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Build A Koi Pond

Before deciding if you want to keep Koi you should ask yourself this question: "Are you willing to take the responsibility for providing a healthy environment for fish and doing all that this entails?"

When building a Pond there are several things you must do in order to keep your Fish healthy, if just building a Water Garden then the following requirements don't have to be met. If you are planning on having Koi, first ask your self "Am I prepared for the commitment of providing responsible care for my fish?" If not, then please just stick to a Water Garden.

Here is a small list of items you need to be prepared for if you plan on keeping Koi:

• Fish require a commitment of time, money and effort.
• They need proper nutrition.
• A filtration unit.
• They will also periodically require medicines for diseases or injuries. Ideally, you should plan to purchase and learn to use a microscope, primarily for parasite identification.
• There will be expenses involved for basic water test kits and water additives such as dechlorinator and ammonia binder.

The Charm of a Koi often develops in to a compulsion, but enthusism for collecting and showing these beautiful fish must be coupled with a clear understanding of how you can provide the ideal environment for them. Koi ponds need to be designed and constructed with a focus on Health and Safety.

The Pre-Planning phase is the most important step, make sure and take your time when planning your pond designs. You will save time and money when you pre-plan your pond designs. The worst thing you can do is build on a whim.

The first thing to do is plan your budget. Make sure you know what you need and what it will cost. The larger the pond the larger the expense will be. That means the size of your budget will determine the size of your pond.

If you skip purchasing essential items (koi pond filter, UV ultraviolet light, and pump) it will leave you with a bad outcome and you will walk away aggravated with the experience.

If you do not feel up to the job you can always leave it to the experts.

The easiest way to build a Koi pond is to create a working ecosystem within the fish pond. The way to create this ecosystem is to combine the following elements. Leaving any of these features out, will cause more difficulties in establishing a balanced ecosystem not to mention more time and money spent on maintenance.

• Purification system: A Biological filter or Pond filter In a closed water feature (i.e. non-spring fed) you need both a mechanical filter to handle larger debris and a biological filter to remove excess nutrients which cause green, murky water.
• Pond Pumps: Recirculation of a closed water feature is essential to add oxygen to the water for fish and bacteria. In addition, recirculating water keeps it fresh and allows gases to escape. A waterfall is an excellent way to add oxygen to you Fish Pond.
• Liners and Underlayment: To greatly reduce water loss to the soil, an impermeable membrane (liner) is mandatory for small water features (under 1000 sq. ft.). A 45 Mil EPDM Rubber Pond Liner is recommended. To pad the liner, an underlayment is recommended. Woven underlayment will allows gases to escape and unlike sand, an underlayment will pad the vertical edges of the liner.
• Plants, Fish and Bacteria: Plants remove nutrients from the water for their own nourishment. Fish eat insects and in turn fertilize the plants. Bacteria eat the nutrients that create green, murky water therefore keeping the pond clear. Note: Eliminating any one of these variables in attempt to cut corners will increase maintenance and decrease water clarity. By establishing a working ecosystem you work with nature instead of against it.

When designing your pond it needs to be arranged where the contaminates move from the water into the filtration system. Bottom drains, skimmers and flow patterns will help you move the contaminates toward and into the water outlets.

Up to 85% of the ponds being built today are so poorly designed that within 2 years, many of the customers are so unhappy with it that they question why they built it in the first place.

Tips on building a water garden that you will enjoy.

• It becomes to High maintenance.

  If it is built without a bottom return drain there is no way for the fish waste to get from the bottom into the filter where it can be removed.

  If you fail to install a skimmer you will be required to constantly net leaves off the surface.

  If rocks are placed on the bottom to hide the liner they will create pockets for fish waste and leaves to collect. As these leaves decay they will give off a toxic acid which will cause the water to turn to a "root beer" color. The only way to solve the problem is to remove the fish, completely drain it and then pressure wash the whole pond bottom.

• Poor Shape and Contour.

  Many ponds are built too small to properly support Koi, they need at least 1500 gallons.

  A pond should be at least 4 feet deep with no area less than 3 feet deep. Ponds with shallow areas near the edge will allow predators to dine on your fish. Even shelves for plants can create a potential problem with predators.

  A pond with a flat bottom, even if it has a bottom drain return, will be hard to keep clean.

• Poor Filtration.

  Unwisely, this is where people often times try to conserve money. A filter that is not properly designed or to small will never provide clean, healthy water. Many filters are also, extremely hard to maintain, requiring regular washing of mats, brushes and sponges and are full of fish waste.

