Tripwired Clothing

From the day that I moved into my new Study and looked through the window I knew that I wanted a Koipond. The lawn are was just way to big and during Winter it looks like a semi desert. The half dead grass is depressing to say the least and I wanted to reduce that dramatically.

2008/03/06 - that a Rottie I see inspecting the progress??

Very nice Colyn 8)

Yep it is a Rottie.

Looking forward to have a sundowner next to those dams of yours when the project is finished.

Just worried about the impact on the water reserves of the Mpumalanga province when you have to fill them... ;D

Thanks for the comments guys ... yes the single skin is surely because there will be no "bommies" ... I have seen many single skin reservoirs on the mines in Natal and on many farms ... the keyword stays "NO BOMMIES" Smiley

I am very anxious now to complete because I am sure it is going to be stunning once done. The breeding kingfishers stopped all work for the whole summer.

Some background on the pools ...

Pool 1 = 56,000 litres
Pool 2 = 67,000 litres
Pool 3 = 42,000 litres

Pool two is the really deep one ... over 2 metres.

All pools have straight down edges with no wading opportunities for big wader birds.

I did get quotes initially and the cheapest one came in at just under R190,000.00 ... after a loud fart and two beers I said F---k that. I started to phone some of my friends in the construction business and made my calculations.

Up to this stage I am still under R15,000.00 and that includes the little mixer I bought. My estimates makes me believe the ponds will come in under R30,000.00 and that will include two pums that will work in tandem and in shifts.

Fish will be no problem because I have some friends that breeds them for export and has vast dams ... I will get their rejects Wink

The pond furthest away is the smallest and is also quite shallow ... less than hip deep ... this whole pond will be turned into a marshland vegetation pond and I will stick it well with guppies and small kurpers. I expect this pond to be a paradise for birds.

I will also include some kurpers in the other ponds to help with the algae and at the same time will be a good source for some fish for the table.

Tips and tricks on kois are welcome.

Yep ... I spent a long time reading and talking about filtration and the options offered ranged from easy to expensive Wink ... my advantage is that I do not have a space problem and that is why I built the vegetation pond as big as I did. 45,000 litre capacity and this is where I see my major filtration will take place. One huge bio filter in a sense. From this the water will overflow through a fitration chamber filled with normal shade cloth and then into the pump sump. Theoretically the sump will receive very clean and clear water. From here I will pump the water into two 1000 liter plastic tanks that is connected in serie. This is where I expect to sort the bacterial part of the filtration out because these tanks will contain bio balls. From here the water returns to the pond.

I am confident that the veggie pond will do the job because I have seen a few koi ponds with veggie filters 10% the size of what I am building.

Swimming pool filters were offered but they are expensive and takes a lot of maintenance and the fish water tend to clog the sand up rapidly.

My option is to have as much as possible bio filtration.

Yes all the ponds have a 110mm bottom drain. I cast the floors to have a sloped "sump" towards the drains.

Thanks for the comments and I will post more images ... I posted these first because they form a nice series.

Roan, I like your way of thinking ;) Let's wait till he's done and then invite ourself for a sundowner.
I have allways wanted a phodie of a Kingfisher that strikes the water at just the right moment - koi, kurper, whatever, I really don't care ;D

Looking forward to meeting you guys at the ABBG

Here are some shots of the Vegetation pond ...

We are now seriously into the finishing stages. Here are some shots of Pond #3 ... this will be mainly a vegetation filter/pond and I am banking on this pond to do the bulk of my water quality control.

Wonderful progress on these, Colyn. Are you going to update the BSC thread?

He's been hiding these pics from us, hasn't he? :knuppel2:

I will update ... just short of time right now ... I am leaving for Kuwait on Friday and have tonnes to do still for the  trip.

Barby you are welcome to copy the posts of the ponds to BSC.

Here are a few more shots. Dam #3 has been full of water for 9 days now and I do not see any leaking. There is a problem with flow volume and that will be sorted out.

Today is very special day on the farm ... Pond #2 is almost full. Here is a small time line ...

