Simply Koi and More Koi

Hi Jon

Your new pond build sounds exciting and I am sure with people like Gazza on the case you will more than happy with the pond you end up with. May I make one suggestion though, you sound like you have a fair amount of space to play with, would it be possible to have a shed like building which could house a q/t and or a growing on system. I say this for one reason, if you have a koi who is poorly it is always better to be able to get it into a q/t this would make any medication a lot cheaper. There are some great posts on here with home built q/ts and g/o systems and Gazza had a post recently about g/o ponds which made great reading.
By the sound of your post you have already been bitten by the koi bug and it wll be with you for life and the welfare of your koi seems to be most important.
I hope you don't mind me making these suggestions but you sound like you want to do it right and I wish all the best in reaching your dream.

Hi Kim

Your spot on! I've had the current pond for 2 years and it's only through reading here and a couple of other sites that I've realised a QT is essential. Also, the experience of one outbreak of something nasty (lice) made things look very different. It's not just the cost of medication, it's the stress on the whole herd (and me) when having to regularly pull out individuals with secondaries to treat topically that bothers me.
I've bought a 300 gal fibreglass hospital tank (got it 2ndhand for £150) and hope to set it up in the next few weeks. Of course, I'm now wondering if 300 gals is enough. Most of my fish are pretty small at present and I prefer growing on so quarantining shouldn't be a problem for the forseeable. It's more if a 16"+ fish needs separate treatment. I suppose I could get away with it if my filtration is good enough.

Slightly longer term I could build a bigger (1000 gals?) block built growing on tank - I've got a 52'x20' cowshed that isn't doing very much. I briefly toyed with building my new pond in there but this particularly madness passed quite quickly (I'd seen a dealers pond in an industrial unit which was built up to a depth of 8' with stairs to a viewing platform).
Of course the great leveller in all this will be dosh. Through exchanging texts with Gazza and talking to a few others I'm pretty convinced that I would be more sensible to go for something smaller than my original plan of 10K gals and spend more on providing the best possible water quality.

My biggest problem now is how on earth I'm going to create a plan; I've got the drawing age of a 5 year old and the CAD packages I've looked at require a PhD in "Zen and the art of infinite patience".

Regards

Jon W.

Hi Jon

As to how you start to draw your pond I started with a piece of paper and a pencil then if you don't like something you can just erase it and star again. My first drawing included a window but that soon got rubbed out as there was no way on earth I would be able to fit a window then a very lovely man from this forum took over the build for me of which I was so grateful and low and behold I got a window. Due to my personal circumstances I didn't go very deep only 5ft, but the idea is to draw what you think you would like an take it from there.

You menionted a cow shed, what is the reason you can not build in there? The reason I ask is that as you want to heat surely building the pond inside a structure that is already standing would be ideal, but as I am not a builder then I can only ask as to why you changed your mind, it may be a cow shed at the moment but the thought of it becoming a koi house sounds very nice indeed. What a lot of people are doing now is to build a pergola around the pond and then fit polycarb sheeting to the sides and roof which helps to keep the temps up during winter.

The way you are planning your pond is the best way get it right before you start and there are plenty of people here who are only to willing to help with advice.

Sounds like you thinking it out and gradually making a plan Jon which is defiantly the correct way to go about things

Nice size pond with top filtration and good turnover rate and a smaller system for growing on/QT what more could you want

So from Sarf London to Wales thats a fair old move are you missing it yet

Hi Kim

I've tried the paper and pencil route. Oh dear! If I'd use something particularly disgusting as a drawing medium I might make it into Tate Modern. But, you'd never guess I it was supposed to resemble any sort of structure let alone a pond. Maybe I should try an Etch-a-Sketch! What I really want is some sort of artists impression of how I would like the pond and surrounding landscaping to look, then develop proper technical drawings. Maybe practice will make perfect.

The reason I rejected the cowshed is on aesthetic grounds. I know that I could achieve a more economic and biologically stable environment this way. However, I can't imagine the missus and friends sitting in there admiring the pond whilst my neighbour castrates 30 bullocks in the yard next door! Also I want my pond to have some "soul". Apart from some of the American money no object mini Eden Projects ( 20K+ gals pond and half the Amazonian jungle complete with parrots and poison arrow frogs!) most of the indoor facilities I've seen resemble look rather clinical. There are a lot of ponds on this site which I admire and I will try to take the features I like best and put together a design that way.

I have thought about insulating the pergola on the current pond. Unfortunately we get very strong winds during the winter and the only thing I've seen that might withstand it is a Keda House (v. strong bubble wrap polytunnel) which woudl weigh in at £8-10K. So unless someone with a pond in the Outer Hebrides has a better solution I think I'll be making a frame and polycarb cover to be going on with.

I'll probably drive everybody potty with questions in trying to finalise the new build. Hopefully I can return the favour by providing some entertainment during the build as I lurch from one crisis to another as it continually threatens to go t*ts up and pear shaped!

Regards

Jon W.

Hi Gazza

It's amazing how conversing with others on the subject has made me review and re-scale my plans so quickly. I definitely think it's a case of having to wind one's neck in and deal with the practicalities of providing an optimum environment for the little devils. I'm sort of cherry picking ideas from the ponds I see and admire here and on other sites, then will put it all together.

Funnily enough I do miss a lot about Sarf London. Decent Chinese food, jellied eels, going down the local boozer with me mates, Downham angling coarse fishing matches, etc

What I don't miss is dodging the bullets as gentlemen representing local pharmeceutical corporations discuss suitable retail sites, wondering whether I'm going to be mugged by the next group of 12-year olds I see hanging about, and taking an hour to get from New Cross to Lewisham by car (a 20 minute walk, if you're still alive).

Regards


Jon W.

Hi Jon,

I just love the way you sum things up

What I don't miss is dodging the bullets as gentlemen representing local pharmeceutical corporations discuss suitable retail sites, wondering whether I'm going to be mugged by the next group of 12-year olds I see hanging about, and taking an hour to get from New Cross to Lewisham by car (a 20 minute walk, if you're still alive).