How to choose your Koi Pond
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It is important to remember that a koi pond was made to showcase and be the home of healthy koi but will require the minimum of effort to keep up. A koi pond should be devoted to the koi which should openly display them to onlookers without distraction.
Koi can grow to huge lengths (mature ones can measure up to 30 inches) so bear this in mind when designing koi ponds. Though some owners house their koi in small shallow ponds, the best koi ponds are large enough to show off the koi at their best. This means the pond should be rectangular and has to be able to hold a minimum of 5,000 gallons. Your pond could measure 12 feet in width by 15 feet in length, at an average of four feet in depth. However, if the space you have in mind is narrow, your pond could measure 8 feet by 22 feet at a depth of 4 feet – this gives you around the same water volume. (Use the formula length X width x depth x 7.5 to get the amount of gallons your pond would contain.)
For moderate climates, the depth of the pond should be at least 3 feet tapering to 4 – 6 feet at the deep end. The bottom of the pond ought to slope towards the bottom drains at the rate of 1 – 2 inches per linear foot.
You will find that it is hard to capture your fish if your pond measures more than 12 feet wide – and you will definitely need to catch the koi sometime. If your pond measures 12 feet wide, there ought to be 2 bottom drains installed at the deep end that are 4 feet from each other and from the pond sides. It is a fact that bottom drains can suck in water and debris from only around 4 feet away.
Try not to have dead water spots that are common to odd-shaped ponds. You need to draw in the whole volume of your pond into the filter system every 1 to 2 hours. Larger ponds may need around 2 hours and smaller ponds need around once every hour. Your main goal with a koi pond is to maintain water that is as clean, clear and healthy as you can keep it. A waterfall through which water returns to the pond has to be situated at the shallow end, while a surface skimmer and bottom drains have to be located at the deeper end of the pond. More water returns that are jets should lie just below the surface to force the water to mix and rotate while pushing the current towards the bottom drains and skimmer. The current also allows your koi fish to exercise and promotes their growth and health.
A round pond needs bigger total space while holding equivalent water volume, yet it is the easiest to maintain. This is because water jets make the water rotate around the pond with waste forced into the middle of the pond where a bottom drain can suck it away. However, you may find it more difficult to capture koi from a round pond. (To calculate the volume of a round pond, use the formula: diameter x diameter x depth x 5.9. This will give you the total amount of water in gallons.)
A round pond will require a larger overall space to hold the same water volume. However, a round pond can be the easiest to maintain. Water jets can rotate the water around the pond and help push waste towards the middle of the pond where it can be sucked down a bottom drain. It will be quite a bit harder to catch your fish in a round pond. The formula for calculating the volume of a round pond is diameter X diameter X depth X 5.9 = gallons. A fifteen-foot round pond averaging four feet deep would have a capacity of about 5,300 gallons.
Very clear water will allow you and your visitors to enjoy watching your koi. The pond thus has to be shaded so that there will be less algae growing in the water – this plankton will make the water green and cloudy under excess sunlight. But remember, DO NOT PUT YOUR POND UNDER A TREE since this will let debris like leaves and twigs fall into your pond, making it harder to clean. There are also plants and trees that are poisonous to fish so do not put any pants near your pond that you are not sure of. Avoid installing a sizeable waterfall which would disturb the smooth surface of the water – a mirror-like surface is best for fish watching. It is also advisable not to place plants within the koi pond.
You might find it objectionable not to place water plants within your pond since some people like to imagine koi swimming among water plants. But the koi are known to remove soil from the planting pots, turning the water murky. Trying to safeguard the plants with netting only allows the fish to get scratched by the netting, or entangled by it as they attempt to reach the soil.
If you insist on plants, you might want to have a second pond or an upper level so that your water plants are kept separate from the fish. Or else, install landscaping surrounding the pond. You could also set up some water tub gardens beside your koi pond.
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