my Zen Water Garden and Koi Pond

[kien]

It probably doesn't look all that different but believe me, there is a mountain of dirt and clay in my back yard that says otherwise!



I was going to extend the length by 2 feet but after a day of digging I decided, eff that!! My back is killing me! Man I hate clay.



I did manage to complete all of my other goals though. The ledges have been completely re-cut and the space is better utilized. It is also 6" deeper right in the middle where it gradually slopes down.



Tomorrow I hope to drop down the new liner and start filling her up.

Have I mentioned that digging clay sucks goat nads?!

[Dez]

Nice Kien. I'm debating renovating my front pond this year, but dread digging. I got my backyard pond up and running last weekend. I lost a few fish over the winter , but 35 of them survived. I found a baby that survived too!

I say you keep digging that 2 feet in length. It'll be worth it in the end.

[kien]

Originally Posted by Dez

Nice Kien. I'm debating renovating my front pond this year, but dread digging. I got my backyard pond up and running last weekend. I lost a few fish over the winter , but 35 of them survived. I found a baby that survived too!

I say you keep digging that 2 feet in length. It'll be worth it in the end.

35?! Wow you have a lot of fish. I suppose you have the room for them. I've been pretty lucky. Over three winters outside and I've only lost two. No losses this past winter. Last summer I did something different and that was to feed them more! 4 times a day with an auto-feeder. They got really fat LOL. Some are just simply too weak to withstand winter and you kinda have to accept that if you over winter outside.

Did I mention I hate digging?! I got to a point where my right forearm started to spasm and the muscle seized haha. Had to rest and massage it to loosen it up before I could continue. Ya, I have a desk job and I'm weak :-(

[kien]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

The pond must have a closed loop I would imagine since you love them so much.

Yes, as a matter of fact it does!

Originally Posted by KevinK

if I se all this, I miss my baby's

before immigrating I left my 10.000 gal koi pond, with about 40 kois in the 24 to 34 inch range + some in the 10 to 15 range.

my dad whom is getting older cant keep up with them (as it was al mine) is pumping the pond as we speak.

trucks are coming next week to fill her up.

all fish are donated to a zoo, as no one wanted to spend a dollar on it, and now he at least gets some annual entrance passes for it.

to bad, but I do miss it.

I would do it over right away, but have to wait for the lotto, as I cant keep that size of fish in the open here, so thy have to be in a out house/ greenhouse, or in a sunroom

They are addictive as they do develop quite a personality. I love feeding them by hand and they are so majestic to watch swimming around in the pond. 10,000 gallons?! Oh man, that's some water volume. I don't think I could handle that volume. My tiny volume is just about right for me. It can be a bit of a chore, especially when you start battling algae.

[Dez]

What kind of auto feeder did you use? I only fed mine twice a day in the evening after work.

[Delphinus]

I hear you on the digging Kien. I don't think I'll ever put a pond in at my place as I remember every single minute of digging the post holes for the fence the tree holes.. I'm right over top of some rather interesting glacial sill, which is probably more rock than clay but definitely the right amount of both to make digging very difficult. For the fence, I ran out of steam for the post holes with only two terminal holes left, I hired a bobcat to do the two holes and he broke his auger. He tells me afterwards "I am soooo raising my minimum price for any of your neighbours who hire me."

Anyhow so how do you battle algae in these things?

What's a water change like? Do you pump the outgoing water onto the grass, or what do you do with it? Can you get in trouble if you just pump it into a swail or a storm sewer?

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

What's a water change like? Do you pump the outgoing water onto the grass, or what do you do with it? Can you get in trouble if you just pump it into a swail or a storm sewer?

I also wonder about peoples water changing regiments. Jared and I are going to be building a pond this spring, so i'm trying to plan before hand if I need some sort of a drain setup. Luckily I have a swail on the edge of my property right behind the pond, so drainage will be easy.

How often do you change water? Or do you even change water?

[kien]

Originally Posted by Dez

What kind of auto feeder did you use? I only fed mine twice a day in the evening after work.

