Building your Own Koi Pond

Building your Own Koi Pond

 

Koi are lovely fish that need a very specific habitat in which to live and thrive.  You will want to provide your koi with the best possible environment.  This article assumes that you know what you want your pond to look like and how large your Pond Fountains will be.  Optimal pond placement is another issue.  The site you choose is important for both ambiance and ease of care.  A koi pond, in other words, is not a landscaping feature that you look at from afar.  This type of feature should be placed as close to the house as possible so that you can enjoy your pond at all times.  In addition, the closer the pond is to your home, the more likely you are to pay daily attention to the health of the pond.

The size of your koi pond depends on your budget and how much area you have to devote to your pond.  The smallest pond should not be less than about seven feet by eight feet and should be no shallower than four feet. A pond this size will take approximately 1500 gallons of water.  Koi grow fairly large if they are happily maintained and once you have koi, you will want more koi.  Therefore, the larger you can make your pond initially, the better.  Large ponds do not take much more time or maintenance than small ponds, so this is not an issue.  The issue almost always resides in the initial outlay of funds and area.  The key is to make the pond large enough to hold the number of fish you want and small enough to be able to enjoy them.

The next consideration is your bottom drain.  The question should never be ‘Should I have a bottom drain?’ but whether ‘How many bottom drains do I need and where should I place them?’  A bottom drain is necessary in order for the filter to rid the pond water continuously of fish waste and other organic material.  Be sure to have at least one gravity filter bottom drain in your pond at the lowest points so that even in the winter when your fish hang out at the bottom of the pond, the water they live in will be constantly filtered and clean.

Your filter will determine how healthy your koi are.  This makes sense.  If we live in a polluted environment, we get sick.  If koi are forced to live in their own waste and an algae-filled environment where the water does not have a lot of dissolved oxygen, they will likely not survive long.  Therefore, you must put a good deal of consideration into the choice of a filtration system including a pre-filter if needed and the quality of the pump.  Just like in a household aquarium, the filtration system in your Koi Pond Kits will act first and foremost as a mechanical filter to filter out debris and then as a biological filter.  Once your biological filter is established, your koi pond will be much easier to maintain.

The bottom line when building a koi pond is to think before acting.  Be sure to purchase quality equipment – it will save you money in the future.

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