# KOI Ponds



## KSUFLASH

I have been considering a KOI pond since last year. I have done some research on the web, I have also did a "Parade of Homes" type of deal that the residents had KOI ponds.

Anyone in the OGF family have a KOI pond?

I am looking to pick the brain of anyone that has experience in this sort of pond hobby.

I am planning on putting a deck on the back of my home this year, if possible I would like to incoorportate at least a 4ft deep KOI pond, with all proper filtration system, etc...

Any suggestions about what to lookout for, or do, etc.. would be greatly appreciated.

flash---------------------------------------out


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## papaperch

I am also interested but instead of having Koi as my stocked fish. I am thinking of a steady and ready source of live minnows for my fishing exploits.


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## truck

http://www.koifishponds.com/building.htm


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## RichsFishin

I have 2 Kois that I want to sell when ever you guys get set up. Shoot me a P/M. Thanks....................Rich


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## [email protected]

For fatheads, staple some cedar shakes to a rope spaced about 1' apart and float in the koi pond. The fatheads will lay star shaped jelly clusters of eggs on the bottom once temps are right. They have a fairly high mortality rate when spawning but they reproduce like crazy in good conditions. Koi will eat fatheads in case you were planning both.


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## Pay2Play

My husband showed me this thread and if you want to ask some questions, just shoot a PM. I have had my 1200 gal ornamental pond with koi for 4 years now, 2 125 and 2 55 galllon aquariums. All housing koi. A mud pond is going in this Spring. I have a koi addiction. I helped my friend design her pond also. When the electric goes out, boy do my panties get in a bunch. If you can do the job yourself, you will save a ton of money.


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## Alwsfishin

I've had a 10 X 15' pond for 20 yrs..a couple pics....when I dug the pond in '88 the oak tree was 6 ft tall about as thick as a quarter.......


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## Fishman

Great looking pond alwsfishing! The most important thing about building a Koi pond is do it right the first time! Anywhere you cut corners could fire back on you at some point in time. If you want it to be as hassel free as possible I'de recommend using a Bioforce filter with a UV light build in recommended for the size of pond you'll be using. Also use a filter fall at the end of the filtration process to really get a well polished pond. 

Alwsfishing clearly is doing something right, judging by the quality of the water and the lack of muck on the bottom of his pond. Note that he's taken rock and placed it on top of his lillys. Koi are notorius for rooting around in the mud that ends up on the bottom of the pond/plant pots. Common carp obviously do the same thing. By placing the rocks in his pots he's basically stopping the Koi from getting at the roots of the lillys. This same process works for most potted submerged/marginal aquatic plants.

Most koi pond owners will tell you its a satifiying yet challenging experiance to keep koi, and if you're looking for something a little less challenging try shubunkins and sarasa comets. Once you post the dementions of the pond you are considering building well all be able to help you more. I'de recommend a pond of 1,000 gallons minimum for koi, based on how large the can get. 

To calculate the gallons of water you intend on ending up with just multiply lenght X width X adverage depth X 7.48 That will tell you how many gallons you pond is. 7.48 is the gallons of water per cubic foot.


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## johnboy111711

ben, we have one at my house, my pops poured it out of concrete. give me a call about it


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## Saildog

Remember to check local laws regarding protective fences around ponds like this. Some communities treat these the same as pools.


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## pizza

here's a few pics. Unfortunately lost my biggest koi to a heron (I think, could have been a raccoon)a couple weeks ago. The lily is gonna flower which it didn't do last year. I replanted it into a larger container and it is thriving. Only the gold/black backed is a true koi.

They love earthworms and all bugs. But for todays pics all they got was pellets


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## Fishman

Good tip for lillys, the reason 99&#37; of the time they don't bloom. Gotta fertilize! Easy to do, but easy to forget! Do it once a month, with 2 AquaTabs - most aquatic garden centers will have these. All ya do it push the tablet in the soil and let it go. 2 tabs supply more than adequate ammounts of nutrients to the lilly for a month and it will flower very well. The reason it's probably thriving this year, is the transplant afforded it more nutrients. Don't get me wrong, the do get some nutrients from the water and in most natural conditions that is where they aquire it. The garden pond is a closed in eco system where man in control - kinda like a big kids bioshere!

