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  1. #1
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    Pond build has started properly now.

    Last autumn I just roughed out a hole and started buying materials, but this weekend I got stuck in.
    It’s an all in the ground natural looking pond, with 2 small streams from waterfalls. All rocked and planted.
    I have horrid ground, heavy clay with seems of rag and iron stone.
    Fortunately 7.5tonnes of digger helps, but it’s surprising how much hand work there still is.
    Depth 1.8m and the liner 10x8m
    Surface area about 7x5m
    Because of having stoney ground I blinded the hole with sand, then lined with Astoturf and then the fleece.
    I’m keeping the main bowl of the pond rock free, so I can bottom clean it, but from about 700mm below water line I am rocking all around
    Filtration is by way off pumping up to two planted wet land areas, dropping into waterfalls and gravel bed steams running through planted rock pools.


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  3. #2
    Senior Member Rank = Grand Champion RoyLittle0's Avatar
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    That looks a good size pond, it looked quite deceiving when i first looked but 1.8 meters deep is one hell of a hole, looking nice, well worth the effort in the sand bedding and astroturf, nothing should get through that
    4600 Gallon Concrete Block and Fiberglass
    2100 mm x 710 mm Infinity Window 32mm thick glass
    2 x Aerated Bottom Drains and Skimmer
    Filtreau HiFlow 30 Drum Filter
    Bio Chamber - 140 litres K1
    Bakki Shower - 30 KG Sakura Far Infrared Media
    2 x 18,000 lh pumps
    Heated from house boiler through a heat exchanger
    Idealseal MS290

    My Pond Build

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  5. #3
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    I need to put myself or something near the pond to give it perspective. when I get it rocked out all around I can fill it up and it should look bigger. Weather was very wet here today but I did get 3/4 rocked around. If its a weather shit day again tomorrow I will be home, so will get out there again with a waterproof on and hopefully finish around the pond. I then have the stream beds and waterfalls to do, hopefully I have enough rock, as I don't fancy running about with a trailer again like I did a dozen times last autumn with a wheel barrow and lugging ragstone from peoples back gardens up onto my trailer. I must have carted 30 tonne of the stuff last year.

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  7. #4
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion john1's Avatar
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    You have been a busy lad Dudley,like the natural look and am sure your babies will love it.
    John

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  9. #5
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Kyusai Scamp's Avatar
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    Blimey a hole and a half...looking forward to see how it develops, looks great! How many gallons is it do you think it’ll be?

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  11. #6
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    looking good mate. some size

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  13. #7
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    Pond build has started properly now.

    Quote Originally Posted by Scamp View Post
    Blimey a hole and a half...looking forward to see how it develops, looks great! How many gallons is it do you think it’ll be?
    We have been timing the fill, and knowing my flow rate so far we have put in 5200 gal.
    We recon it will be 6000 gal when full as we still have another 4-6 inches to come up to finished water line.


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    Last edited by Dudley; 03-04-2019 at 06:15 PM.

  14. #8
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    Pond build has started properly now.

    Quote Originally Posted by freddyboy View Post
    looking good mate. some size
    This is today’s progress [IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190403/5cfe28226dedf0d60082863b7a4f8743.jpg
    My mate Will standing to give some perspective.
    [/IMG]
    Just starting on waterfalls now.
    And still have about 4-6” to get to finished water mark.



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    Last edited by Dudley; 03-04-2019 at 06:10 PM.

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  16. #9
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    Pond build has started properly now.

    Waterfalls completed, now landscaping and concealing the liner.
    Still have about 3 tonne of rock to place, plus I need about another tonne of round pebble stone and pea shingle and loads of plants to buy.
    But dropped my dirty water pump in today and started pumping up to the filter, and I’ll keep it running to get filter established.

    Now I need to buy decent water pump and air pump. My dirty water pump is only temporary to see what flow rate there is up to the filter and what it looks like cascading back down.


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    Last edited by Dudley; 12-04-2019 at 07:52 PM.

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  18. #10
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dudley View Post
    Waterfalls completed, now landscaping and concealing the liner.
    Still have about 3 tonne of rock to place, plus I need about another tonne of round pebble stone and pea shingle and loads of plants to buy.
    But dropped my dirty water pump in today and started pumping up to the filter, and I’ll keep it running to get filter established.

    Now I need to buy decent water pump and air pump. My dirty water pump is only temporary to see what flow rare there is up to the filter and what it looks like cascading back down.


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    One word Awesome

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    Last edited by freddyboy; 12-04-2019 at 06:44 PM.

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  20. #11
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    Pond build has started properly now.

    I really like the formal koi ponds with viewing glass etc, but we are very rural with nothing formal around us. I even built my new house with reclaimed brick and tiles with a cottage feel, people ask if it’s a restoration job, which pleases me. So we wanted a pond that would blend in, and in any case, the Koi only came about because we were constructing a natural pond. But I am sad that I won’t be able to appreciate the depth and true beauty of the fish and only get a top view.


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    Last edited by Dudley; 12-04-2019 at 07:53 PM.

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  22. #12
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    Thought I should update this thread. Still lots of work to do, especially landscaping, but the fish like it.


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  24. #13
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    A couple more if I can.


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  26. #14
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Love it.

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  28. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Dudley View Post
    I really like the formal koi ponds with viewing glass etc, but we are very rural with nothing formal around us. I even built my new house with reclaimed brick and tiles with a cottage feel, people ask if it’s a restoration job, which pleases me. So we wanted a pond that would blend in, and in any case, the Koi only came about because we were constructing a natural pond. But I am sad that I won’t be able to appreciate the depth and true beauty of the fish and only get a top view.