Supplies

The trick of low-maintenance construction is to think external. Use an external filter to keep your pond clean and healthy, an external pump to keep it flowing and an external UV Light to keep it clear. Just the fact that you have located the equipment where you can easily get to it is half the battle. When you build a pond make sure you have a bottom drain, this will make your job alot easier. The #1 Most Effective Piece of Equipment to Make the Pond Low-Maintenance is a Bead Filter or a Bog Filter.

A couple of points to remember: DO NOT Line the Bottom with Rocks! The Bigger the Pond - the Easier to Maintain! To keep your water clear install a UV Light.

Here are some water features that you will need when you building, and what functions they perform.

However, it will also increase the oxygen content of the water in another way, because as it splashes it will create a disturbance at the surface and this will have the effect of increasing the surface of the water to the air, so more oxygen can be absorbed.

For this system you will need a pipe connecting the main water supply to the pumping system or to replace lost water. you can use a fine nozzle spray hose as this will dissipate much of the chlorine into the atmosphere.

Overflow

You will need to allow for an overflow on occasions of heavy rain which suddenly overload the water. Pipes can be placed around the pond just above the water surface, or they can be placed upright. In either case they will exit into the drainage system. Be sure they are covered with a suitable wireweld mesh so the smaller fish will not be carried away. The system described will circulate the water and oxygenate it but it will not remove debris, so this is the need for the bottom drain.

Bottom Drain

When using an external pump you must have a way to pull the water out of the pond. There are several drain methods available: bottom drains that install through the liner, vacuum bottom drains that sit on top of the liner and strainer baskets that cover the end of a hose to prevent fish from being sucked into it.

The most low-maintenance method is installing a 3" bottom drain through the liner. Both the vacuum bottom drain and the strainer caps are unable do as good of a job as one installed into the floor of the pond. Even a 2" bottom drain with the anti-vortex cover is not as good as the black-domed 3" bottom drain because it traps leaves and large debris at the cover and does not allow it to go out of the pond and into the leaf basket of the external pump. That trapped debris has to be pulled off periodically with a net or pole of some kind so there is a little more work to it. Although the 3" dome allows leaves and large debris to leave the pond it also sucks in small fish so one has to accept that he will need to rake off the top of the 2" periodically if his fish are less than 6" long.

The drain cover is best made from an inert material such as PVC so it will not rust or release chemicals in so doing.

Where the bottom drain is located can mean the difference between a "self-cleaning" pond and one that needs attention. It should be placed at the deepest part and the floor of the pond should slant gradually down to the drain to encourage all the debris to fall toward the drain. It should be installed half-an-inch lower than the ponds floor and be located as far away from the water return as possible to encourage healthy water circulation.

Depth

A depth of at least 4 feet (1.2m) is recommended for large Koi. Avoid ponds less than 4 feet (1.2m) deep because of the potentially of severe fluctuations in water temperature. Koi swim both vertically and horizontally, so depth gives them space to exercise, freedom of movement, and the opportunity to live a more comfortable and stress-free life.

You will also need a depth of 4 feet so your fish can survive through the witner.

Know Your Frost Line! This is the deepest your water is likely to freeze in the winter with extended periods of low temperatures. Your pond needs to be at least 6" deeper thean the frost line to be able to overwinter your fish.

Liners Or Preformed Shells

• Liners allow you to be more creative with the shape of your pond. You must conform to the manufacturer’s idea of the perfect pond if you use a preformed shell.
• Preformed Shells are not deep enough - a must if you want to offer your fish protection from predators and to overwinter your Koi.
• It saves you no time to put a preformed shell into the ground. In fact, it costs you another step to backfill to fit the shape of the shell.
• You can not put maintenance-saving bottom drains in the hard plastic shells.
• When the ground shifts (as it often does) the form will shift with it and your carefully constructed leveling job will be for naught.
• Forget putting that beautiful large boulder on the lip of the preformed shell. It will crack under the weight.
• And when it cracks let us know if the patching material stays on for more than a month.

EPDM Liners

EPDM carries a 20-year warranty. Because it is thick it is also very heavy. That could be the only negative about it! It is well worth the extra labor to install.

The liner is the skin of your pond and will be around for a very long time. Do not cost yourself trouble, money and aggravation by trying to find a “deal” on this particular product. After all, what good is a liner that does not hold water?

If someone offers you an irresistible deal on 45 mil EPDM — resist it. We have seen where folks are selling 45 mil EPDM rubber liner material for CHEAP prices and found out that it is used by roofers and has been treated with some kind of chemical that is very toxic to fish. Be sure the material is fish safe.

