Hello to the world of Koi !

I have been a fish enthusiast for many years, starting off with fresh water, then moving onto Marines, and i have now decided to dabble with Koi...

I have recently bought a house, and it has a little spot perfectly suited to a small townhouse type koi pond of some 8000-9000 Litres, below is the basic design of the pond.

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I am a bit of a DIY Nutter to tell the truth and i like the challenge of building things myself (and of course the savings are also good)

The above image is a design only, and some measurments will change as i am able to take propper measurments (only move in end of the month)...

The basics of this is a 3m by 2m by 1.6m deep pond with two glass viewing panes .... the sides will be sheer but the base will slope to the botton drain. there will be a surface skimmer to take care of surface debris. the filtration i am still debating about, i have yet to see a principle in Koi keeping the differs drastically from marine filtration and once i have the design in my head i will post questions on this... suffice to say at this stage the basic plan is a settlement chamber, a mechanical filter, a biological filter, and a UV filter. the return pump will pump to the top of the waterfall where there will be a secondary "pond" this will house lillies etc which should help with the filtration, the water will then cascade back into the pond helping in oxygen supply....

so my question at this stage..... are there any glaring faults in my current design???

Looks good Neil h
New house new pond! Always nice and exiting to plan and build a new pond.
Your design seems to be able to handle a gravity fed system re sketch and therefore save on electricity or am I reading your plan wrong?

100% correct Bobby,

the idea is 2 fold, and i am working wih marine prncipals here.... 1. if there is a powerfailure, my biological filtration must default to a fail safe i.e. in their case the system fail must leave the bacteria submerged with the best chance of surviving the powerfailure. 2. the system should need minimal pumps (only one major one to feed the waterfall)

What are the thoughts on currents in the ponds? Are they required or not?

Hi Neil

I'm still new to the koi scene and also love doing the building myself. Your design is similar to my 10 000L pond(half built). Will try to post a pic/sketch soon! My shape is different with levels and my pump is placed inside the water fall base with a door to enter. I first run into a settlement chamber ... then filter A ... filter B ... which runs to the pump ... up to waterfall 1 ... to plant chamber ... then waterfalls to the main pond. After the pump I split into 2 ... one to waterfall and 1 to filter and UV light which runs directly to main pond creating a underwater current. Hope it makes sense.

JOna

So kind people,

Some more detailed questions on the construction....

the concrete floor, what thickness and does it need steel reinforcing?

the sides.... the pond will be about 1m below ground level and 60cm above ground level

for the walls i am planning on using stock bricks, does it need to be a double wall or not?

i plan to waterproof it using a product mixed into the plaster ... any suggesstions on what to use?

neil h wrote:

the concrete floor, what thickness and does it need steel reinforcing?

Seeing your sketch indicated that your pond will be build close to the house and one needs stability for a window I would say Yes, Y8 matting and tie Y10 steels onto the mat for the walls. I would go for a minimum of 220 -240 mm slab, looking at the size of your pond

Quote :

the sides.... the pond will be about 1m below ground level and 60cm above ground level

Y 10 steel into the cavity filled with concrete.

Quote :

for the walls i am planning on using stock bricks, does it need to be a double wall or not?

Double wall standard bricks, with a cavity width of between 90-100mm

Quote :

i plan to waterproof it using a product mixed into the plaster ... any suggesstions on what to use?

Coprox

Hi,

I agree with Bobby............

but will seal pond with Marble-lite, no plaster required

Hi Neil

If U interested - my pond design

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Hi Jona
After a quick look. sorry in my opinion I would re-look at the position of bottom drains and the general depth of pond. Bottom drains to be more centered and at the lowest point in pond and my absolute minimum depth will be 1.2meters

Thanx for the input Bobby

I can still make it deeper and the slope falls to that corner - so that is the deepest point. Still can build the walls higher up to add depth. I'm such a newbee but loving it!
Thanx for the input!!!
Any advise on the pump??

J

If its going to be gravity-fed and electricity cost is important to you I will use the Waterfall pumps. They range from 8000lts to 28000lts p/h.

Eg. On my Nexus I use a 12000lt p/h it feeds a 50mm mid water return and 4 x 32mm overhead returns with ease. Power usage 160w

On my first pond I am using a 18000lt p/h the last 2.5 yrs and as far a I remember at 220 - 250w

If its going to be gravity-fed and electricity cost is important to you I will use the Waterfall pumps. They range from 8000lts to 28000lts p/h.

