Building A Koi Pond

[Kaush]

I am going to build a concrete pond in the next couple of weeks and I had a few questions.

1. What is the best type of brick to use?
2. What should the dimensions be?
3. Is there anything that I can use instead of liner?
4. If not what size liner should I buy?
5. Is there anything special I need to do to install a filter, other than the electrical buisness, because I have seen pictures of people putting a large drain pipe type thing in the bottom of the pond?
6. Would I need an airstone in their if I had the filter, the pump acting as a small fountain, and plants in the water?

Thank you, any information is much appreaciated

 

[afishdude]

If you live in a place that freezes in the winter, your concrete will crack.

Do not use cheap liner. Its a pain in the bum to replace liner every year.

 

[chr15_8]

I will post in more detail tommorow but here a few answers to your questions.

1. What is the best type of brick to use?
Concrete 7n blocks.

2. What should the dimensions be?
How big is the space you have avalable. Have a minimum detph of 4 1/2 ft. if i was to re build i would go for 5ft+

3. Is there anything that I can use instead of liner?
Most Koi ponds are fiberglassed. Some use Pond paint but they normally always fail after a few years. We painted ours and we need to redo it and will be getting fiberglassed.

If fiberglass is out of the price range then i would go with a box weld liner.

5. Is there anything special I need to do to install a filter, other than the electrical buisness, because I have seen pictures of people putting a large drain pipe
type thing in the bottom of the pond?
Most koi ponds are gravity feed. this means a bottom drain with a 4 inch pipe going to the filters. If you want to do it proberly install an aireated bottom drain.

6. Would I need an airstone in their if I had the filter, the pump acting as a small fountain, and plants in the water?
You could have a fountin if you want to. I personally wouldnt put plants in a most my koi would dimolish then withen minites.

The recommend air is around 40lpm.

 

[Kaush]

I have a fair amount of space available, but my parents dont want the whole garden beong used up. I would say an area of about 8ft square is available. I think I will stick with the liner as I am on a budget. Do I have to go with the gravity fed filter, or can I just install the filter normally and have it sitting on the side or buried in the ground? I live in south london, so will concrete be ok or will it crack?

 

[chr15_8]

Well tbh with that space i wouldn't go for koi. my filters on my 'small' 2000 gallon koi pond take up about 9ft by 2ft. leaving you with a max space of 6ft x 8ft internal dimensions would be just over 4 1/2 ft by 6 1/2 ft.

If you go semi raised (half in the ground half out) you would need to dig about 3ft in ground and about 2ft brickwork outside the pond. giving you just over 4ft + the concrete base.

no concrete wont crack if you get the correct mix and using reinforcing bars.

Yes you can use pump but i will never ever use pump feed again. Our goldfish pond in pump feed and koi pond is gravity. There is no mess at all on the koi pond yet the goldfish pond needs hoovering every 2 weeks.

The filter i believe you are talking about wont be suitable for a koi pond. Im sure a few will say they are and that they use them but all proper koi pond wont use them.

I planned a 4500 gallons koi pond which came to well over £3000. Im 19 and my mum and dad wouldn't let me convert the goldfish pond. so for a fraction of the cost im building my marine tank.

chris

ps if you used the above measuerments x 5 ft deep it would give you just under 1000 gallons, meaning you could have 4 koi at a push

 

[Kaush]

Thanks for the info, I think I will be keeping goldfish and other smaller species instead. At the moment I have a few goldies, orfes and 2 ghost carp in a smaller pond and I know how big they get, so I think I will build a pond for them and maybe have on or two koi in a few years. What kind of measurements would be good for goldies, orfes and ghost carp, because I know the ghost carp get big.

Good luck with the marine, I started a reef about a year ago, and trust me it gets very addictive, and the costs soon build up....

 

[chr15_8]

cheers good luck with your pond.

the bigger the better. i still wouldnt put koi in it tbh, as you said you already have a few ghosts and orfe.

the cost of having a marine tank after its up and running including the electric is nothing compared to the food bill for the koi.

 

[shahrezsyed]

thats not true i made a 110 gallon reef tank and it cost me 5000 dollars
shahrez