The construction of my koipond
Well finally the time has come. I will be making my new pond this year and I am planning to keep a record on the internet for other koihobbyists to see how it progresses.. On the prior page you could see my old pond. Down here is a picture of the plan I made for my new pond. The dimensions will be 290cm long 260 cm wide and 210cm deep approximately 16 m3 of water and the filter I am building my self. I have a nitritech vortex with 400 liters and three PE reservoirs of 300 liters each. the complete filter line will contain around 1350 liters. The vortex will contain brushes to remove extra debris. all three reservoirs will be filled with Japanese mats and a high blow 40 will add the necessary oxygen to the filter
From here on I will be keeping you informed about the progress of the pond and it will be illustrated with pictures. Also the bloopers will be included.!!!!!!!! so I hope you will be returning here often to see how things are developing.
MOVING MY FISH.
Before I could start with my new pond I had to fill up my old pond cause I need the space for materials etc . So I started making a big container with a capacity of 3000 liters with the dimensions 244cm * 122 cm *122 cm but the water will be 100cm high inside the container and placed it in the garden of my mother.
On a sunny Saturday a friend of mine would come over to help transporting my fish to their temporary environment. As I started out I came to a horrible conclusion. My ginrin-chagoi jumped out of the pond and was dead. ON THE DAY THAT I WOULD MOVE THE FISH. great way to start your day. The transportation went without any problems and within one hour the fish were feeling fine and swimming relaxed in their new home. With the fish I transported also about 1000 liter of water out of my old pond to mix with the 1000 liter new water.
The day after it started freezing at night and the next day I took the plastic I used for the tent in the winter to cover up the reservoir so the temperatures would not fluctuate to much
Now my nine koi are swimming in their new home where I attached the old filter I used of 250 liters and keep my fingers crossed that everything will work out fine.
MAKE THE OLD POND DISAPPEAR.
Now my old pond had to be filled up again with soil again, but that was not a problem .
DIGGING THE POND.
So after some digging, replacing stones I already had and removing a terrace I finally was able to taken some wood and a measure and start with work out the contours of what would become my new pond. Decide how high I would make the pond, I choose to let the pond raise out of the ground for 40 cm the originally planed 60 cm was really to high and made my garden look very small.
I wanted to spare my back and decided a little bulldozer would do the excavation work and we only had to move the soil with wheel barrows from the back of my garden to big containers which where in front of my house in the street. But we managed to excavate 18 cubic meters of soil, believe me , you still feel your back even when you don't do the digging yourself.
Finally the pond was taking shape and we worked very hard an after exactly 4 hours everything was ready and we reached the dept of 1.60 meter. A big hole in the ground was realized and we were very relieved when we could stop working. So this is how it looks after a hard days work
So the next step is building the walls of the pond and placing the bottom drain. But before we can do that I have to get the stones over here which is again a tough job, but I am not scared of those.
After we brought 420 concrete bricks into my backyard we started with digging for a concrete base for the walls and we placed the bottom drain. We used a wide turn from the drain to the filter to make sure there would be minimal loss of capacity. The drain was placed and we began puzzling and making all the required measures for building. The first row was placed in the concrete after we made sure everything was leveled horizontal. Slowly we started cause I never built walls before and when you have to make your own concrete in between ( imagine climbing in and out of the pond lots and lots of time) it takes a bit more time.
And of course it started raining, but even rain can't stop me lol. After two evenings I already had the fourth row in place. And so far I am very satisfied with the result.
Because I simply can't work with gloves my fingers were a little sore from working with cement and it was really raining hard I checked my fish in their tank. Although my mother checks them every day I try to check them myself every two days. But everything was fine, water quality was ok and the fish were swimming relaxed.
Slowly but steadily I am making progress, just 1 layer remaining and I have reached the desired height. When the pond is finished I will continue with the filter space. So far no problems, but it will be a great pond
Yes the walls of the pond are ready and the holes for the returns are made. Now I have to put in the skimmer and then I can start with the walls for the filter room. Finally, the first stage has been reached!!! The measurements of the ponds are finally 2,55 mtr by 2,45 mtr and 1.90 mtr deep.
Well because of the improved weather and the first week of my vacation I could make quite an improvement. I placed the skimmer for the second time cause the first time I wanted to do it in between things and I made the wrong mixture of cement and as we all know that doesn't work )and started with digging out the last bit for the filter room. Now that everything was excavated I could start with making the walls for the filter room and as you can see with one last row to go, the heavy physical labor has almost reached the end. Probably next Saturday the pond liner will be fitted into the pond. So my schedule is still intact hahahahahaha. Then the finer things, the details, will have its turn.
I had already 15 cm of water in my pond because of all the rain came down, so I placed a pomp in the bottom drain and pumped most of it out, but there was still some water and sludge on the bottom , so I cleaned it out and made a tent over it so the bottom stays dry cause the next step is gluing the Styrofoam to the walls and make flatten the bottom and placing a thin concrete floor. In Holland we have a saying that says " bezint eer ge begint" that means something like "before u start be aware of what u are going to do" well if you look at this picture u can see my tent and the mess I made of my garden. So u know what I mean.
Well the Styrofoam has been glued to the walls and it went very well. I did it to have nice flat walls and a little isolation. With a hairdryer I made the places where the returns came a little weak and so the returns sinked into the Styrofoam.
And then it finally was time that the pond liner could be fitted into the pond. The company I chose came by and fitted the liner. And they did a good job cause there are no folds in the liner and I placed the ring of the bottom drain myself after filling the pond with some water and the liner settled into place. Then pumping the water out, drying everything up an place the ring with some kit. So a new stage in my project has been reached. Probably next week a professional will make lay the bricks for the wall around the pond and I guess it will have a totally different look when that has been done and the garden is cleaned up a little. As you can see on the picture the return is made around the pond and will be invisible once the wall is made around the pond. In here I will also place isolation material. But as you probably now right now I will keep you informed about the progress.
