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Thread: By way of introduction
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08-10-2018, 12:03 PM #1
By way of introduction
I already introduced myself in the new members section. This is just to set the scene with some pictures. We are total novices. Nothing was installed by contractors or professionals, its 100% DIY so I make a lot of mistakes. The terrace unit is 4.5 metres long, by 1.2 metres wide and deep. The whole pond area will be insulated and then boxed in with 2" thick oak cladding to match the half built terrace. The building on the left I am in the process of converting and what is presently a black wall will be glass doors. The EA area will be fully enclosed in oak soon (when I get round it) and will have a table cover over it. The unit has been running for about 5 months. Some of the stock were in a minuscule pond elsewhere in the garden originally. We have gradually added a few more as the EA starts to work properly. We know nothing at all about this hobby really, hence joining here. The pond area is fully alarmed and continuously CCTV monitored as part of the domestic system. The CCTV is my predator alert method. I have a yard sprayer deterrent for them and the pond is netted at times.
The Evolution Aqua unit is fed by a gated bottom drain and the water returned by a Oase pump (I got rid of a variable power one I had originally as it was air leak central). The water goes back to the pond through an EA UV unit and returns at the far end of the pond. The blue unit feeds three air stones (run at a gentle bubble currently) and the cleaning system for the EA filter. I use sinking black EA air hose. There is a 330 watt floating thermostatic heater in the pond as winter is on the way. The EA outlet has a small in line pump attached so I can recover water for the garden. The tank is prefabricated heavy duty fibreglass. I should have bought one twice the size, but this had to fit in with my garden design which was mainly about the Japanese style garden for this part. Water is perfectly clear and tests fine. Temperature is currently 14 degrees.
This part of the garden is two years old - which is when I dug the other ponds: which consists of a nature pond, a small pond, a canal and what was intended to be a Koi pond under the cherry tree. The total volume is about 120,000 - 140,000 litres. When I dug the ponds I was unaware of filtration needs for Koi, but in due course the larger pond (which is 8 feet feet deep at its deepest), will probably get fish in it and so might the canal. Need to be somewhat careful as we have Kingfisher and Blue Heron, not helped by the fact that we have a one acre carp lake next door. We even get seagulls next door. I have had to edit the post as inexplicably common words are treated as tags and I am only allowed 5!
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08-10-2018, 02:09 PM #2
PS, if anybody has a brilliant idea for how I can raise my bottom drain lid by a few mm without diving down to do it, please let me know. When I installed it, i had a few small fish in the pond as testers, and they found their way into the filter. I trod the cover down a bit and now I don't really have enough flow into the filter I think.
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08-10-2018, 02:37 PM #3
As its a quite narrow pond could you lay a couple of scaffold planks across and using a loop of relatively stiff wire hook under and ease up the lid - would be a bit of a fiddle but worth a try before donning the snorkel and mask!
Love the garden and ponds - seems a big shame not to have Koi in there!6000g in ground koi pond
+3000g lily/Anoxic pond attached
29 koi (40 to 65cm)
Bottom drain, Mid water & Skimmer to Drum
JBR boichamber->Blue eco 500 pump ->below surface return.
Blue Eco 240 -> Large MB -> Waterfall -> Planted Anoxic pond (25 baskets)
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08-10-2018, 04:19 PM #4
Very nice garden / ponds
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john1 Thanked / Liked this Post
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08-10-2018, 04:24 PM #5
Good idea. Thanks.
I agree it's shame. Oddly enough I did post on a Koi forum (can't recall which one) a couple of years ago asking for advice but as a newbie I was basically ridiculed when I was talking about 120,000 litre pond. I think people assumed I was trolling. I was in fact just creating a garden with a digger! It is actually divided into four separate ponds that look as if they are linked. I can easily link them if I want to. The one that I designated as a Koi pond originally could easily have a filter added I suppose, but not a bottom drain set up. I would want the filter to be underground I think. It's a job for another year as I have too much on right now.
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10-10-2018, 10:37 PM #6
Stunning garden mate
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11-10-2018, 12:44 AM #7
I really wouldn't call you a "total novice"
Also beautiful garden! Its huge!
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11-10-2018, 01:06 PM #8
Thanks guys for the compliments. My wife is the gardener, I just do the design and operate the heavy machinery. The part of the garden in the pictures is intended to be a western interpretation of a Japanese stroll garden. I will take advice from here on filtering the canal and cherry tree pond in due course.
Re novice, I am afraid it is true. I had a disastrous foray into Ko keeping (professional advised - badly) about 20 years ago and have not touched it since. I know nothing about fish except what I have read this year. Building ponds etc is the easy bit - keeping the water seems to be the challenge. Interestingly, leaving the filtered pond aside, all three other pond areas behave differently.
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11-10-2018, 01:21 PM #9
plank across then grab 2 gardens rakes or something similar, one each side under the lip of b/d and lever it up together .............
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freddyboy Thanked / Liked this Post
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11-10-2018, 02:45 PM #10
That is a good idea! Thank you.
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freddyboy Thanked / Liked this Post
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11-10-2018, 03:42 PM #11
Best plants to remove Nitrate
pug has a very impressive veg filter on his pond, have a look at some of his his youtube videos....