|
Building a Koi Pond (Page 4 of 4)
<Back to Page 1
of KOI POND BUILDING>
<Back to Page 2
of KOI POND BUILDING>
<Back to Page 3
of KOI POND BUILDING>
Decide if you want a raised
pond or one that's below ground level. Raised ponds are more
sensitive to temperature fluctuations and can be more difficult to
landscape, but they offer the following benefits: 1)
convenient cleaning and draining; 2) protection of the pond from
wind-blown debris and litter on the ground; 3) protection of the
pond from flooding.
When constructing the pond,
bear in mind the following guidelines:
1) It is better to have
vertical walls for smaller ponds in order to promote equal
distribution of temperature in the water. Larger ponds can
have sloping walls.
2) You may want to
provide shelves at the edge of the pond if you're planning to have
plants
in your pond. Shelves are used for supporting aquatic baskets
where the plants are planted. Shelves are usually placed 12 or
more inches below the water level, and can be used as a step when
cleaning your pond. They can also be used by animals
accidentally falling into the water to escape. Unfortunately,
they can also be used by predators for convenience when hunting your
koi. Decide if you want shelves in your pond or not.
Figure 5. Shelves
are good for supporting plants,
but they can support predators
as well. Decide if
you want to have them.
3) Be sure that the top
surface of the outline of your pond are at the same level all around
the pond. You need a level hose to make sure of this, since
merely looking at the pond will not work. You don't want to
see the water level visually dropping off from one end of the pond
to the other just because the outline of the pond is sloping.
4) Install a center drain at the pond bottom and make
the entire floor surface slope towards this drain. Your filtration
system will extract pond water for filtration from this drain.
5) Make your pond
cleaning-friendly. Check if you can easily net debris out of
your pond from various points on the bottom.
Filtration
The time to design your filter
system is while
you're designing your pond.
Designing it as an after-thought can be expensive and may even limit
the effectiveness of your filters. Filtration can be tricky,
so try to get familiar with
filtration basics before
even starting the construction of your pond. For example,
filters should be as large as possible in relation to the pond size,
and should not be less than 10% of the pond in water volume.
Also, the water transfer rate of the filter must be high enough to
impel the entire pond volume within one hour. Furthermore,
filters must consist of two or more stages, and should be capable of
both mechanical and biological filtration. For more information on
proper water filtration, see the article
'The Basics of Koi Pond Filtration'.
Conclusion
Building a koi pond is not
easy, but the rewards of having a well-constructed koi pond are
immeasurable. As in any endeavor, success in building a koi
pond depends on careful planning and execution.
<Back to Page 1
of KOI POND BUILDING>
<Back to Page 2
of KOI POND BUILDING>
<Back to Page 3
of KOI POND BUILDING>
|
|
|
Check out these
excellent
books on this subject: |
 |
 |
|
HOME
|
