Natural outdoor pond for Koi

[Paul Unland]

Hello Hung Tran;

>Hi all,
>I live in Houston Texas where the climate is mostly humid and temperature
>is high most of the time (80 to 90 degrees) and sometimes it will get below
>freezing for 3 or 4 days out of the year. I have a piece of land which I
>would like to dig a pond. My interest in Koi begin last year and since
>then I have been lurking around the web and learned many wonderful things
>about pond and koi. This outdoor pond will on a low land area with no
>shade,

This no Shade idea is not great, Koi can sun burn,,,Im going to put
80% green house sun screen over my pond....

the water will be port in from a well so I'm not worry about
>chlorine and other chemical additive. The pond will be approximately
>10,000 gals (20'X20'X4'). This pond of course will be stock with about 50
>koi of various types. The pond bottom will be dirt/clay (I remember that
>this is good for the Koi color).

Deeper may be best, unless you have no preditation...sides straight
down, no shallow slopes...

Re Clay...sounds good...if this it to be a "growing on pond" if its
for display and you want to see your Koi Ide think again. These
little buggers keep almost every thing in suspension, which is great
if you have a filter to catch it...other wize I dont think you will
ever see you fish except perhaps at feeding time...

There will be no pump to oxygenate the
>pond, and there will be no biofilter. I will put in a lot of ancharis and
>other aquatic plants to oxygenated the water and hopefully use up the mess
>that koi puts out.
>
>Do you think this will work w/o biofilter? What other aquatic plants do
>you recommend? Is 50 koi considered as over stocking for 10,000 gals?
>Did anyone succeeded with plan similar to mine?

I have an 11,000 gal pond, well filtered, and have been told by somewhat
of an expert that about 20 24" koi should be my limit....

YOu have to decide what you want this for, display only, growing on ??

bests...paul

>
>Thanks,
>
>Hung Tran

[Hung Tran]

Hi all,
I live in Houston Texas where the climate is mostly humid and temperature
is high most of the time (80 to 90 degrees) and sometimes it will get below
freezing for 3 or 4 days out of the year. I have a piece of land which I
would like to dig a pond. My interest in Koi begin last year and since
then I have been lurking around the web and learned many wonderful things
about pond and koi. This outdoor pond will on a low land area with no

shade, the water will be port in from a well so I'm not worry about

chlorine and other chemical additive. The pond will be approximately
10,000 gals (20'X20'X4'). This pond of course will be stock with about 50
koi of various types. The pond bottom will be dirt/clay (I remember that

this is good for the Koi color). There will be no pump to oxygenate the

pond, and there will be no biofilter. I will put in a lot of ancharis and
other aquatic plants to oxygenated the water and hopefully use up the mess
that koi puts out.

Do you think this will work w/o biofilter? What other aquatic plants do
you recommend? Is 50 koi considered as over stocking for 10,000 gals?
Did anyone succeeded with plan similar to mine?

Thanks,

Hung Tran

[Kerry]

Hung Tran <hung=tran%prod=eng%mfg=h...@netgate.compaq.com> wrote in article
<01bc043f$The pond bottom will be dirt/clay (I remember that

> this is good for the Koi color). There will be no pump to oxygenate the
> pond, and there will be no biofilter. I will put in a lot of ancharis
and
> other aquatic plants to oxygenated the water and hopefully use up the
mess
> that koi puts out.
>
> Do you think this will work w/o biofilter? What other aquatic plants do
> you recommend? Is 50 koi considered as over stocking for 10,000 gals?
> Did anyone succeeded with plan similar to mine?
>

> I've done it. The problem I had was seeing the fish. The koi kept the mud
churned
up. The heron could not see the koi either. That was a good thing.
The only way I could see the koi was to feed them.
When I drained the pond the koi looked great but who wants to drain the
pond to see the fish?

Last year I used that pond to raise water lettice and water hyacinths. Boy
did the grow well in there.I still could not see any koi.

Next year I am going to line that pond with rubber. Just as soon as these
Vancouver
rains stop....Maybe June or July... Just kidding.

Kerry.

[Harold Arnold]

"Hung Tran" <hung=tran%prod=eng%mfg=h...@netgate.compaq.com> wrote:

>Hi all,
>I live in Houston Texas where the climate is mostly humid and temperature
>is high most of the time (80 to 90 degrees) and sometimes it will get below
>freezing for 3 or 4 days out of the year. I have a piece of land which I
>would like to dig a pond. My interest in Koi begin last year and since
>then I have been lurking around the web and learned many wonderful things
>about pond and koi. This outdoor pond will on a low land area with no
>shade, the water will be port in from a well so I'm not worry about
>chlorine and other chemical additive. The pond will be approximately
>10,000 gals (20'X20'X4'). This pond of course will be stock with about 50

>koi of various types. The pond bottom will be dirt/clay (I remember that

>this is good for the Koi color). There will be no pump to oxygenate the
>pond, and there will be no biofilter. I will put in a lot of ancharis and
>other aquatic plants to oxygenated the water and hopefully use up the mess
>that koi puts out.

>Do you think this will work w/o biofilter? What other aquatic plants do
>you recommend? Is 50 koi considered as over stocking for 10,000 gals?
>Did anyone succeeded with plan similar to mine?

>Thanks,

>Hung Tran

I have a similar natural clay pond in Guadalupe county about 170 miles
west of Houston (40 miles east of San Antonio). It is irrigularly
shaped with about 410 sq ft of surface area. It averages about 2 1/2
feet deep, about 6,000 gal. Water comes from a well requiring from 2
to 8 hours of make-up pumping a week depending on seasonal conditions.

This pond is stocked with goldfish, mollies, white clouds, and a few
koi. The gold fish have spawned each year since 1991; the mollie
population generally thins during the winter but not materally and by
the end of the summer is too large; the white clouds spwaned last
year; there are only a few koi first introduced in 1995, but one is
now a foot long. This is an impressive fish.

I have never used any type of filter unless you count the water
hyacinth which do filter and clear water. By the end of the summer
hyacinth covers about 100 sq feet of the surface. Other plants
include lilies and others which I do not know the name. The water
generally remains quite clear.

The principal problem with this pond are occasional visits from herons
and other preditors (water moccasins, other snakes, and frogs) which
explains why I do not stock many expensive fish. Even so the
preditors are in no danger of eliminating the goldfish, mollies and
white clouds. Your pond should be safer because of its greater
average depth and if I read your location correctly, the herons at any
rate should be less of a problem in the more urban area.

I like the idea of the natural pond. Mine was formed by simply
removing the top soil from the area of a matural dry rain run-off
creek and removing the exposed clay to build a small dam. My main
regret is not removing a bit more clay to obtain a greater average
depth.

H