Concrete/Fibreglass Pond

[Patho]

Hi all,

I recently inherited some Koi and now my original pond won't be big enough for them all to grow, now have 11 Koi and 10 Comets in same pond which is 11' * 6' * 3' The Koi are still relatively small but I want to get the new pond built through the winter whilst the fish are less active. I have looked at some sites for tips and ideas but to be honest whilst I am more than happy to dig out the new pond and do most of the prep work I am dubious about either the rendering or definately the fibeglassing. I am really struggling to find anyone local (Esher in Surrey) to quote to build the new one. So I would like either some tips to complete the job myself or recomendations of anyone who can do it. The new pond will be approx 18' * 10' * 6' deep - 3' below ground 3' above.

 

[Jasonb]

I've fibreglassed about 4 ponds, its not too hard but you need to make sure you do it the right way and use the correct materials to ensure a propper cure of the fibreglass.

The ideal way is :

Line excavation with heavy polythene to keep ground water out
Pour slab
Start to build up walls from 100mm dense conc blocks laid flat
set bottom brans and slope base to drains
Complete walls
Render
Allow to dryout (cant fibreglass a wet structure)
Then fibreglass as described here Good company to use for materials.

This is quite a good diary of a pond build and you may want to look at some of the koi forums such as this

This album has a few shots of my own pond under construction

Jason

 

[Patho]

Thanks Jason, have had a quick look at those links and I think Ill be reading for about a month Because I originally only had 4 * 4" Koi and comets in a connecting garden pond I was only using a standard 18000L filter so now I am having to get all the proper filters etc, I think these 7 Koi are going to cost me a fortune, why didn't I just say no!

 

[breezer]

if you really want to say no, now is the time to do it.
as you are now seeing koi will cost you a small fortune and always will.
oh, and koi dont taste nice

 

[Patho]

Had a rep come around yesterday and he said that bottom drains are inefficient and I'd be better off with a pump fed system, this contradicts most of what I have read. Also in regard to filter systems, it appears that everyone has their favourites, some say Cloverleaf others say Nexus and this guy said neither of those he'd supply a fibreglass filter as the other two are pretty poor filters.

All seems very confusing and the trouble is, is that I can't really design the pond until I know what filter to go for as they are all different sizes and shapes.

 

[breezer]

get different guy in then.

Bottom drains are the best, think about it. How would your bath empty with out a plug hole?

The idea of a bottom drain is like a plug hole, all water and fish waste gets pulled down it because the bottom slopes slightly towards it. It does this because it is connected to a main tank (usualy a round one called a vortex you can guess why) and water then runs into a set of other filter chambers each with its own media.

The water moves because the last chamber has a pump, which pumps water via a UV back to the pond. But since it is pumping water out it has to be replaced by water from somewhere, so water is pulled in through all the other chambers and the bottom drain.

If you do it the other way, and put a pump in the pond and pump the water through the filters you will end up with the pump sitting in a pile of stuff that it can not pump i.e leaves, sludge etc, then it pumps slower than it did at first.

There are slight variations but that is it in principal.

Most koi owners will also not buy any filters at all, but make their own (they will buy the media) most taht do (not all) it is an extension of the pond and like the pond made from blockwork that is then fibrglassed.

Either way it is going to cost thousands, and i do mean thousands to create a koi pond from scratch .

If it were me (and it isnt) I would not do it.

If you are going to have koi then they need looking after, to do that it is not cheap, but do do it right first time.

look at the link given (in particular the diary one) look at what he ended up with, and what he started with. koi keepers are never happy and always want it bigger, but look wha it must have cost, and that was back in 2004.

 

[pondy]

Had a rep come around yesterday and he said that bottom drains are inefficient and I'd be better off with a pump fed system

You need to speak to someone else then as this guy obviously doesn't know what he's talking about!

As has already been said though, building a proper koi pond isn't cheap so make sure you do your research first, best bet is to find a dealer you trust and follow their advice.

As for fibre glassing, tried it myself and whilst it's not rocket science, it is a lot of hard work and not as easy as it looks. I used koi pond fibre glassing for the last one and he did it in half the time it took me to do my smaller one and the cost wasn't a great deal more than the materials had cost me previously, I'd get a pro in every time.

 

[Jasonb]

Missed those last couple of posts.

Gravity feed to filters by bottom drains is best, if you pump feed the filters its like puting all the fish s**t into a liquidizer and then trying to strain it all out. With gravity feed all the "solids" settle into the vortex and can be easily flushed away with the loss of very little water.

I you want to do some back grond reading then get a copy of "Koi Kichi" and "Ko Kichi II" The first as the better section on pond buildin but being 10yrs old is now a litle out of date, VolII has the more upto date filtering (Nexus) etc but here is a lot on koi varieties/bloodlines.

Also worth havn a look at a few of the New Vision vdeos on koi pnds & pond construction. You could also see if there is a local section of the BKKS (British Koi Keepers Soc) near you, the members will ive you good advice without tring to sel you heir product.

Jason