Bottom Drains in Freezing Winters?

[Lisak1]

If you would get onto the Koiphen site, you might be surprised what you find there.

Oh, I've been there! Got drummed out. I didn't find them to be terribly openminded, but I'm glad you got good, helpful advice!

 

[poconojoe]

I'm tired of rinsing out filter pads in pressure filters that hardly work. I run two pressure filters for my 1600 gallon pond, have lots of plants and last year my water never really cleared up. One of the filters even has a UV light. I want to see my fish.

I'm finally in the process of adding a bog filter.

Believe all you want from elite koi masters, but many here run strictly bogs for filtration and have crystal clear water. That's good enough for me.

I think you should gather information from both sites, combine ideas from both and decide for yourself what to do. It's always good to research as much as possible, then use your independent mind to decide what's best for your situation.

It's like politics these days. If you only watch one news outlet, you won't hear both sides of the story. It's akin to brainwashing.

 

[GBBUDD]

No pond is sterile. That's not even possible. If you would get onto the Koiphen site, you might be surprised what you find there.

I was fortunate to find that site when we started building our pond. We would have made many, many errors if I hand't that would have made my pond a maintenance nightmare.

I don't have a koi pond. I have a watergarden/goldfish pond that is easy to care for. You don't have to follow their plans word for word, but they do know what they are talking about and are up on the latest equipment and methods to use to make a pond a pleasure to keep.

Not literally for god sakes no kidding algae bacteria will be there cant stop it if you do fish won't survive.By sterile to me is a wall with nothing but a flat cold wall a floor with nothing but maybe a bottom drain and oh here we go the fun part bubbles. Just not my style I have never bought the dog who has the diving ball on his head the floats up loses air and sinks back down toward the rainbow castle with a water wheel . That's all I ment by sterile no life no still life nothing for the fish to do but swim in open water. yes maybe some fish prefer that but koi are river fish with currents so I duplicate that as close as I can. The guy at sacrament koi has a nice looking pond on the outside he does have a rock wall cut stones and ferns tastefully done for sure. Easier to maintain possible who knows. is it as interesting not to me. I love sitting there watching the water fall and see dragon flies all over the have a frog swim by. To each there own ..... I have tried to get in on there several times mention Bog and they dump all over yea.

 

[Ronfire]

I have a shut off on the bottom drain and a drain after that so I can all the pipes down to that level. I use a 55 gallon drum as a valve chamber and add insulation in it for the winter. The valve is below the frost level and close to the pond so It has not given me problems yet.
The pipes into the bog don't seem to be bothered with freezing, I think because the ice outside balances the inside pressure on my 2" ABS.
I live on a hillside so I have a good drain to the bottom of the pond level.
I used the sides of a grain silo to build my pond form as I am above and below grade. A couple of pics to hopefully help.
Next pond will be behind the house and use the silo sides in a kidney shape to make a larger pond.
The temp here in the winter get to be -20c. Just managed to get the upper pond running yesterday by lifting out 4" of ice. The only problem I had was the ice popped off a couple of rocks that where glued into place along the pond wall.

 

[addy1]

And welcome to our fish / pond loving forum!

 

[Mmathis]

Sorry, no advice here. I’m in Louisiana. Our ground doesn’t freeze.