Budget and Supplies

When planning your budget, do allow for the buying of your Koi fish themselves and for such things as plastic containers to inspect them in, driving nets, and certainly a spare tank for isolating a sick fish. These can be made out of the least expensive pond liners, or you could even use a child’s inflatable pool. You will need various water testing kits so you can be sure of the water quality.

The size to which a Koi may grow may be affected in one of two ways. If it is underfed, it’s growth rate will slow down dramatically; dwarf Koi have been produced in this manner but it is a bad practice. The second factor to control growth is by hormones which in some species, restrict growth based on the volume of water available to them.

4 Basic Factors

The factors that will control the size and cost of the pond building will be largely as follows:

• The available space. This must include adequate provision for the back-up systems of filtration for any pond surrounds that may be required (rockeries, patios, and similar features).
• The available cash. An obvious restriction to most of us, in which case concentrate on the essentials-the pond and the filter system, decorations can come later as funds permit.
• The number of Koi (pond stocking) that one wishes to keep. Here consideration must be made for the ultimate size of the Japanese Koi fish, not just their size as 1-4 year olds. The miniumum is 10 gallons of pond water per inch of fish.
• The type of pond required. There are a number of options in terms of the actual water container and these vary considerably in their costs. Like most things, the longer lasting and more permanent materials will be easier to service. But they will be more expensive.

These four basic factors are inter-related because if space is restricted, this will place a limit on the number of mature Koi you can keep regardless of how many you want. If you wish to have more Koi than you can initially afford then allowance should be made for future expansion by not completing the surrounds or making the support walls to butyl liners too permanent or decorative for they will have to be pulled down when you are ready to expand. Obtain costs for the differing sizes of supplies and for the equipment that is minimally considered necessary to start with. For Example: Koi pond filters.

Waterfalls

If you want to make a natural looking waterfall, you can use the same stone that was used around the pond. Place flat pieces of stone onto a bed of mortar, on steps you formed in the compacted mound of soil. Make the waterfall’s path as irregular as possible.

At the top of the waterfall, incorporate a waterfall box or a hose feeding from the pump via the pond’s filter. You can now trim any excess garden liner. Once the waterfall is set and is running with water, position additional rocks to fine-tune the flow of water down the waterfall.

When you build a koi pond, take into account where any filter will be located and how you are going to pipe water to and from it. You can, for example, remove water from the end furthest from the waterfall, process it with the filter and then pump it back to the top of the waterfall. This will help maintain water circulation within the garden liner, which helps insure oxygenated water throughout.

Money Savers or Not

Here are a few ways to avoid costly errors when purchasing equipment:

• Research, research, research. There is a load of misinformation on the internet. Be careful.
• Decide whether you are purchasing for the present or the future. For example, if you are planning to sell your home within a year then you wouldn’t want to put on an external pump. It would make sense, however, to purchase an external pump if you will be living with the pond for a couple of years or more. External pumps, though higher priced, cost less because they save money in the long run.
• Decide whether your time is worth more than the cost to build your pond with a low-maintenance system. Then bite the bullet and opt for the low-maintenance system. You’ll thank yourself later for being so good to you.
• Do not ever try to seam two pieces of liner together because someone gave you a piece and it was not quite big enough. You will be replacing it later, trust me!
• Do not undersize your filter. It will require constant cleaning and will not keep your pond properly clean or healthy.
• Do not go with a system just because it is a name brand that you trust — and do not always trust name brands. Labels will mislead you and just because a company spends a great amount of money on marketing does not mean it is a good product. There are many out there that are not worth the paper the ads are printed on.

Tips for Keeping Insects Away

• Eliminate standing water wherever possible to deprive mosquitoes of potential breeding grounds. The Asian tiger mosquito can breed in less than an ounce of water.
• For wet areas and water features, the bacteria Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is a biological control for mosquito larvae.
• Citronella candles or tiki torches may help keep biting insects away from outdoor living spaces.
• Some insect-repelling devices use butane mats soaked in a synthetic pyrethroid. These devices are most effective when the air is fairly calm.
• Some larger appliances use propane to produce CO2 to attract biting insects. When they get close, they get caught in a vacuum and are killed through dessication. Eliminate standing water wherever possible to deprive mosquitoes of potential breeding grounds. The Asian tiger mosquito can breed in less than an ounce of water.
• For wet areas and water features, the bacteria Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is a biological control for mosquito larvae.
• Citronella candles or tiki torches may help keep biting insects away from outdoor living spaces.
• Some insect-repelling devices use butane mats soaked in a synthetic pyrethroid. These devices are most effective when the air is fairly calm.
• Some larger appliances use propane to produce CO2 to attract biting insects. When they get close, they get caught in a vacuum and are killed through dessication.

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