What a day ... I was standing at the window looking at the ponds and thinking about the landscaping that needs to be done when this happened. A Bee Eater swooped down and settled in a nearby tree. The next moment it glided to the pond, closed it's wings and fell into the water. For a few moments I was stunned and then I grabbed my camera.

Everything was against me ... the sun is high and behind the pond, the bird is damn fast, I am not in a comfortable position and I had no idea what the light metering setting was on the camera ... but when it did it again I fired.

Technically not the best of shots but if this was and indication of what was in store then the effort I put into the ponds will be all worth while.

I am sharing these with you just for the significance of the moment and not for the image quality.


Thank you all for your patience over the past months as I posted more about ponds than birds here ;) ... but now the good times seems to be rolling in. In my wildest dreams did I not imagine this bird to be the first to be shot at the ponds.

WOW! A bee eater with full flaps selected.

It is very special to see a bee eater taking a diving bath. Next you will see the kingfishers hunting for minnows and maybe one day a fish eagle!  :o

May this pond brings you many treasured moments  :smitten:

Thanks Pierre.

" I love it when a plan comes together "

It looks stunning.  8)

Today is another special day ... we started circulating the water to include Pond #2. The water flow is not too bad but I am looking at getting more. I think on hot days this will be a bit on the slow side.

As I expected, the moment we started pumping the water in Pond #2 started to foam as it ran down the cascades towards Pond #3. As time went on the foaming increased in the sump. This should clear up in a day or so if the experience with Pond #3 is anything to go on.

Another good thing for me was that today I noticed that some green algae is forming on the walls of Pond #3. I also noticed some mosquito larvae in Pond #3 and some other insects. My youngest son promptly added two small goldfish to the pond ... let's see if they survive the night. Well must say ... within 30 minutes after they were slipped into the pond we spotted them chasing down and eating some of the insects.

Here is a collection of shots taken today ...

Ok the issue with the leaking sump has been solved and the problem with the future bio-filters overflowing has been sorted out.

I have covered the bottoms of the streams with some rock and one pump is running basically full time daily now without any issues in the bio filter tanks and the connecting streams.

My biggest toothache now is the fact that I miscalculated the sump and I have measured out the expansion for it. The primary water inlet is also under construction. With the Soccer Stadium running in scheduling problems there is a chronic shortage of cement in Nelspruit and my cement arrived an hour ago. Tomorrow Pond #1's floor will be plastered and then the bulk of the wetwork should be finished.

Here are a few shots of some of the latest progress.

Today I have some shots and more stories about this project. I have encountered some really bad water losses in the stream going down to pond #3. We found the problem and it is being repaired now as I type here.

Pond #2 and #3 as well as the sump/weir has been filled to the brim and left standing for 3 days and the there is no water losses noticed. So I am happy that this part of the project is now secure.

As I said earlier the "transit" volume of water was more than I expected and my sump turned out to be too small. The sump is now in the process of being enlarged to hold another 3,000 liters of water of which only around 150 liters will not be available for "transit" capacity.


Today the Coprox for Pond #1 arrived so hopefully that job will get done on Monday.

On another topic. I have had offers of Koi from a few friends but I am thinking about all the risks involved in introducing fish to ponds and I am leaning towards this ...

There is an exporter near Nelspruit that is friends with my brother. He has offered me 150mm Koi at R90.00 per Koi. Is this a fair price ?

I think I will only put 30 fish per pond. I am of the opinion that by buying all the fish in one batch from one source and then let them grow here I am minimising risks of contamination.

What do you think ?

Thanks in advance.

Lyk my die is 'n lang projek... thanks for postin

Today is one of those days where I doubt everything I have done :(

Here is a collection of shots that will explain better why I am in this mood ...


My questions are this ...

1. In what way can this be utilized to assist with the health of the water?
2. Should I place smaller stones or bigger stones?
3. The stream do run the risk of running dry if power should fail.


