thus rocks fall
to the bottom and eventually into the bottom drain.

We have discovered a way to get the rocks out with having
to vacuum them out...tie a rag tightly to the center of a long nylon rope...
pull the rope through the drain and then from each side tug on the
rope and the rocks move through the drain. We keep the rope set up
all the time, so that we just have to tug it a couple of times a week.

I realize you're building a completely different pond than we have,
but here's our set up.

CplDevilDog

My wife and I are not real real keen on the expense of Koi.

Once we have some success with Goldies we'll be more receptive to the risk of losing a fish.

My brother-in-law had a pond full of "feeder" goldies that he got for like $2 each. He went out and bought 2 $30 Koi and the next week something dragged one of them out of the pond for a snack.

Never touched any other fish before or since.

I like the design of your pond.

We are going pretty much DIY for the filtering system with 3 barrels. A conical bottom tank for the Settlement Chamber, a 50g barrel for a Moving/Static Bio Filter and a 50g barrel for a Sand and Gravel Filter.

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Two Knots

Cpl, our koi ranged from 3.50 to the most expensive being
15.00 Of course that was in 1997...and we still have the same
koi fifteen years later. Our koi have blessed us with beautiful
babies over the years, and we have given away many fry.
Last year we bought a baby koi that we saw in Pet Smart
for 3.00 cause we couldn't resist him...that's the first koi we have bought
in the last 12 years or so...There are still bargains out there.

We are lucky that we have huge trees
surrounding our property and other than hawks, other birds of prey
that like fish won't land in our yard because of the trees.

I agree start slowly and get some goldies until you get your pond
groove and know what you're doing. The building of the pond is
the first step, after that it's the maintenance that keeps the pond
clear and healthy. we pride ourselves in never using chemicals,
we don't even own a UV light, our pond is clear from just routine filter cleanings, and aggressive
water changes by letting the hose run in
the pond for 10 to 15 minutes each day...we estimate that this amounts
to about 30 to 40 % water exchanges each week. The fish thrive on water
exchanges. We only lost one koi in 15 years. My favorite of course.

We gave away all our goldies the second year (except for our first
goldy "Spot" ) after we got hooked on the friendly koi.
Spot is now 15 and still growing strong.

Here is the footprint of the pond in the snow... It is shaped like an irrigular horseshoe.
in the upper right you can see
the biological pond that aids in keeping our pond clear.
The add on part is what we call
the dogleg it's approximately 6' x 13'...it provided a lot more
swimming room for the koi.

CplDevilDog

Are you on City or Well Water?

We are on city and I think they add some not-so-fish-friendly chemicals to the water. I suspect the Utility costs would be tough.

I'm working on some rain collection ideas as I go along but someone over on Koiphen mentioned the ph and other factors in Rainwater are all wrong. Still, might be cheaper and safer to collect rainwater and then treat it for ph than use City.....

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Two Knots

We have city water, here on Long Island water is cheap. We don't
have to think about the cost of water. Ya know Koi are tough, we don't even
have to add de-clor to our water.
They can take a little chlorene.

As far as filteration is concerned we have about 7 or 8 pond pumps
that range from 250 to 700 gph. We have 3 pumps from harbor freight
that cost 12.00 each...Ponding can be as expensive as you want to
make it. We consider it an inexpensive hobby, as our DIY filter system
was done on the cheap...

We usually have about 4 to 6 little
waterfalls going at one time...we also have a 1200 gph pump for
the large waterfall, but that is only used for short periods, usually
for the tourists..

This is the way we built our pond fifteen years ago, before the internet
was a factor in pond planning...we did it from library books.

This is the way we did our pond with the shelves...it is around the entire
perimeter of the pond, thus no liner is showing...

I took a few videos today with my flip share to show the gin clear water, but
forgot how to load them on youtube?
So I'll go pick out a couple of old ones...

You're set on making a cement pond, rather than a EPDM liner pond?




This is the operation, the water runs through the bottom drain,
then the filter tubs, then travels under ground to the bio pond,
the water then runs through the bio pond getting scrubbed by all the plants in the way,
then
travels
back underground and spills back into the main pond from under the small dock.



This is an overview from our deck of the pond.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0_Lc...3&feature=plcp

This is to show the Bio pond in the bac @ about 14 seconds in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=wM1pRF7uYNY

This is to show you how friendly koi are...It's a little long but you can fast forward through it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGhs2...hannel&list=UL

CplDevilDog

Finally a little visible progress.




Dryfit only right now as I still need to hash out the details of the return from the Sand and Gravel Filter.

Large PVC is much harder to work with than typical indoor sizes. Bring a friend

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*Under ideal conditions

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