Getting into koi pond

[ntieu22]

Thinking of building a koi pod for my parents. Im thinking at least 1000 to 1500 gallon pond. I have some experience with fish but mostly saltwater. Im wondering what type of filttration to get or build. I saw a few laguna for about 200 bucks.. is that worth getting. Does a koi pond need alot of water movement. If i could get some feed back that would be great... thanks

 

[fishin4cars]

Welcome aboard, Would be nice if you would go to introductions and introduce yourself, I'm not real familar with that system but there many here that can speak for it and do use it. As for size, are you planning on keeping one or two Koi? If you thinking more then think bigger. 1000-1500 might be enough room for one or two adults, Which takes about three to five yeras to reach. Pond water needs to be turned over a minimal of once an hour, so you need a pump for that size pond that will pump 1000-1500gph at the maximum head that you run the water up to.

 

[addy1]

welcome, put in your location too, it helps us help you!

Read the diy section, there are some good home made filters that work great and will save you some money.

 

[ntieu22]

I am from Mass

 

[sissy]

welcome to our little group .I have koi and now that I have had them for 6 years I would go with goldies as koi get big fast and do need a lot more oxygen in the pond to be healthy and seem to need a tad bit more care than my goldies do .That being said my koi were easy to be trained and very friendly .They love to kiss people and they love to have people rub there chins .They do seem to give more love and are friendlier than my goldies .I got my first 2 koi when they were tiny and they are now close to 2 feet long 6 years later .Seems goldies can take a little bit more neglect and abuse then koi .But that may be what I have seen and heard not sure .My neighbor has goldies that I gave them (had to many babies born ) and they do not take as great care with them but yet they thrive.

 

[j.w]

ntieu22

 

[DrDave]

Welcome to the Forum!
Add your location in the UserCP and post an Introduction it lets us know you better so we can help you.

 

[vertigo72]

Pond water needs to be turned over a minimal of once an hour.

Everyone says that (or more commonly, half the pond per hour for larger ponds), but I really dont understand why. Wouldnt it be just as dependant on how efficient your filter is? Imagine I have a theoretical perfect filter that filters out everything in one pass and gets perfect water back in to the pond.. then why on earth would I need to cycle the water every hour? Depending how stocked the pond is, once a day might be overkill then.

Likewise, if you have an undersized filter, that can only filter out a tiny percentage of the ammonia and whatever per pass, it hardly matters what size pump you use, you wont get any better water quality with a bigger pump, you will just pass more water through it, but the total amount of "cleaning" would stay pretty much the same. Like, you might as well turn the pump off half the time to let the biofilter do its work for twice longer on the same amount of water.

Something Im missing?

 

[DrDave]

Isn't that like saying why flush the toilet until it is full at the end of the day? It is clean right after a flush after all...

 

[fishin4cars]

Isn't that like saying why flush the toilet until it is full at the end of the day? It is clean right after a flush after all...

LOL, That's another way to look at it.

A pond should have a turn over rate of between once and twice an hour to keep oxygen levels high in all levels of the pond. Turn the water over at that rate has nothing to do with how well your water is filtered. You can filter slow or fast. If Your filtering fast, You have to have enough time for the bacteria to actually be able to break down the ammonia, If your filtering slow the bacteria use up more oxygen and if enough isn't supplied then they simply die off. By over turning the water 1-2 times per hour this is a proven rule of thumb that has worked for many years as a good average turn over rate. You can sucsessfully keep a pond with 0 turn over rate, and you can do it with 10 time turn over rate. Each has it's own issues that need to be dealt with and the more outside the box you work the more you will be on your own when it comes down to figure out your issues. But like Dr. Dave said, the less it's filtered and turned over the longer the fish have to survive in their own waste. I prefer to breath fresh air myself.

 

[koiguy1969]

Isn't that like saying why flush the toilet until it is full at the end of the day? It is clean right after a flush after all...

yall got that fancy insde plummin'? we gotta dig a new hole and move the shed!.......lol

 

[addy1]

yall got that fancy insde plummin'? we gotta dig a new hole and move the shed!.......lol

lmao, make sure ya move the paper holder, ya know the catalogs.........

 

[DrDave]

Sear and Robucks?

 

[vertigo72]

LOL, That's another way to look at it.

A pond should have a turn over rate of between once and twice an hour to keep oxygen levels high in all levels of the pond. Turn the water over at that rate has nothing to do with how well your water is filtered. You can filter slow or fast. If Your filtering fast, You have to have enough time for the bacteria to actually be able to break down the ammonia, If your filtering slow the bacteria use up more oxygen and if enough isn't supplied then they simply die off. By over turning the water 1-2 times per hour this is a proven rule of thumb that has worked for many years as a good average turn over rate. You can sucsessfully keep a pond with 0 turn over rate, and you can do it with 10 time turn over rate. Each has it's own issues that need to be dealt with and the more outside the box you work the more you will be on your own when it comes down to figure out your issues. But like Dr. Dave said, the less it's filtered and turned over the longer the fish have to survive in their own waste. I prefer to breath fresh air myself.

So you are saying the main reason for such high flowrates is to keep enough oxygen in the water? I suspect it would make much more difference how high your waterfall is (if any) and whether or not you use an airpump (and its capacity, number of stones etc). Not only would it make more difference, it would be a far cheaper way to tackle the problem.

Looking at my own pond, with 50k liter, getting a turnover of once per hour is undoable without setting up a factory sized filter, industrial pumps and turning the pond in to a giant vortex. Oh and spending a fortune on pumps and plumbing and electricity. What I opted for instead was putting airstones in my biofilter (and soon, in the pond).

Frankly I have no idea how much air Im supposed to get in there, but seeing a 27liter/min (airbrush compressor) pump I temporarily used (waiting for a real pump to arrive), turned the filter in to a giant bubblebath, I suspect thats far more effective than quadrupling my water pump capacity. Far cheaper and easier too. Id say the same would be true for any size pond, no?

Anyway I appreciate any pond is different and there are countless variables and ways to go about it, but I just feel this mantra of "one hour turnover' ought to be replaced by a mantra about filtering capacity and aerating the water. If you tackle those properly, it seems to me turnover rate is far less of an issue.

Let me put it another way; those with real Koi ponds that are well stocked, how long would it take before the water became problematic if you turned the pumps off? Assume you have air pumps stll running. Would it really become an issue in a matter of hours? If so, Im glad I dont have such a pond. I wouldnt sleep at night!

 

[addy1]

I have air stones, low wattage sipping air pump, a 20 foot drop stream waterfall(s) set up, lots of air getting mixed in the water, and then my pump, low use wattage and honestly it does not turn the water over every hour. That rate of flow imho, would be too much for my bog. We have a good constant flow that keeps the water clear and algae free, but I also have a low bio load and plants.
Last year while getting things running, we had just a 125 gph running to keep the bog wet, (9k - 10k pond) the pond still stayed algae free and clear, no fish at that time.

My main concern is to have constant flow to the bog, 2800 lbs of pea gravel to keep the bacteria alive.