In the last shot you can see what I did to strengthen the side that was above ground. The plan was that this will host plants on the pond edge. However, by pure oversight the edge was not raised and once the pond is full this flowerbox will be filled by overflow as the outlet is on the same level. :(

Now I have some options with it.

1. Continue with the stonework and cut the flower box off from the pond. This is most probably the easiest and cheapest option.
2. Do the stonework to follow the outer edge and by that incorporate the flowerbox in the pond.

Option 2 will mean that I have to cast a proper base for the flower box and waterproof it. I will also need to pipe some sort of bottom drain into it so that I can draw water off to pond #2 to ensure that the water do not stagnate in the flower box. This box will not get koi in because the overflow is shallow and plants could be safe.

What will you do ?

Comments and ideas are welcome.

Some responses from members on KoiForum :


I agree with you Wayne ... but my realities are that I have a huge risk of predation and that makes me reluctant to place expensive fish in here.

Next point is that I will obviously have to get to grips with the realities of Koi keeping and will most probably make mistakes in the beginning. There is also the matter of the system getting into balance and maturing which I believe can take a year.

So with the above in mind I think it will be more prudent to start of with colourful rather than quality. Wink

What do you think ?

Idiee: Waarom gebruik jy nie die "flowerbox" van die dam as 'n "bog garden" nie. Met ander woorde - verhoog en/of versterk die buitenste muur en laat die water oorloop in die flowerbox. Plant dan spesies plante wat daarvan hou om met hulle voete in die water te staan.

Lees die artikel as voorbeeld: http://www.plantideas.com/bog/

Well seems like the problem is now solved and I have started filling Pond #1 for the second time.

I need some advice and discussion of the following structures ...


A = Pond #3 - 45,000 liters

The primary purpose of this pond will be to act as a vegetation filter and have some goldfish and maybe some kurpers in. The fish is obviously for the insects and whatever food happens to be there but will also be the decoy to attract the predators and hopefully keep them away from the Koi.

B = Weir structure

This was done so that the bottomdrain is protected from the obvious potential of catching rotting leaves that will land in the pond from mostly the inhabitants of the pond. It was also done so that water can flow freely without floating plants choking the spillway.

C = Surface skimmer

This is where surface skimming for pond #3 happens and the gate can be closed at will. The box is divided in two C/D with C having 3 layers of concrete stone in Avocado bags. Water filters through the stone and then out into D. I am confident that all plant material will be trapped here that is drawn off by the skimmer.

D = Settlement chamber

Not much to say about this one.

E = Course filtration

All water drawn off the whole system will land here on it;s way back to the pump pit. This box also contains 3 layers of bagged concrete stone. The spill drop is fairly high so a lot of aeration takes place here.

F = Settlement Chamber

This box is connected to the pump pit in a way that the water level will not fall below the surface of the bagged stone in E.

G = Pump pit

This pit is 2 meters deep and holds around 2,500 liters of water. It was built after I realised that that E and F could not cope with the "transit" volume of water.

From the pump pit water will be pumped through two 1,000 liters tanks that will each contain 300 liters of bio - balls and from the tanks it will flow by gravity over the primary inlet into Pond #1.

I am now thinking of hanging bio brushes in F and D.

I have also found a source for oyster shells and I am planning on bagging them an place them in the bottom of F and D.

My question is this ...

How will you employ the above setup if it was your system ... what other filtration material will you use and wat plants will you add  and where.

Thanks.


Plants in here are ...

Palmiet, Papyrus and Vark ore.

Ok I am now the proud owner of three ponds full of water :) ... and algae and heaven knows what else.

I am now busy filling the sump up before I start the system so that we can get some calibration marks on the levels in the pump pit. I have around 5,000 liters in the final filtration chambers and sump of which around 4,000 liters are available to use in the "transit" system.

Thank you to all that responded here.

Today I will post a series of shots that shows the components in my filtration system ...


Now I have to wait for the bio-media to kick in and mature. The water condition is good for now and it improves by the day. I am sure I will get another algae bloom but I am not too concerned about that. There are signs that the vegetation is taking well and in the next week or so I will link the bottom drains into the system. Currently I use the bottomdrains to shed water only.

