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  1. #1
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    New to Koi, and saying hello.

    Today (Wednesday) was a big day, 100 x 1-2" koi fingerlings arrived in a box by Royal Mail.

    So I thought, I best join a forum because I am sure I am going to need help and advice, so here I am.

    I have kept Koi before, but that was about 30 years ago, they were purchased from a garden centre at about 2" long, put in a garden pond of about two feet deep and left with goldfish and orfe. but they didn't really grow much, why should they, back then a 2" koi to me was another adult fish, otherwise why would it be in a tank in a garden centre for sale, so they were not fed as they should, but they did live.

    Anyway, this time around its different, I think!

    Firstly I have spent a few months studying at the school of YouTube and maybe I know a little more this time around?

    I am in the process of building a garden pond, yes garden pond, not dedicated Koi pond, but its 1.5m deep and 8m x 6m, it is an irregular shape, but I have calculated upwards of 40,000L.

    It is filtered via water pumped up to a 16 square meter of wetland area based on the Aquascape design with sump for anual cleaning etc. All shall be complete and pond filled by end of this year.

    However, I did not want to wait until the spring to buy my fish, so I have set up a 1000L tank in an outbuilding, bought 100 fingerlings (thank you to my supplier who packed 132 of which only one was dead on arrival) so I can select the best in the spring for the pond. I am planning to gradually put heat on 23deg to keep them eating and hopefully growing through the winter.

    Well I hope not to be too much trouble. Thank you Steve.



  2. #2
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Hassai koinewbie's Avatar
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    Hi Steve welcome to the forum. That's a big pond your planning what's the aquascape filtration method your planning on using?. What filtration are you going to use on your rearing tank over winter?.

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  4. #3
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Grand Champion lee63's Avatar
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    Hi and welcone steve New to Koi, and saying hello. sounds like youve got some big plans there


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    Its always a work in progress

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  6. #4
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by koinewbie View Post
    Hi Steve welcome to the forum. That's a big pond your planning what's the aquascape filtration method your planning on using?. What filtration are you going to use on your rearing tank over winter?.
    Imagine a large round hole, say 6’ dia 3’ deep with a tray mesh across the bottom. Large stone is placed on the mesh, smaller stone on top, until fine gravel to the top. Plants, rushes etc grow in the gravel. An inspection chamber type pipe goes down through this filter media and just penetrates through the plastic mesh tray at the bottom. This enables a dirty water pump be dropped down below all the filter media to pump up solids and back flush the filter media.
    The fine gravel/wetland is about 1.5m above pond water level any water drops back to pond via waterfalls.
    As for the rearing tank, I have a bacteria shower and moving bed.
    That’s all set up, not running, only putting air into tank at the moment as the fish only arrived Wednesday and were on 3% salt so I’m going through 20% water changes now to drop salt level.
    I thought salt wouldn’t do filter any good, plus as it’s all new there is no bacteria in filter yet anyway.
    My tank water is at 12 degrees at the moment, when the salt is down and the filters are running I will slowly bring temp up over a week or two with pond heater to 23.
    Well I hope I am doing it right?


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  8. #5
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Hassai koinewbie's Avatar
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    How often are you going to clean out the filter on the main pond?.

  9. #6
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by koinewbie View Post
    How often are you going to clean out the filter on the main pond?.
    Can I answer that in a couple of years time?
    Theoretically never actually empty the filer bed, disconnect the pond pump from the point it supplies pond water to the sump off the filter and run the water the opposite way onto the top of the wetland area or turn pond pump off and run a garden hose onto the wetland. That way it flushes the opposite way through the filter whilst a dirty water pump in the sump pulls out the solids to somewhere across the garden. In theory, or I will be buying a filter.

  10. #7
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Hassai koinewbie's Avatar
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    Think you should think filter sooner rather than later. How many koi were you thinking of stocking in the main pond?.

  11. #8
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Dudley's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by koinewbie View Post
    Think you should think filter sooner rather than later. How many koi were you thinking of stocking in the main pond?.
    Not many, 6-10 in the garden pond. I was going to pick the best of these 100 I bought in, the rest that survive can go out in my mud ponds. I have two large ponds on my farm. Or should I say clay ponds. One was dug 12 years ago, that’s 4m deep, it’s big, has an island with bridge over to a jetty, BBQ area and summer house on the island to give you an idea of size. So no issues with space for excess fish.
    The other is a clay pit, dug in the late 1800s, for brick clay. I know that has no fish as 10 years ago it was a silted up bog, and in cleaning it out we got the 13tonne digger stuck in the middle of it, and to get the machine out, what water there was, was pumped out. Then another 13tonne digger had to did the other out. So it was then cleaned and bottomed out completely and was left to fill off the land drains, but was not stocked with fish. That is even deeper than the other pond, say 5m but smaller and is only about 20m diameter. Still V big for fish.


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