Eg. On my Nexus I use a 12000lt p/h it feeds a 50mm mid water return and 4 x 32mm overhead returns with ease. Power usage 160w

On my first pond I am using a 18000lt p/h the last 2.5 yrs and as far a I remember at 220 - 250w

In my view it is always a good practice to create more than one return line, and in your case x2 12000lt p/h pumps will give you enough flow for up to a 12000 lt pond

Remember with these pumps you draw from your last filter chamber.

Bobby wrote:

If its going to be gravity-fed and electricity cost is important to you I will use the Waterfall pumps. They range from 8000lts to 28000lts p/h.

Eg. On my Nexus I use a 12000lt p/h it feeds a 50mm mid water return and 4 x 32mm overhead returns with ease. Power usage 160w

On my first pond I am using a 18000lt p/h the last 2.5 yrs and as far a I remember at 220 - 250w

Submersible pump?

Yes, mine is used outside as long as it's below water level.

Thanx for your input Bobby will start making adjustments!

Jona
You are going to get other valuable input, evaluate them first and then decide what is best for you.

Personally I would work on the design that suits your budget,visit more ponds and post a plan for people to comment on.

I promise you one thing by asking questions and visiting lots of ponds you will save mega bucks in trying to redo a completed pond. If need be, visit the keepers in Cape Town and gain first hand experience.

thanks for all the helpful info guys

Jona, how are you building the walls?

Bobby, what bricks can be used, the standard stock bricks or maxi bricks?

Hi Neil

After I finished building my house a had such alot of clay bricks left so I'm working them up into the pond. Hope this is OK as usually I see people using cement bricks.

When you ready I would like to see some images of your pond Neil!

Have fun!!!

Jona

I would use standard stock cement bricks and nothing wrong with clay bricks in my view.

Hey any news on your pond yet ... post us some pics if U started already. Mine is on hold for now.

Hi Guys,

well we moved into our house last weekend ..... lost a few of my marine fish in the moove.....

My first priority is my marine tank build which starts hopefully next week....

The Koi pond build starts realistically mid March ..... I will be documenting it in great detail and posting on this thread .....

thanks for the interest guys !

Hi gents

well i was initially going to go for a very formal looking pond, but after clearing the vegetation over the weekend, the space i have looks less and less like it will be suited to a formal pond and more and more like it will be suited to comething more natural.

I am now looking at making the pond a kind of enterance feature into a for want of a better word, a Zen Garden, although it will not be a zen garden in the true sence of the word.

I was inspired when i saw a display at lifestyle nursery over the weekend which incorporated several very small ponds flowing into each other with copious amounts of water plants around it.

My thoughts are thus the following still about a 9000L pond but this time it will be a more natural looking pond as opposed to the formal lines i was wanting on the earlier design, i will still have a settlements chamber and DIY bead bed filter and biological filter, all gravity fed, then a low watt pump pumping to a plant chamber, this plan chamber will wind itself around the wall and down to the other side of the pool in a series of pools and waterfalls with gravel and further plants to add to the asthetics and of course the filtration. I also hope to apply some of the art of my new hobby - Bonsai trees into this water feature

The pond itself will be the enterance to another garden some 12m x 12m in which there will be outdoor furniture etc etc etc .... so i need to have a visually impressive bridge over the pond... i figure this would aid in protecting the fish from too much direct sunlight anyway which can only be a good thing !

So finally the questions part....

how do i construct the waterfalls and pools so that the cement looks a natural color? and i really dont want cement with some stones stuck into it... thats not the look i am after. I am basically after something likt the fake rock that we see around houses and pools these days.... i believe they are painted cement shapes..... how does one do this and is is safe for Koi?

Any suggestions on visually impressive bridges????

To manage PH, I would prefer to keep rock-art constructed from cement away from water flow areas.
It is a very fine line not to overpower the total pond look with a large foot bridge, also care must be taken that this does not become a structure that jumping koi can damage themselves against. On bigger ponds it seems more appropriate.

Thats nogal true. I have a wooden bridge over my pond. it use to be about 15cm above water but one of my kois jumped into the side of the bridge and hurt itself very badly....died a week later. I have since increased the hight of my bridge to about 25cm above the water but would recommend a height of 30-40cm.

Also dont make it to wide. My bridge is 1m wide and it does impact on the look of the pond. My pond is just over 6m long and the bridge tend to make to pond feel smaller than what it is.

My friends have said to me in conversion before , wouldnt it be nice to have a pond like so and so thats 6m long... meantime mine is 6.5m long. but the bridge make it appear as two little ponds on each side.

Extremely valuable input as always, thanks guys

unfortunately the bridge seems to be a must have at this stage, but i will be making it fairly narrow and as high off the water level as possible !!