Comments are more than welcome.

The 24th of July 2008 was an important day ... after almost two years the day finally dawned that I felt confident to place some Koi in my ponds. After lots of soul searching and weighing up the risks of bringing Koi in from various sources I finally decided to bite the bullet and get all my initial stock from one breeder.

On arriving at the farm I spent a long time just listening to the breeder and asking lots of questions. After telling him my story he was confident that the fish would be fine and he surprised me by offering me 16 fish for free to check the ponds.

After 3 days the fish are all eating and they look happy and healthy and very mobile, cruise on all levels of the ponds and feasting on the algae from the floor and walls ... so much that I have quite a lot of pieces floating in the ponds.


Well let us see what the future holds ... I think I am going to get my stock today.

Man dit lyk goed daar by jou plek. Dit gaan darem n lekker plekkie wees om te sit en die wereld se probleme op te los oor n "sundownertjie" of 2.  :smiley6600:

My stock of fish is now settled in and they are eating. As could be expected the after is turning quite green and now I have to wait for the biological process to get up to speed. Obviously one is anxious to get the water clear but truth is that the fish are more comfortable in the green water. The mechanical side of my filtration is now complete but I have lots of room over to add more if needed. All the plants appear to be settled in and I see signs of new growth.

This morning I can see signs of algae going brown in the vegetation pond. Apparently it is the first signs of things that are changing. I am also seeing brown and black streaks appearing in the algae growth on the pond walls and overflows.

Every Koi keeper most probably cherishes the moments of the first fish going into his pond and I am no different. Yesterday I placed to wedges of orange in each pond and the fish in pond #2 cleaned theirs' out and I can see signs of eating on the ones in pond #1. Pond #2 has a healthy algae population on the walls and pond #1 is only now beginning to show signs of growth on the walls. It is as if the fish in pond #1 is also getting more relaxed and I see them nibbling on the walls.

I will have to restrain myself from taking too many shots. The following is a collection of shots showing most of the fish. From now on I will try and get bigger shots of individuals. It will be a new field for me to explore with my camera.

To me the collection looks nice and I have seen a few individuals that looks great to my untrained eye.


The breeder that supplied me with fish visited my ponds yesterday and he is happy with what he saw. We are now doing the Bottom Drains and that should be done by next Friday.

Comments are welcome.

Here are a few shots that I did with the 40D and 100-400 ... not there where I want it but in these shots you can see more detail of the fish.


The more I see the fish the more I see in the fish ;) ... there are some really good looking fish amongst the collection and currently my pictures cannot do them justice.

Enjoy.

Dit lyk baie mooi Colyn. Nooi ons bietjie vir daai sundowners sodat ons die pragtige werklikheid kan beleef....

The algae is currently the winners by far. Water clarity is getting worse by the day and visibility down is around 500mm. Many voices in my head are screaming for me to do something and do something quick. However the soft whisper of sanity is still in control. It is quite obvious that whatever I do now to clear the algae away will mostly be a case of handling and managing a symptom and not the cause.

The fish are looking very healthy and happy and I can see no signs of stress.

That brings me to a point that makes me smile ... as many of you may know, I am a serious photographer and I love long distance riding on my bike. Now the matter of what food for the Koi is like asking on the Photography forum which camera is the best or asking on the bike forum which bike is the best ... 10 guys, ten answers. :)

Something I noticed this afternoon is that I am seeing a clear reduction in the amount of foam that is generated. I also noticed that all the plants in the pots are showing new growth and new shoots. The hyacinths are all forming lots of new suckers and I guess that by the end of September the whole veggie pond will be covered with a dense mat. I am also seeing lots of brown algae films forming under the stones in the river and on all the spillways.  Some places a mat of green algae is busy forming on the brown and it looks quite healthy.

Today I covered the sumps with shade cloth to keep dust, leaves and sunlight out.

