Thread: Hertfordshire pond builder

Originally Posted by Richrichhill

Hi - so am looking to know if any recommendation’s for companies or people who can build a koi carp tank. Aim is to be put it next to our patio and first time going into having koi so looking for someone to build . We are based Hertford

Sizes/Dimensions/Water volume, design - is it fully above ground, or below or half/n/half, do you have access to transport or lift it into position, will it have a window?

Only reason I ask is the first thing a company will ask is that.

I would have a mind of how you will filter and keep the water clear before jumping into that. If you get a company to do all this - just make sure you have a budget of both money and operating cost of electricity in mind (pumps can cost a lot to run) but there's airlifts which provide a cheaper operation if you can design them in. To give you an idea - my pond takes 58Watts to run, an equivalent water pump run pond you'd be looking at 300-500W. Then add the cost of UVC running which is 40-80W. That's an unheated pond.

Originally Posted by Richrichhill

That is interesting feedback. We are new and at investigating stage but expected size around 2m by 2m, we believe it would need to be half sunken to enable the depth while not sitting too high above patio as aim is to easily view into the tank. water volume is to aim for size suitable for around 6-8 Koi Carp and some community fish. I will have to look into your comment on airlifts as we were looking for water pump. Struggling to find too many people / companies currently but picking up a few business cards at some large koi shops. The window we are getting feedbacks as ideally yes we wanted a window on patio side but see quite. A cost and maybe adding issues . Need to do some more research on the running costs but starting to factor that into our ongoing budget

A 1m x 1m x 1m water cube is 1000 litres, ie 1000 litres per 1m^3. So if you have 2x2x1 that's 4000 litres.

Now a lot of filters say for a X,000 litre pond but that's definitely a clean water without fish stock. Goldfish increase the filtration 2x and Koi (being bigger) really need 4x.

My original, inherited with the house pond, was only about 1500 litres, yet I had a 9000 sized pressure filter and that was too little with 4 koi and some tench. It wasn't until I got a 16000l/h sized drum filter and etc that the water was 'gin clear'.

In a priority for the budget - I would forego the window in favour of a drum filter (it will need to be connected to the house waste and plumbed water line laid to). It is the biggest improvement I have to the pond (It now runs in the replacement 14,000l pond).

Ez pond make them as do many on ebay

Originally Posted by Richrichhill

Thanks and the window is the first compromise we are likely to make and taken details above for discussions as we are having a few quotes over next few weeks and helping get my understanding and questions and minimum requirements

Probably worth just writing up what you're thinking here. Plenty of people here have considerable experience.

As Alburgler has said - there's a few premade tank suppliers, just they tend to come on the back of a big lorry and then lifted into position with a large crane.

If this is your first pond, then talking through the filters and running costs is very important. Essentially you're looking after the volume of water you have (with the fish waste) and after getting that right you'll have less issues with the fish.