I'd recon everything looks just fine where algy growth is concerned its suppose to grow everywhere in my opinion its the first step to a mature pond. As for the plants well I have absolutely no idea what those are suppose to look like I've never fooled around with a Vegie filter or any form of plants.

I read on a previous post of yours that you were wanting to take a pellet gun to the poor little bludger because it would be difficult to catch, have you considerd a small dragnet to bring all youre koi to one spot so you can catch the infected one and check out the others ?

Altyd lekker om jou fotos te sien.
Dam is besig om mooi ryp te word.
Ek stel voor jy dreineer die plant dam so elke drie maande en spoel hom goed uit, jy sal vebaas wees om te sien hoeveel afval plante kan produseer

bubbles wrote:

I'd recon everything looks just fine where algy growth is concerned its suppose to grow everywhere in my opinion its the first step to a mature pond. As for the plants well I have absolutely no idea what those are suppose to look like I've never fooled around with a Vegie filter or any form of plants.

Thanks ... that is what I needed to hear.

bubbles wrote:

I read on a previous post of yours that you were wanting to take a pellet gun to the poor little bludger because it would be difficult to catch, have you considerd a small dragnet to bring all youre koi to one spot so you can catch the infected one and check out the others ?

I have purchased a dragnet and it arrived today ... I will rig it tomorrow so that we can corner the fish and catch them with the handnet.

Jaco wrote:

Altyd lekker om jou fotos te sien.
Dam is besig om mooi ryp te word.
Ek stel voor jy dreineer die plant dam so elke drie maande en spoel hom goed uit, jy sal vebaas wees om te sien hoeveel afval plante kan produseer

Dankie Jaco ... Ja ek weet warvan jy praat en a gereelde serious skoonmaak van die Veggiepond is for sure in die onderhoud skedule.

It is one month since the first fish went into the ponds and it was a month full of events. I had to apply a lot of self control to keep my anxiety in check because the algae was making my life a misery

In this month I upped the pumping capacity by 50% and I installed two UV lights. I also commissioned the two bottom drains and associated filter systems. The plants began to propagate and I could see lots of bio things happening in the ponds but yet the algae was there and visibility was poor.

By Thursday last week things began to change and there was a noticeable improvement in the water clarity. By Friday it became clear that the bio system was beginning to work against the algae but it was also clear that I did not have enough really fine mechanical filtration.

All my pond water passes through this trough before it goes to the pump pit and today I placed to layers of a synthetic wool blanket in this trough.



Within an hour the water in the pump pit cleared up to such an extent that I could see the printing on the pumps. I am happy. I also see a lot of clumps of algae that lifts up from the veggie pond floor from around 10h00 to 16h00. These are all collected in the skimmer trough and I think that the plants is busy killing off the food supply of the algae.

So in conclusion ... it seems as if the bio system is gathering steam now and things are improving rapidly. I expect to have a very differient view by tomorrow.

Here are two shots that is more photographic than koi technical



Enjoy and thanks for all the support.

Well today is big day for me ... all three ponds have clear water. I suppose this thread is now reaching a point where it will die down. Will be strange not to have to update my journal here but I hope that new pond owners or prospective pond owners find some value in here. I have tried to cover all the incidents that popped up during the building and eventual population of the ponds.

My initial budget was for R40,000.00 and as could be expected it did not make the grade. Up today the expenditure is just under the R70,000.00 which includes all electrical work as well as the initial purchase of fish stock.

I had to lay down a second pipe line to the tank filters because the existing 40mm could not cope with two pumps.

5 Weeks after adding the fish and seeing the ponds turn to pea soup the water is finally clear and it was an eventful and frustration filled 5 weeks.

Here are some of the things I did to the system in the past week ...

1. Installed synthetic filter material in the final collection trough.
This made a big difference because it removed the dead floating algae and removed the suspended dust particles.

2. Rerouted the UV lights to have both in parallel on a single pump line.
I think the reduced flow through the lights made them more efficient.

3. Increased flow through the bottom drains.
I reduced some of the filtration material to increase the flows because the fiber mat was now doing the polishing of the water. This increased the flowrate through the bottom drains and drew large quantities of algae into the settlement troughs of both.

4. Increased the goldfish population in veggiepond.
This is most probably the single biggest visible change that I made. I started off with 30 fish of around 80 - 100mm. A week ago I added another 30 and this brought a fast and visible change. I never knew that goldfish is such voracious algae eaters and with hours it was obvious how the layers of green slimy algae was being stripped off the filter bags.

The skimmer trough was always plagued by a thick layer of algae that covered the bags of stone and I placed 4 goldfish in this trough. Yesterday morning the skimmer trough was clean with clear water and only coarse plant material on the bottom.

It is my opinion that the bio system is running now and I see lots of algae dying off in the streambed and the rocks are being washed clean.

I can see the fish grazing on the bottom of pond #2 ... 2.2 meters down and it is almost 30 months from the day that I decided to do the ponds.

I want to thank you all for your participation in this thread and without your valuable input many issues may still have been haunting me.

I have a few more small incidents that I will document for the record.