All I am going to do now is concentrate on the bottom drains and let nature go it's way. If the water does not clear up by the end of August I will re-evaluate my position and make a decision then. At this moment I want to stay true to my vision and try and get the whole system to be as low-tech as possible with the veggie pond as the heart of the system.

Today another piece of the project was completed ... the garden lights are in ...


Enjoy ;)

Nou na al jou moeite - kyk hoe mooi lyk daai liggies in die aand. Met die tuin in plek gaan dit soos 'n paradys lyk.
Sterkte met die werk verder.

freaking awesome sal een van die dae vir Colyn kom kuier en kom kyk hoe mooi dit daar is ...........

Ek sien uit na jou kuier.

Well today I integrated the Pond #1 Bottom drain into the system and in the first flush I saw this red worm on the drain grill ... does anybody know what it is ...


At a guess I would say it is around 15mm long.

Here are the shots of the Bottom drain and associated filtering components.


The drain was finally integrated around 12h00 by 18h00 it looks like the pond was already changing.

Pierre het die kommentaar gelewer op MSN ...

With all nonsense of hookworm, algae and low flow rates I almost forgot why I really built the ponds ;)

Here is a shot taken this afternoon ... even the water is looking better ...


Enjoy ;)

Tonight I have no pictures ... I will do a good set next week.

On Friday I added another pump into the system and increased my water flow by around 40%. I also flushed the newly commissioned bottom drain filter system on Pond #1 properly. I added plants and some brushes and it is good to see the difference between the entry water and exit water. Obviously the bio side will take time to kick in but I am happy with the filtration side.

All the plants in the veggie pond is showing strong growth and I can see some roots appearing through the holes in some of the pots.

Last week I experimented with some filtration objects and the results are actually quite pleasing ... considering the cost it is actually bloody good. ;) I will show details tomorrow.

I paid my workers overtime to finish the bottom drain filter structure for Pond #2 and I was sure it would be finished. However the weather had other plans. Today was overcast, cool and some drizzle from time to time. The result is that the plastering could not be completed because it was drying too slow.

I am seeing a marked improvement in the water condition and visibility is up to around 800mm with the water colour more blue-gray than pea soup green. I have also noticed strong algae matting forming in the rivers and waterfalls. Some of the filter chambers are also showing good matting and I am happy.

Overall the whole system just looks very healthy and alive. The fish are extremely active and they are all over the ponds.

Hopefully my parcel from Paul will arrive on Tuesday and then I will try and catch that worm carrier ;)

Thanks again for all your advice and contributions to my project.

Today I have a lot of shots and need some serious support ;)

I have taken a lot of detail shots of the different elements currently at work in my system and would like to hear comments. I am especially interested in knowing if any of you can see things that can and will lead to problems later. I am also interested to know if you see things that shows the system is on the right route.

If you need more detailed shots please feel free to ask for it.



Thank you.

It is one month since the first fish went into the ponds and it was a month full of events. I had to apply a lot of self control to keep my anxiety in check because the algae was making my life a misery ;)

In this month I upped the pumping capacity by 50% and I installed two UV lights. I also commissioned the two bottom drains and associated filter systems. The plants began to propagate and I could see lots of bio things happening in the ponds but yet the algae was there and visibility was poor.

By Thursday last week things began to change and there was a noticeable improvement in the water clarity. By Friday it became clear that the bio system was beginning to work against the algae but it was also clear that I did not have enough really fine mechanical filtration.

All my pond water passes through this trough before it goes to the pump pit and today I placed to layers of a synthetic wool blanket in this trough.


Within an hour the water in the pump pit cleared up to such an extent that I could see the printing on the pumps. I am happy. I also see a lot of clumps of algae that lifts up from the veggie pond floor from around 10h00 to 16h00. These are all collected in the skimmer trough and I think that the plants is busy killing off the food supply of the algae.

So in conclusion ... it seems as if the bio system is gathering steam now and things are improving rapidly. I expect to have a very differient view by tomorrow.

Here are two shots that is more photographic than koi technical ;)


Enjoy and thanks for all the support.
 

