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  1. #1

    Enlarging my pond again!! Advice on filter/pumps would be great

    Hi All, I found this forum after hours of searching about filters and pumps. I hope somebody may be able to help. Pics below.
    I started off with a 5 x 3 ft preformed wildlife pond last year and had great fun watching the tadpoles turn into frogs but when they started to leave my hubby said I could have some fish to watch instead. So we bought 2 4"koi. Hubby is a animal person over people and decided this was cruel so suggested we get larger pond for the fish and keep small one for wildlife. As he said we could have couple more fish I went with the idea!
    So we bought another preformed 8 x 7ft pond looked great, we added more fish and bought a 3 in 1 pump/filter/fountain then after about 2 weeks hubby said we need to upgrade pump and filter so we bought a aqua eco 8000 pump which runs to 12,0000 filter (one of those with handle for cleaning). Think we had 8 koi by then but didn't seem over stocked so I bought 5 baby goldfish.
    Hubby then decided after a month that if he were to dig the gap between both ponds we could go with a liner and give the fish more room!
    So Hubby on his week off dug out the gap remove the 2 ponds and we fitted a liner added shelves (worst mistake) how on earth your supposed to keep liner straight when it going round shelves I don't know. So we ended up with a pond 11 x 6 but in a l shape. We were very happy and even rescued 5 more koi from a tiny pond. Now in our rush to do this pond it wasn't the neatest and we sat night after night moaning about how if we had dug back more and rounded edges off better we could have gained a few feet. So yes we then decided to do it all again. Final result about 3 weeks ago we now have a 11ft by 8ft which is 3 ft deep at one end and about 2.5ft at the other, with only 1 shelf at the shallow end. We then spoke to a koi lady breeder who said we needed to get some fish out as it was massively overstocked.
    I now have the goldfish in a massive tank in the lounge and the extra koi went to another pond. We have 13 left. We carried out water test and nitrite levels getting high so we did a water change and stopped feeding, although we were told it is going through its cycle as its a new pond we worried about the fish.
    we have now decided we are going a little bigger by taking out the l shape and making rectangle. Not attempting until spring next year though.
    so my question now is should we get a new filter and pump for our pond now? Obviously we don't have a bottom drain and are looking at this option for our next build but wondered if we should upgrade our current pump and filter to a larger capacity one? We have seen one that is 50,000 filter with a 12,000 pump.
    Any suggestions or tips would be great.


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  3. #2
    Moderator Rank = Supreme Champion Feline's Avatar
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    Hi!

    What area do you live in?
    I would strongly recommend you join a local koi club and visit some members ponds before you decide what to do for your next upgrade.
    This can be an expensive hobby- but even more so if you make mistakes and have to buy twice.

    You really need to avoid pressure filters and anything sold in a box at the garden centre aquatics department. They can just about filter a small ornamental goldfish pond but are not suitable for koi. Koi poo a lot and make a lot of waste. They also grow quickly, so 13 koi will be needing a large water volume that is extremely well filtered and aerated within a year ir two.

    Ignore any manufacturer claims for size of pond. They are usually out by a factor of 3 or 4- as in would manage 1/3rd or less of the volume they claim for koi, and this would then be too small a pond to even keep one koi in.

    You need to be looking at fairly large filters to hokd enough bio media to do the job, Multibays, Nexus, drums, sieves, beads, showers are the most popular choices for koi. Its all about space and budget constraints really.

    For now, stop feeding altogether until the nitrite comes down, Make sure your water changes are dechlorinated.
    To clean your filter forget about its handle- you need to open it up and rinse out the foams in buckets of pond water, and get the plastic tube stuff out of the bottom section sometimes so you can remove sludge and rinse the media. There is no drain valve at the bottom to help you do this. Its a vial job in the winter!