Well I haven taken a step forward again. All the bricklaying has been finished. Last week I placed the last row upon the wall of the filter room and today the wall around the pond was finished. Well I have to say it immediately looked a lot better. Slowly but steadily we are reaching the end of this project. I guess that it will take about two or three weeks to finish it. All I have to do is finish the filter and placing the bankirai top on the filter room and on top of the walls of the pond. Then the garden has its turn and new lawn will be made with grass rolls, because then my children can play on the lawn and if it gets warmer a little swimming pool can be placed on the lawn. Also a steel net will be placed over the pond for the safety of my two little children. Down here a picture of how the situation is right now
Now the heavy part is done, the smaller thing have its turn, finally I made all the preparations for the filter and glued some thing together. But most of the piping is with sockets, incase u want to change anything it is very easy to take the units form each other. For the connection of the filter units I used 110 mm piping and for the piping from the filter to the pumps and returns to the pond I used 50 mm After an evening work everything was assembled and ready to ROCK!!!
Also the piping in the filter room had been finished and I placed both pumps and UV clarifier between valves, so in case one breaks down the system can still function on half power and the broken item can be replaced easily. 2 aquamax 5500 take care for the circulation and a TMC pro-clear 30 watt UV clarifier should keep my pond clear.
I assembled all units in the filter room and fixed the piping of the filter to the piping of the pumps. Then the hose was placed in the vortex and I started filling the filter. And it was nightmare.......... the first barrel had a leak and the water dripped out in a rather fast rhythm. Probably I did not use enough glue and the connection was not waterproof So all the water had to be pumped out and the leak had to be repaired.
After a few attempts the leak was closed and I filled all the barrels and YESSSSS. A song called "this is the moment" echoed through my head as I held the plugs for the pumps in my hand. I connected the plugs and it worked , after the air was blown out of the system the pumps worked perfectly with a little noise. Down here U can also C the cartridges I made of the Japanese mats. Then I connected the air pump and placed the air stones between the mats. I added some PSB, NITREX and bio accelerator to the system to start op the filter.
Then the electrical part, I made a box in which I placed two 3-blocks and made two separate groups. One which has control over Pump nr 1 , the UV clarifier and the air pump. The second one is for Pump nr 2 and in future pump nr 3 for the skimmer. One socket is free for some electrical equipment in case I want to change or make things in there. Also a switch will be added for the light in the filter room. It was very cheap cause I went to a woodshop and asked if they had any remains of waterproof wood there, and they also sawed the pieces to the size in needed.
Now the garden is taking shape again ( as u can see the garden has been ploughed ), my wife starts to get the hang of it and likes to feed the koi. Especially now they are eager to eat and come to the surface right away. The grass mats will be here next week so then the garden will look totally different.
Actually the idea was that the grass was to be delivered this week , but something went wrong and I bought the bankirai to use as panels on top of the walls. It really changes the sight immediately.
YESSSSSSS!!!!! After 3 months I have a garden again!!!!!. The grass mats were delivered today and I placed them in my garden right away. It was raining a bit, so better weather for this job I could not imagine. And after 1 hour of laying these mats my garden was ready.
Well, here is blooper 2 in this story!!!!!!. I was finishing of the edge of the pond with bankirai when I realized that there was no ventilation through the walls of the pond. So a few holes had to be drilled through the outer wall. First hole no problem , second hole........ I drilled the hole and pulled out the drill and water pored out of the hole." Well maybe there was some water in between walls because of the heavy rain" was my first thought. "MMM still a lot of water, the drill is shorter then the two walls but carefully I looked over the edge into the pond to see if I drilled through, Almost impossible". SHIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTT was my third though I drilled through one of the returns. ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! Quickly I shut down the pumps and closed the valves and put a stop in the return in the pond. Than I pumped the pond empty till the water level was under the return and I could fix the problem. How did I fix it? Well actually very simple my returns are 50 mm PVC, so I took a piece of 50 mm pipe and 5 cm long and sawed a quarter off so I got a kind of clip. Then I put glue on the return and inside the 50 mm clip and clipped it over the 50 pipe. This works perfectly and because you have to clip it over a 50 mm pipe this really holds on with much force.
I made a kind of roof construction on top of the filters because I would place a bankirai platform on it in which I would make shutters to get entrance to the filter room.
Down here u can see that the platform is finished, looks sharp doesn't it!!!!
And here is the final stadium of the pond. it took me 3,5 months to create it and redo the entire garden. As U can see we bought some plants for decoration and we put grit in the space behind the pond and put some lower plants in it. One plant we couldn't find so far and that is a dark red Acer Palmatum, so probably we have to wait till next season. Also u can see clearly that I placed a net on top of the pond to make absolutely sure that my two little kids can not fall into the pond, cause if they would they would drown for sure. It is netting that is normally used to place in concrete. I painted it and placed a steel supporting beam underneath it. It is not that beautiful, but absolutely safe, that's for sure.
Soon the plants will be placed in big holders and the Acer will be put on its reserved spot and some decoration concerning koi will be added. That picture will be placed on the result page . But for now this is what became of project " builing a koipond"
Thanks for visiting my page and I hope I inspired or helped other koihobbyists with building their pond or gave them ideas to use in their own project. If u have any questions about how I did things or just want an opinion, feel free to e-mail me.
Richard Bos Rich-San.Bos@zonnet.nl