If ya wanted to those cannas could litterally be sumerged to the point where the soil is at the water line or so 

Got a real funny story about the parrot feather. Was down at the farm today after work running my dogs. It's important to mention neither of my dogs were swimmers prior to this. So my aussie/husky mix takes off chasing after some geese and my heeler quickly follows suit. The mutt is a speed demon in comparison to heeler, but Bindi my heeler makes up in agility what she lacks in speed. Well, Bindi goes to cut a corner of the pond that happened to have parrot feather about 10' (yes feet) out at that spot and steps down and completely barrel rolls into the pond. My mutt stops and looks at her dumb founded and just jumps into the stuff as if say "no way fake grass!" The mutt instantly fell in love with playing fetch out in the pond! My heeler goes in about belly deep now


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## pizza

that was quick! When I saw this this morning I was just like....WOW!!! I had no idea what it was gonna look like.

In the picture of the overall pond, its (before it flowered)just to the left of the lilly pad that is 2nd on the right side.

Thanks for the info Fishman!

//just got home. At night it completely closes up....sweet!


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## Fishman

Beautiful flower Pizza, thanks for sharing. Glad my info was useful to ya. I'de fertilize the parrot feather as well, it grows like a weed whatever ya do to it


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## pizza

Ended up getting one more lily flower this season.

Last week I dug out the koi pond (old liner 8.5X10', new liner 20X20'). It's now 1500+ gallons. I have some excess liner in the back by the fence so more digging. I'd like to do a waterfall/flow area but will probably just dig out an area about 15" deep like where the two spots for plants are. I will probably just connect them and make them a little deeper. I think the fish need a shallower area than 35" to hang out.

The larger "circle" is about 8' average diameter and 35" deep. The smaller circle is about 6.25' diameter and 65" deep. I lost the sheet of paper where I wrote down dimensions (of the smaller circle)and now its filled with water. Plus its hollowed out on the inside(both levels). Bring on the herons!!!!! 

I'm not sure how the heck I'm gonna clean it(ideally at the very bottom since that's where all the crap accumulates). The python brand syphons that you hook up to your hose have an extension that is only 4' long. Plus I'm not sure how well it would work anyways even if the extension was 6'+. I doubt a hose creates that much suction to suck water up from 5 feet 5" below the surface. For the time being I'm just gonna be dilligent about cleaning the filter once a week or more.


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## pizza

This all started bc I put a hole in the original liner. I ended up laying down about 6X as much "stuff" as you see in the pic(including about 50 better homes and garden and baby magazines from the neighbor). The top layer is mostly newspaper (didn't take a final pic) bc it is supposed to seal punctures. There is one small rock on the bottom that is bothering me but it should be fine(I go in barefoot). I did this by myself and think I lucked out with positioning of the liner. Once you start filling turning back isn't the most appealing option. The hard plastic pond (which will be a waterfall) will go in the back by the fence. Still much work to do. Also bought some more fish. It has koi, butterfly koi, comets, sarassas, and shubunkins. And two albino channel cats about 6". They got the smallest shubunkin I think. Any more missing fish and they may be tangy bound(though I doubt I'll even be able to catch them unless I drain about 1200 gallons). 27 fish total, most in the 3-4.5" range (3 small koi for $7 at Jack's with fish club card). Large koi about 6.5". I've started naming them(Eminem, Nemo, Twin 1, Twin 2, Survivor 1, Survivor 2, Good Deal (25 cent comet with great pattern), The Natural (25 cent comet in dark gray), etc,etc,etc. The largest sarassa and largest koi are survivors. While I was working and had all the fish in the hard plastic tub (before I covered it) they jumped out. I have no idea how long they were out but I would guess 10-15+ minutes. They were starting to dry up. The sarassa laid on its side at the bottom panting for about 3 days. Thought for sure it would die. Seems to be fine now. The koi seemed fine after about 30 minutes. I helped it along by holding it upright and slowly moving it to get water moving through its gills.