Well today is big day for me ... all three ponds have clear water. I suppose this thread is now reaching a point where it will die down. Will be strange not to have to update my journal here but I hope that new pond owners or prospective pond owners find some value in here. I have tried to cover all the incidents that popped up during the building and eventual population of the ponds.

My initial budget was for R40,000.00 and as could be expected it did not make the grade. Up today the expenditure is just under the R70,000.00 which includes all electrical work as well as the initial purchase of fish stock.

I had to lay down a second pipe line to the tank filters because the existing 40mm could not cope with two pumps.

5 Weeks after adding the fish and seeing the ponds turn to pea soup the water is finally clear and it was an eventful and frustration filled 5 weeks.

Here are some of the things I did to the system in the past week ...

1. Installed synthetic filter material in the final collection trough.
This made a big difference because it removed the dead floating algae and removed the suspended dust particles.

2. Rerouted the UV lights to have both in parallel on a single pump line.
I think the reduced flow through the lights made them more efficient.

3. Increased flow through the bottom drains.
I reduced some of the filtration material to increase the flows because the fiber mat was now doing the polishing of the water. This increased the flowrate through the bottom drains and drew large quantities of algae into the settlement troughs of both.

4. Increased the goldfish population in veggiepond.
This is most probably the single biggest visible change that I made. I started off with 30 fish of around 80 - 100mm. A week ago I added another 30 and this brought a fast and visible change. I never knew that goldfish is such voracious algae eaters and with hours it was obvious how the layers of green slimy algae was being stripped off the filter bags.

The skimmer trough was always plagued by a thick layer of algae that covered the bags of stone and I placed 4 goldfish in this trough. Yesterday morning the skimmer trough was clean with clear water and only coarse plant material on the bottom.

It is my opinion that the bio system is running now and I see lots of algae dying off in the streambed and the rocks are being washed clean.

I can see the fish grazing on the bottom of pond #2 ... 2.2 meters down and it is almost 30 months from the day that I decided to do the ponds.

I want to thank you all for your participation in this thread and without your valuable input many issues may still have been haunting me.

I have a few more small incidents that I will document for the record.

Well the stuff arrived from Paul and I managed to catch the fish. So on a bright Saturday morning me and wife tackled the task ...


Once again I want to thank Paul for his advice and I checked the fish again this morning ... looks clean and is eating well.

It was great to have that Koi Medikit on hand. The little manual is great, to the point and it is really nice to know all the stuff that is needed is in the box.

Just some random shots from the ponds ...


Enjoy ;)

It has been a month since I last posted here ... a month full of incidents, trials and tribulation. Most noteworthy was the fall I took in the mountains near Tzaneen ... my leg is healing but I am still on crutches. For those that are interested in bikes you can read the whole story on Tripwired (http://forum.tripwired.co.za).

The ponds are changing almost daily as time goes by. I am not too sure of the value of the two green tanks with shadecloth balls in ... I don't know if they are adding any value to the system and I am seriously thinking about converting them into trickle towers.

About two weeks ago I noticed the first signs of string algae or blanket weed as it is also called. Slowly but surely this stuff started invading the whole system, clogging the grids at the stream entrances and smothering the hyacinths ... then some of the other plants started dying off and a vicious cycle was set in motion ... the more the plants suffered the better the weed grew. Then on Friday morning I noticed little black organisms growing in the first level of the waterfall ... by Saturday all the green slime algae were gone from that trough and I noticed these black things on the second level and in the stream beds. It seems as if this black organism is retarding the string algae.

Today I made some modifications to the plant pots by adding more crushed stone to create an island that are above the water level. I did this because I noticed the plants that were surrounded by this dry stone did not suffer from the algae.

Something that I am quite proud of is the fact that I introduced 96 koi and 70 goldfish to the ponds and I have not lost a single fish so far. I think that is something that I can build on. I had that anchor worm incident and that was treated successfully. On a rough estimate I would say the koi are now roughly twice as long and three times as heavy measured against what they were when I brought them in 9 weeks ago.

