Skimmer maintance

[cas]

Thanks for all the info @Gordo33 . I am glad you posted the picture, because I am pretty sure I can do something very similar.

 

[Gordo33]

Thanks for all the info @Gordo33 . I am glad you posted the picture, because I am pretty sure I can do something very similar.

You're welcome. Your pond looks great and I like your landscaping around the pond. I was wondering if you have a bottom drain ? I would love to add koi but chose goldfish because from what I have read koi produce a lot of waste. What is your maintance routine for keeping the waste produced from fouling the pond water? I have an above the liner bottom drain that works great for gold fish but doubt it would handle the waste from koi

 

[cas]

Thank you. I have no bottom drain. Set up is very similar to yours. Pump is in the skimmer, water is then pumped up to the biofilter / water fall box. In 2015 I started using an air stone placed on the bottom to circulate the water more at the bottom. It has really helped with the algae. I can see the bottom at 34" except for maybe a week in the spring when I get a slight algae bloom.

I have 11 fish, 3 are Koi. The fish range from 7 to 11 years old. I know people say that Koi get big, and therefore create a lot more waste, but one of my Koi is over 11 years old and is only maybe 13". The other two Koi are over 7 years old and one is about 10" and the other about 11". I don't starve the fish (they are fed once a day), but I just haven't gotten the growth like some people do - and I am very glad of that.

Once in the spring, summer and fall I vacuum the bottom of the pond. The pond is netted all year so there are no leaves, but I vacuum mostly to get all the kitty litter off the bottom of the pond that the Koi put there from rooting around in the water lilies. Other than that, I clean the filter in the skimmer daily in the spring, and once the pond gets established the skimmer filter just needs cleaned about every 5 days. I hope I don't jinx myself, but the fish load that I have in 1,000 gallons doesn't seem to be too much for the pond to handle.

 

[Lisak1]

Genetics must play a big part in how big and how fast koi grow. We have nine total and got eight of them within a one year span of time, all the same size when we got them. A few are literally double the size of the others, both in length and girth. We got one several years later as a freebie from a pond store that was a teeny tiny speck of a fish when we got her - so small we didn't see her for a full year after we put her in the pond. She is now as big as our largest fish.

I think someone would be smart to start breeding koi to stay smaller (or maybe I'm really dumb and people already do!) They are so popular in ponds and it would have been great to choose fish that we knew would only grow to a predetermined size. Shubunkins are a super alternative, but you really can't beat the variety of colorations and markings you get in koi.