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  5. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Webbywoodlands View Post
    Hi All, I found this forum after hours of searching about filters and pumps. I hope somebody may be able to help. Pics below.
    I started off with a 5 x 3 ft preformed wildlife pond last year and had great fun watching the tadpoles turn into frogs but when they started to leave my hubby said I could have some fish to watch instead. So we bought 2 4"koi. Hubby is a animal person over people and decided this was cruel so suggested we get larger pond for the fish and keep small one for wildlife. As he said we could have couple more fish I went with the idea!
    So we bought another preformed 8 x 7ft pond looked great, we added more fish and bought a 3 in 1 pump/filter/fountain then after about 2 weeks hubby said we need to upgrade pump and filter so we bought a aqua eco 8000 pump which runs to 12,0000 filter (one of those with handle for cleaning). Think we had 8 koi by then but didn't seem over stocked so I bought 5 baby goldfish.
    Hubby then decided after a month that if he were to dig the gap between both ponds we could go with a liner and give the fish more room!
    So Hubby on his week off dug out the gap remove the 2 ponds and we fitted a liner added shelves (worst mistake) how on earth your supposed to keep liner straight when it going round shelves I don't know. So we ended up with a pond 11 x 6 but in a l shape. We were very happy and even rescued 5 more koi from a tiny pond. Now in our rush to do this pond it wasn't the neatest and we sat night after night moaning about how if we had dug back more and rounded edges off better we could have gained a few feet. So yes we then decided to do it all again. Final result about 3 weeks ago we now have a 11ft by 8ft which is 3 ft deep at one end and about 2.5ft at the other, with only 1 shelf at the shallow end. We then spoke to a koi lady breeder who said we needed to get some fish out as it was massively overstocked.
    I now have the goldfish in a massive tank in the lounge and the extra koi went to another pond. We have 13 left. We carried out water test and nitrite levels getting high so we did a water change and stopped feeding, although we were told it is going through its cycle as its a new pond we worried about the fish.
    we have now decided we are going a little bigger by taking out the l shape and making rectangle. Not attempting until spring next year though.
    so my question now is should we get a new filter and pump for our pond now? Obviously we don't have a bottom drain and are looking at this option for our next build but wondered if we should upgrade our current pump and filter to a larger capacity one? We have seen one that is 50,000 filter with a 12,000 pump.
    Any suggestions or tips would be great.
    Anoxic filter is the way to go ,,, 7000 gallons and gin clear


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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  7. #4
    Senior Member Rank = Grand Champion andikoi's Avatar
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    everything that feline said,let people know where you are in country and sure someone will let you visit and see what you will need,and what your small koi will grow into lol,andi

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  9. #5
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Jussai RJW2012's Avatar
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    Enlarging my pond again!! Advice on filter/pumps would be great

    I like the pond, at approx. 7500 litres or 1500 gallons.

    Your Koi friend was right about being overstocked given your comments (13). I have a slightly smaller pond with significantly less fish (7).

    Ideally you need to get a new filter (eBay) and something like a Nexus is probably the easiest option, as you can just plug your pump into it and run a large piece of pipe back to the pond, as I think your doing currently (pump fed). You’ll need somewhere for the dirty water to drain to when cleaning (a nearby drain) and an air pump.

    You could also look at a multi bay filter which might need a bit more fettling (that might put you off).

    If you have managed to get some water parameter improvement, great (I’m conscious the Thread is a week or so old now). Sorting out some better filtration needs to be the next step, avoiding a host of further potential pitfalls.

    Rob.




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  10. #6
    Thank you all for your feedback . My water perameters are now back to normal so I'm guessing it was new pond syndrome . After what you've all said I have someone coming tomorrow to collect another 3 fish from me, this will take me to 10 when I dig bigger in the summer I'll be around 9000 litres . As to the filter solutions it's really down to space and budget as you know I'm running a pressurised system at the moment it's a 15000 litre one which as you all say is good for 5000 litres I have been pulling it apart every 2 weeks and cleaning it properly not just by handle which I do every couple off days and I've had crystal clear water. So my plan is to upgrade next week to a 30000 litre model to cope with the extra water when re digging to larger pond this suits budget and space available , I will see how this goes and if it's not good enough after a full summer next year then I will have to go for the nexus like everyone is recomending ,as long as I can run it with submersible pump and run outlet pipe straight back into pond . Thanks again for your time a new feedback . Thought it was meant to be relaxing hobby never been so stressed worrying about my fish lol .

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