I introduced mollies and platies into the pump chamber and reservoir and the mosquito problem is solved there. I had an invasion of frogs and the veggie pond was infested with them. We suck the egg strings off as much as we can but obviously tadpoles still appeared in great numbers. My son has placed three oscars and two freshwater sharks into the veggie pond. The oscars do not eat the tadpoles but it appears as if the sharks has developed a pallet for them ... the pond is clean and the sharks are bloated.

The algae is really a pain the backside because they clog the synthetic filter material up quit rapidly.

Here are some shots ...


Comments on the algae will be welcomed ... I am adapting a wait and see stance.

Oh the joys of blanket weed :crazy2: I remember it well and spent many happy hours removing it from our pond in Ireland. We never found a way to control it and put it down to the climate but you dont have the cold and wet that we had there. All I can say is good luck and if you find a solution I will be happy for you.

Update ... by last Sunday the algae was really annoying and all the ponds were covered by floater and bundles on the floors up to over a meter high ... I shut the pumps down and waited for the system to come to rest ... then I sprinkled coarse salt on every bundle I could see on the floors. I also sprinkled salt on some of the chambers in the filters.

With in almost minutes the algae started lifting from the floors and floated ... I fired the pumps up and all the floating algae was drawn into the skimmer trough within about an hour. So today I have very little string algae around.

Well it is almost exactly 6 months to the day that has passed by since I added my fish. Tiny 6-8 cm little kois that almost looked lost in the two ponds. Each pond did get the number of fish that I expected to be happy once they have grown up.

During this time I went through many phases of anxiety and happiness and these were all well documented here.

Since the fiasco of the pH meter being wrong I have done a full test of all the elements of my ponds during the middle of November and have not tested the water again. The plants looks good ... still struggling here and there but the obvious rise in bio mass in the ponds are showing it's effects.

My water is clear and maintenance is down to cleaning the fiber matting once a day. I will post images of that as soon as my DSL is sorted out.

The bio diversity in the system is developing fabulously and I am very happy with what I see.

The mollies and platies in the final collection chambers are breeding and the population is fast reaching a point where I will need to harvest. The goldfish are doing well, actually too well with the result that they have spread into the koi ponds via the pumps and now I need to find a way to catch them out. I am actually contemplating a predator or two.

Of the initial 98 koi placed in the ponds I have lost two ... 1 to dropsy and one to unknown ailments. I am not concerned about that because it is an acceptable mortality rate for any population transplant ;)

Back in July when I started a feeding session was two shooter glasses with small, tiny pellets. One glass per pond, no food to the goldfish in the veggie pond.

Today I feed around 1.75 liters of small pellets and they will eat more if I give more. The fish vary between 20 to 30cm and I am really impressed with how they are slowly but surely taking up the space in the ponds. I will have to remove a number of fish by the end of the season because I have many that are in same shades of the colour spectrum and I want more variety.

I am glad I stuck it out and allowed the natural system to kick in without adding mechanical components out of frustration. The whole system is busy settling into the surroundings and someone recently mentioned that this is actually not koiponds but a koi garden ... I liked that ;)

I guess I have reached the goals of the vision to a large extent and confirmed my theory that far too many operators make the koi ponds too complex and too expensive. Lots of money are being poured down the drains with overspeccing and overbuilding ponds. From this over indulgence flows serious maintenance issues and in the end lots of heartaches for the inexperienced koi enthusiast.

My next project will be to build a 30,000l little pond complete with integrated bio filter and water polishing ... running on one submersible pump. I want to get to a fully working pond and fish for around R20,000.00

I will keep you posted. Thanks for all the contributions here and remember to keep it simple ... mother nature is a wonderful koi partner to have.

If you look at this shot you will notice on the right hand side a series of chambers ...


Now those chambers are fed by the bottom drain. With this project I learned a lot about these chambers and how to get good performance out of them. If they are properly designed you can achieve basically all your filtration from something like this as well as polishing the water with some synthetic fibre. It must include gravel, this coarse filtration to catch the initial solids in the water. Then another gravel bed and plants ... here you will get the dangerous stuff out of the water. Then some more filtration, brushes or shade cloth ... I prefer the brushes now and then some form of polishing to clean the water of all solids that is left. From here you need to cascade the water over some steps into the sump where your pump is.

