My basement pond project

[jameskoi]

Hey all!

I pop in once every few moons or if anything interesting I want to update.

I sure wish I can keep spare 1500G of water to warm up to room temperature. No can do. LOL! I'll save gas for 3 hot water tanks (4 in the winter) and water conditioner too. :lol:

2 of the 3 koi shops thought my filter system is good. The 3rd one (which happened to sell the best looking koi) laughed at me and shook my hand to wish me good luck since he believed this system would fail. I don't know what his problem is. But I think he is an extreme koi keeper and/or wants to sell me his $$$ filters. Which seriously does the same thing. Bio balls, mechanical filter in a nice box.

Before this discovery, I wanted something running right away and paid $200 for a silly Bio Force canister filter from this guy for my 130G. It's useless piece of junk. Undergravel filter will kick its ass. Water gets cloudy. I can't believe this thing is good for decent size pond. I can't remember the gallons, but it's huge and figure 130G with fish would be fine. Sure, it can be good for 750G or something like that if nothing is in it. I added garbage can scrubby filter for it and water is now crystal clear. It's either 25G or 35G. I can't remember.

 

[huskerfan]

Hi James,

No, I said 4x 55 gal drums, but really even 3x55 gal. barrels would give you 10% weekly water change and you wouldn't need to add hot water (which is likely hard water?) or clorine remover.

Mark

 

[jameskoi]

Hi James,

No, I said 4x 55 gal drums, but really even 3x55 gal. barrels would give you 10% weekly water change and you wouldn't need to add hot water (which is likely hard water?) or clorine remover.

Mark

Oh yeah... I mean, I was referencing to myself. I need 1500G to do my job. I'm one of the few crazy ones that does 80-90% water changes and so far, successfully.

I don't recommend that to anyone...

I do about 80% water changes for my reef tank after not changing water for 1 year. Long story on that one... but that's an even bigger no no. It's even bigger no no that I haven't changed water for over 2 years but my reef tank is still flourishing. :lol: Evaporation rate about 2G a day... Always topped off with RO water to make lime water for the clams.

 

[Jeff]

good job

 

[jameskoi]

Update: I'll try and bowl some koi tonight and take pics. I have some koi that have grown so big within 1 year, I can't believe it myself. Now they're bigger, no more 1" per month growth.

The little imports I bought almost 1 year ago were 6-8" and can easily be held out of water with one hand and weigh like feathers. Now, I need two hands and a little tough to hold b/c they weigh like sand bags.

11-12" imports are roughly 17-18".

One little domestic ~6" is now 17" and just looks all wrong since it's too fat and have tiny pectoral fins.

I'll try and post before and after pics.

 

[jameskoi]

Here are the first sets. 3rd pic is about 1 year later - just play connect the koi.

Only one that might be a little confusing is the metallic gold koi. You'll see the little guy in the 2nd pic. I'm using same blue bin for size comparison.

These domestics grew at an incredible pace. I have a few Japanese that did the same thing too, but not as fast as the metallic gold one.

 

[jameskoi]

Here are the imports:

Unfortunately, I used different bowls to take these little 6-7" guys 1 year ago. The bowl is much smaller, that's forsure.

 

[jameskoi]

Alright... Last sets of pics. All these before and after are about 1 year apart.

I bowled two more, but they didn't want to say in and jumped out before I was able to take pictures.

I need a bigger bowl. :alieneyesa:

 

[koikeepr]

nice quality there james! You've got a really handsome lot!

 

[Stouty109]

that metallic gold koi is a fatty haha he grew a ton

 

[stroppy]

lovely lookingfish and the red is so bright ...and yes what on earth are you feeding them on !! :0)

 

[jameskoi]

A lot of my kohaku and showa lost a lot of red. Only my prize kohaku gained some back back likely because it had deep red to begin with. Other's are growing so fast, I can see dark red scales in the middle only (well, same with prized kohaku). I think that is the reason the reds are not as dark.

As for food. I initially fed them Blackwater Creek. Too $$$ and moved to the cheap Mazuri which is still $$$.

Had been feeding them 3 big cap fulls a day (used one of those standard large flake food container lids) and that can burn 20lbs a month. Water yellow within 2 weeks b/c of that. Reduced feeding about 40-50% 4-5 months ago. 2-3 times a week, i feed them BIG bowl of rice.

 

[DrDave]

We feed our koi a treat of white steamed rice every day. They love it and I have found other Koi owners that do the same. The key is to not put in too much or it will sit on the bottom. For 8 large Koi, a golfball size portion is perfect.

 

[jameskoi]

Hello All!

This will likely be my 2nd last update. The last one will likely be around spring time. I'm going to take down my system because my koi are getting way too big (but filters still keeping up) and they suck up a ton of resources. I don't spend any time admiring them anymore to justify the costs to keep them. I hope to recover some funds to either 1) just save it or 2) buy a pool table. haha

It has been fun designing and building the system and watching these guys grow. Everything exceeded my expectations. The growth rate and zero health problems is a testament that this DIY system I learned from here WORKS! I don't even know what happened to the gill flukes. I couldn't find a single trace of them some months ago.

Anyhow, metallic gold fatty is as long as the blue tub. It's at least 21". It's hard to take pictures in my largest tub now. They just want to get out ASAP. Most koi are at least 18".

If anyone that lives in the Toronto area and wants a basement pond setup (minus the koi) for cheap, post in this thread so that I can get an alert (I don't think PM alerts working for me). I must have spend at least $2k setting it up. Maybe closer to $2.5k.

Here's a video of the koi I made yesterday. I already feel the sense that I will miss them in the future.

[ame]

 

[DrDave]

Jim
Are you going outside with them or getting out altogether?
You have some nice koi.