“I made up my mind, I want a koi pond and I want
it now”
If this sounds familiar, don’t be shame, you are not the first and won’t be the last, so sit down
and at least read this news letter, before you dig up the garden.
When you build or plan to build a koi pond there is three steps that you need to consider
before you start.
Planning and Preparation.
Where the pond should be is very important as this will affect the size of the pond as
there might be pipes, rocks or even roots underground that can’t be moved or moved
at great expense trees nearby will also make a spot ideal or not as there leaves will
hamper the filtration on the pond and in some cases fruit or berries can even be
poisonous for koi and the type of filter system
Size and dimensions of a koi pond will directly influence the health and growth of the
koi especially the depth of a koi pond because this is where the koi get there exercise
and should be at least 1.2 to 1.5 meters and even deeper but going deeper will only
benefit the koi and not you as fewer of the koi as they will be down there and you up
here. If you use the depth of 1.5m and make the pond 2m wide and 3m long you will
have a pond of about 9m³ or 9000Lt wish is a good start. Always remember the size
of the pond will affect your building, medication and filtration cost of the pond so
bigger isn’t always better, and if you can’t handle the cost the pond will only end up
being a problem for you and give you no joy. Lastly the size of the pond will not
determent the size of the koi, they will stil grow in a small pond but just slower than a
koi in a bigger pond and then again there is so many factors regarding koi growth
that the size of the koi should not be your only reason why you want a big pond.
What type of filtration and where it will go, well this is a subject that is very debatable,
there are so many factors that will affect the outcome that it is very difficult to discuss
this, the most important fact is that the filtration system needs to do you pumping of
water, mechanical filtration and biological filtration and not just give you clear water
but clean water for your koi to live in. The size of the pond or rather the volume of the
pond will mainly decide the type and size of the filtration system of the pond it will
also dictate the number of koi in the pond. For me the biggest factor is the ease of
cleaning your filtration system as in the days we live in we don’t always have the time
to clean the filtration system every weak and sooner or later you miss a maintenance
day and your koi ends up paying for it, even if you bought the best and biggest filter
system on the market and you don’t clean it, it won’t help you nothing as the waste
filtered out of you pond ends up in it and still stays in the water system of your pond.
Therefore the time and effort it takes to clean you filter system is for me a big factor
in choosing the type and size of the filtration system that you will decide on at the end
of the day.
In the next newsletter I will discuss the design of a koi pond with all the factors that you
need to look at when designing you koi pond.