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    That's absolutely stunning Pond build has started properly now.

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  30. #16
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion RS2OOO's Avatar
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    Incredible pond, well done mate.

    Looking at the first post with the underlay in it looks so deceivingly small with just the 1 tonne bag offering a clue as to its size.

    Then you see the shots with the digger in the background and the one with the fish and suddenly you begin to appreciate the size of this project, Great work.

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  32. #17
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    Pond build has started properly now.

    Thought I would get back to this and show how the pond is establishing in its first year.
    Other than a weird pH spike in April, (put down to lime from construction materials leaching into the water) the water quality has been consistently good NH3, 0. NO2, 0. NO3, 0. pH 8. KH 6 GH 8, and if I can keep the buggers out of the clay marginal beds the water is lovely and clear. I put this down to the large volume of water and low fish stock rather than my water management.
    The bog filter has had water in it since it was constructed last autumn, so that has had time to establish and set up. The secondary barrel filter (vortex and 210L K1 moving bed) was moved over from my grow tank when the fish and plants were put in end of May. I am particularly pleased with the plant growth, but that may be a headache to manage next year.

    Issues! My main concern has been string algae, good old blanket weed. Its just manageable if I remove it every other day. I don't get any growing where the fish swim, but down the waterfalls, in the bog plants at the top of the waterfalls and the clay marginal beds are full of it. About 30 minutes of hand pulling and I clear 90% of it, but 2 days later its all back again.
    Maybe the fish eat it, I don't know, as it only grows in the areas fish cannot access, if it were, then I may resort to chemicals .

    The other worry is overstocking. I was hoping to move 50-70 out into a field pond, but water quality tests on that pond and one other have revealed Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate present and a very high pH at 9.3. (due to livestock grazing and rain run off into the pond) so I have no place until I can sort out the field pond, which I can do over the winter.

    So i may need to keep all fish in the garden pond until next season. I could only record the time it took to fill the garden pond from a hose as my water meter also serves two other families who reside on my farm. But measuring how long it took to fill a 210L barrel leads me to believe the pond holds around 10000 Gal.
    Right now I have just under 100 fish of 6" average length, so lets say I have 600" of fish. My research tells me stocking density with pump fed filtration in 10000 Gal is 1000" of fish, and the pond does not look anywhere near overstocked so at the moment I am ok. I just wonder if I can keep everything until next spring or if I should try and reduce numbers sooner?
    Steve.


    Last edited by Dudley; 29-07-2019 at 12:19 PM.

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  34. #18
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Davej's Avatar
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    Hi

    The pond looks great.

    In terms of keeping koi in it the absence of Bottom Drains will present the biggest challenge, if you haven't kept koi before it is difficult to understand the amount of muck they produce.

    Great pity you didn't get a decent measure of the volume, this may come back to haunt you if there is ever a need to add any chemicals. Looking at the shape of the pond think that you can do a sense check by looking at the volume of a spherical slice of 5 -7m sphere with a slice depth of 1.8m?

    Stocking wise - not sure what you have been reading? but 25m of adult koi is a load that is way to much for even the very best filtered 10,000gallon koi ponds. From what I can see your filter is pretty much untested in practical terms and in reality may well be the weak link.

    I don't however think that length is a reliable measure of your stocking level, there may be 15m total length - but weight wise maybe 75-100gm each - so 7.5-10kg? One single full bodied koi of 80cm will weigh a fair amount more than this. Having said this your crew will need feed and protein levels higher than that of a mature fish..

    If the filtration is adequate then I wouldn't see any great issue with your crew in a pond of circa 10k, but whether the pond is 10k and the filtration is up to the task is the question.

    Longer term they will need thinning out - realistic target would be 12- 15 inches in 12 months with a weight increase of 4-5 x.

    Hope this helps

    Dave

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  36. #19
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    Hi guys.
    I thought I would update you on the pond.
    Its two years almost to the day since construction and 18 months since the koi went in. The koi, if you see my other threads were reared in a tank from 100 fry.
    And this is the first year where the plants have had a chance to do their bit.
    The plants are my filtration basically.
    I built a bog filter with rushes and other plants, as the water leaves the bog area it has to run down two routes back to the main pond, one takes it down a series off falls to add oxygen and the other, a slower route, through a mass of planting. on the other side of the pond are two more large bedding areas. I estimate half the area is planting and half surface water for the fish.
    Other than a PH spike last year that we attributed to lime in the build process we have had no other issues.
    I was worried about fish density last year, i did thin some out but not enough, but they all went through the winter well, and have grown fast this year. some at almost 12" or more, most about 8-10" So they still need thinning.
    I also don't have a bottom drain, but please don't criticise me for that, hindsight and all, and its water under the bridge. But the pond has a good bowl shape and I vacuum the bottom easily and regularly.
    Anyway, I think my plants have got me this far, they must be filtering the water so well.
    Here are some images taken today. The fish are down as its raining hard and fairly cold now. IMG_6595.jpgIMG_6596.jpgIMG_6597.jpgIMG_6599.jpgIMG_6598.jpg
    Last edited by Dudley; 13-10-2020 at 01:02 AM.

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  38. #20
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    I like a natural pond, but its not best for viewing the fish. So I think I will have to empty it to catch all the fish to do a proper selecting. Although they hand feed ok, and I can catch the odd one in a net, they then sulk, and its impossible to catch more This photo was taken in July, so they are bigger now. .

    IMG_5785 3.jpg
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    Last edited by Dudley; 12-10-2020 at 07:12 PM.

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