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## Fishman

Interesting use of the newspapers/magazines for underlayment  Lovley fish, really like the black/white koi.


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## pizza

Fishman said:


> Lovley fish, really like the black/white koi.


Thanks! - that would be Eminem the high dollar koi from aquarium adventures.

I had enquired about a pond liner on craigslist and the lady stopped over today and gave me a bunch of different kinds of "oxygenator" plants. The fish were all over them.

Also when I get in the pond (not often), many of the fish nibble at me. Looking forward to training the koi to eat from my hands. They are already getting very comfortable when I am around.


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## pizza

Dug it out some more. I think it is about 2000 gallons and there is room to expand in one of the corners next spring . I'm going to use the old liner and put in a bog on the back side of this pond(in progress). There will be a mister (on a timer if necessary) that takes water from this pond and mists the bog. I also plan on making a 



.


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## Fishman

I assume you're going to cover the rest of the liner up with rocks, it'll look amazing. If ya go forward with the Shishi thing-ama-jig post a picture of it!


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## pizza

The rest of the liner will eventually be covered up. There's gonna be a drip line and flowers in the front area between the lines of rocks. The back/left area in the picture is where the bog pond is going. Right now I'm just trying to make it functional. Next spring I'll probably optimize the water height and make a spot where the water flows from the main pond to the bog pond when the water level is up all the way. Moved some more earth and rocks today. The bog pond is starting to take shape- hope to have it done in 3-4 weeks (or sooner). Next spring I'm planning to get some cool bog critters like newts.


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## BIG_TUNA

thats 1 nice set up you got there pizza


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## Fishman

I agree with Tuna  I don't own a garden pond, because frankly I need the ground to soak up as much water as possible. My backyard is one big low spot... that's what I get for being a new home buyer in the middle of last years drought.... but that's a whole nother story 

The garden ponds I enjoy the most are the ones people put their heart into. Your enthusiasm shows  Looking forward to seeing the finished product (if there is such a thing )


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## pizza

working on the back/left and right side(against the fence). Now the lowest level is heron proof (32"+). I'd love to see the herons crawl over the rocks and step into the first level(all 3 levels are hollowed out too).


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## pizza

I'm guessing the bog area is about 4'X6'. Put down 500 lbs of sand which gave me a layer of sand ranging from about 1.5" to 3" or so. The old pond liner went on top of the sand. I put 1" slits about 1' spacing in the old liner(but not on the vertical side facing the pond).


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## pizza

then I put down about 600 lbs of pea gravel. After the pea gravel the depth was about 2.3 feet towards the pond and about 1.9 feet at the opposite end.


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## pizza

tancho/cool shadow, and finished bog(mostly compost combined with 4 bags of cow manure and 3 bags of latest greatest).


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## pizza

thanks for the + comments. I'll be optimizing the water level (which is an iterative process for me, no levels involved) and creating a bog overflow from the pond in the spring. It holds water well, just need to let the earth settle and fine tune it. I mixed in 100 lbs of sand (above the sand layer) and 2 large bags of spagnum moss in the bog and it holds water really well.


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## pizza

probably (lol) done till spring other than mulching. The old tree was diseased, replaced with a blue spruce.


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## pizza

Check out these koi ponds.


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## Alwsfishin

3 yrs later.....a few less but twice the size.


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## KSUFLASH

Nice! Koi are getting big!


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## Dragons4u

It may sound silly, but I used to clean the bottom of my koi pond with a shop vac with a custom hose.
You can get tubes and valves at hardware stores and experiment with them so that you can lower the suction enough to use it like a gravel cleaner for an aquarium. It took a while for me to get it right with my vac, but once I did it worked like a charm.


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