Colyn wrote:

Is there no comments ?

You will probalby draw more attention if you only post every month or so...

wayneb wrote:

Colyn wrote:

Is there no comments ?

You will probalby draw more attention if you only post every month or so...

Serious ???

Hi Colyn, the fact that you did not receive a lot of comments means that members approve of what they see. As the saying goes, no news is good news.

Thanks again for a very interesting thread. I hope you have learned something from the book that you won with this thread.

Keep the photos and posts rolling. Everybody views them and get ideas.

Congratulations on a very nice setup. All you need is a few big fish. There is nothing like a few nice big ones in a pond, and they keep the small one's tame.

Paul I have learned a lot here and I truly enjoy the book.

My main mission was to build the ponds for a reasonable price and avoid overkill where possible. Yes I did underspec on a few items but it was easy to rectify and still stay way below what some guys suggested. For me the expense was acceptable and I hope that my experience will inspire more people to build ponds and do it for a more affordable price.

A few of my friends are now considering ponds and we are busy on plans for 20k liters, 30k liters and 50k liters. The main objective is to have as little as possible mechanical filtration and use gravity as much as possible.

Thanks again for a wonderful experience here.

Thanks for posting Colyn.
I always look at your progress and I like sharing in your excitement.
Keep the posts and pictures coming.

Thank you Jaco.

I am sure many pond owners have a problem with foam from time to time and protein skimmers are the recommended way to go to prevent the foam. I made another plan with the foam after I saw a picture of a pond on another forum.



It may not be the most elegant solution but it works for me and keeps the foam at bay. Now that I know it works I will paint the pots and pipes.

I don't like the looks of it. It makes the pond appear unnatural and Iris do not like a constant high flow of water.

I believe that the foam will dissipate in due course anyway.

Colyn wrote:

In order to maintain the spirit of the thread I am posting this shot of my first parasite encounter ...

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

With the help from the forum members it was identified as Anchor worm and the whole story is in the Parasites forum.

Help is on the way from Paul and hopefully by the weekend I can treat the unlucky fish and not revert to violence

Well the stuff arrived from Paul and I managed to catch the fish. So on a bright Saturday morning me and wife tackled the task ...



Once again I want to thank Paul for his advice and I checked the fish again this morning ... looks clean and is eating well.

It was great to have that Koi Medikit on hand. The little manual is great, to the point and it is really nice to know all the stuff that is needed is in the box.

Just some random shots from the ponds ...



Enjoy

very nice just don't like the fisher when last did you count your koi?

Hoekom lê daar geld onder in jou dam. Ek sal enige iemand 'n taai klap gee as hy geld in my dam gooi.

Kan dalk 'n weerkaatsing ook wees, sorry .

Eugen wrote:

very nice just don't like the fisher when last did you count your koi?

That is a brown hooded Kingfisher ... they only eat insects and do not fish

Jaco wrote:

Kan dalk 'n weerkaatsing ook wees, sorry .

Ek dink dis die flash op borrels ... dit was die eerste keer dat ek die kamera gebruik het.

Ok I assume this was inevitable ... frogs and then next the tadpoles ... does anybody here have some advice on how to manage this. Seems like the goldfish and the oscars are not eating the tadpoles ... they pick them up and spit them out ... I have been told they have a bitter slime coating.

Hi Colyn

You have so many plants and I think you will have to live with it. They pose no real danger to the koi although they will eat your fry and MIGHT introduce parasites.

Larger koi normally eat the tadpoles but yes, they do not like the frogs as it is bitter.

If you increase your salt levels, it migh force the frogs to move elsewhere, but your plants wont like it.

At least, with frogs you will have less snails.

Some people do set traps for them. Before I introduced small koi into a mud dam a few years ago, I set traps for them with raw meat. It did help to a certain extent.

If you need to chase them out of a bush, spray them with a high salt concentration or vineger and catch them. As long as the vinegar does not go into your pond. It will raise your PH dramatically and can cause a crash.

GET YOURSELF A SNAKE

Thanks Paul ... at least they are not in the koi-ponds but only in the veggie pond ... we have been sucking the eggs uot with a small plastic pipe but some frogs laid their eggs in the roots of the hiacinths so we did not see them. I scoop the large clusters of tadpoles out with a net.

Frogs is an indicator specie and if they are around you know that large section of the eco system is in good shape so I do not kill or chase them. They also eat a lot of insects. We also leave the snakes alone and only get rid of the Mozambican Spitting Cobras, Mambas and Puff Adders.

It is really interesting to see how the eco system gets together. My plants are still suffering in certain places due to a lack of nutrients but as the fish grow it seems to improve. The load on the system is very light at this stage.

It is blistering hot here in the Lowveld today ... outside temp is now just over 37 C and it is very dry.

Hope we get some rain soon.

Colyn wrote:

It is blistering hot here in the Lowveld today ... outside temp is now just over 37 C and it is very dry.

Well, we still had snow yesterday on the Boland mountains and it is below 14 degrees today. Our fish are not interested in spawning and it is still winter down here in the Cape and it is already in the middle of September.