When the pond started 7 years ago now I think, I only fed twice a day. Morning and evening because ya, those were the only times I was home! But everywhere I read says you should really be feeding them 3 to 4 times a day if you want them to put on some major weight. Especially if you plan to over winter outside in harsh climates. After using an auto-feeder on my Reef for a few years with great success I googled pond auto-feeders and found this:



It's called a fish mate p7000. I was going to order it online but then happend to find a bunch of them stocked at my local big box pet store! It has been a god send! The first few years the fish grew fine (or so I thought) but after a whole season with the auto-feeder, wow, growth was explosive! I have it programmed to feed 3 times a day while I'm at work but I will still feed them their 4th meal in the evenings myself. It's amazing their appetites! When I feed them in the evenings they act as if they haven't been fed all day!

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I hear you on the digging Kien. I don't think I'll ever put a pond in at my place as I remember every single minute of digging the post holes for the fence the tree holes.. I'm right over top of some rather interesting glacial sill, which is probably more rock than clay but definitely the right amount of both to make digging very difficult. For the fence, I ran out of steam for the post holes with only two terminal holes left, I hired a bobcat to do the two holes and he broke his auger. He tells me afterwards "I am soooo raising my minimum price for any of your neighbours who hire me."

Anyhow so how do you battle algae in these things?

What's a water change like? Do you pump the outgoing water onto the grass, or what do you do with it? Can you get in trouble if you just pump it into a swail or a storm sewer?

Ya, digging sucks. The area where the pond is for some reason is really rocky too. I have a mountain of bolders as well that I dug up. Today I noticed that I have wonderful blisters on my right hand When I first dug out the pond I had my dad helping me and we did it over the course of an entire week. I do recall it being back breaking labour then as well but at least we spread out the workload a bit. Still, digging sucks!

Originally Posted by FishyFishy!

I also wonder about peoples water changing regiments. Jared and I are going to be building a pond this spring, so i'm trying to plan before hand if I need some sort of a drain setup. Luckily I have a swail on the edge of my property right behind the pond, so drainage will be easy.

How often do you change water? Or do you even change water?

I have a swail that runs along the back edge of my property as well and that's where I typically drain the pond to. I honestly don't know if that's against bylaws. Maybe I should check LOL. I will often times drain the pond into the garden (flower beds, trees, vegetable garden, etc) as well. Pond water is wonderful for this.

Mike, I do not have a bottom drain but if you read on various pond/koi forums they will certainly always recommend you install a bottom drain into a new build. I thought about installing one in mine with the recent reno but honestly, 7 years running this pond and I never had major problems with sludge build up. Also, a lot of the sites that recommend the bottom drains are referring to people who live in much warmer climates. I fear the installation of a bottom drain in our climate because if a seal breaks down there, or if the pipe to the bottom drain cracks, you are SOL!! I would rather not risk that to be honest.

Previously I just sucked up the bottom of the pond with one of them laguna pond pumps but this year I'm going to do something slightly different. I'm going to build semi-bottom drain but with the plumbing in the pond and not under the pond in the ground. I am also building myself a new above ground filter system. Previously I just used an off the shelf powerfilter (laguna). It works, but I find it high maintenance to clean so often.

As for water changes, yes, every couple of weeks I do a 50% water changes. sometimes in the middle of summer because of the sun and algae I'll need to do a 50-75% every week! I've discovered the secret to keeping algae at bay though, and that is to grow floating plants like water hyacinth and water lettuce. Both will grow like weeds and out compete algae. My pond was so overgrown with floating plants I had to give and throw away bucket loads of them!

[FishyFishy!]

Good to know where to get some plants this summer then! haha.

I'm thinking of using a laguna pond pump that pumps up to a custom rubbermaid filter that spits it out onto a rock waterfall. I'll probably just T the piping so that it can pump right into my swail with the turn of a couple valves.

[Delphinus]

Well out of interest I started poking around the bylaws. Not surprisingly it's rather ambiguous...

Although not mentioned here in the FAQ:
http://www.calgary.ca/UEP/Water/Page...omeowners.aspx

The bylaw itself (http://www.calgary.ca/CA/city-clerks...5-Drainage.pdf) does seem to state that you can drain from a decorative pond so long as it is less than 3000 litres.

However, elsewhere, it mentions that a decorative pond is defined as "an artificial body of water for ornamental purposes but does not include fish ponds". But then.... nowhere does it say that fish ponds are allowed to be drained into a swale, but neither does it state "do not".

It does list that fish themselves can't be put into the drainage. But I can't find anything about water that has touched fish while in your custody.

Confused as ever as to whether the city feels they can fine you for draining a pond into the swales or not. I know they will gleefully fine you if you don't keep it clean enough or if you dare put anything close to it or over top of it. That's a rant for another day though.