In this setup your pump is pumping clean water and by doing this you are prolonging your pump life and also preventing the pump from adding to your woes by churning solids up into small solids ;)

I am obviously not handling the various chambers in detail here but I think you can imagine what it will have to look like. With an integrated filter like this you have the advantage that you can depend on gravity to do most of the work and the pump only returns the water to the main inlet source of your pond.

I am an old carp angler and in my mind koi is just colorful carp with the same type of needs as a wild carp. Now carp is not fond of busy water and by this I mean you rarely find them in rapids or in fast flowing channels. For this reason I think it is not natural to jet your water into the ponds and I have a really bad idea of all and any airstones ... the high pitch whistle of that compressed air is surely not good for the sanity of your koi.

So it is my personal feeling that you need to think carefully about your water inlet ... get that water up ... 1 to 1.5 meters is enough and then cascade it as vigorously as you can into your pond. The cascades plays a big role in gas exchange in your water but once it hits that pond it must not be disturbed any longer.


This cascade of mine was designed to be functional but I also had to handle the noise of that waterfall because it is right next to my bedroom window.

Note the structure with the steps each having a deep hollow at the back ... sort of a sound box. This channels all the sound outwards to wards the pool. If you walk along the pool the water noise is really loud but the moment you pass the last box the noise level  drops by around 80%. I can hardly hear the waterfall in my room.

Now to get back to my story about the water flow in the pond. From the waterfall the water lands in the pool and flows along the curve towards the outlet on the other end.  This creates a slow clockwise flow pattern in the pond with some of the dynamic water going out into the cascade stream towards pond #2.

The bottom drain is about a meter away to the right of the waterfall ... so the water in the pond circles around from the waterfall and then comes back over the bottom drain.

My ponds have extremely quiet water and it is interesting to see when the fish goes down to rest on the bottom, in which areas they do it. Always way back from the waterfall.

Obviously I am saying things now that goes against most of the popular ideas about water circulation and water dynamics but I am confident that by mimicking what I see in nature I am doing things right for the koi.

I have heard stories about people having jets in that generates strong currents and that the fish is forced to "exercise" against those currents ... ja well so be it ... people is known to put their animals on treadmills, force their kids into gymnasiums etc. People sometimes do things without thinking :)

Why should a koi be exercised ... it is not a predator like a marlin or a snoek or a trout ... it is a lazy, laid back browser and as such needs to have calm water ... that is why they live in huge water bodies like dams and lakes and wide slow moving rivers with them in the deep quiet pools.

It is my opinion that if we claim that we are koi lovers we need to take note of the real requirements for koi to be happy. They bring us a lot of joy and we owe them at least a comfortable and viable environment. To blast them with jet streams and air bubbles is basically cruel. They live in a solid element that transmits the faintest sound for long distances. Why pollute their habitat with the high pitch whine of pressure pumps and airstone jet streams.

As I have said elsewhere ... from 98 fingerlings in July I am now at 96 fish of between 20 and 30cm and I have not seen a single sore or skin lesion ... I am beginning to think that because my koi are happy they are healthy. Lately I have been asked by a number of people to come and look at something that is wrong at their ponds or fish that is sick. In all the instances where I had seen sores or bad infections on fish their was one common factor ... HIGH DENSITY. I have also seen a few pump systems that looks like a space control center with presure pumps all over. The noise in these pump rooms are serious. Now think about it ... that noise transmitted through the water in the pipes into the ponds ... cannot be a peaceful environment.

But enough of my philosophy ... I am way to green in this game to claim experience.

PS ... I see mechanical filters in two main groups ... those that operate with gravity and where strata is used to catch debris and then those that use high pressure pumps ... I am totally against the latter.

It is almost exactly one year since I placed the first koi in my ponds. I placed 94 fish in the two ponds initially and then bought 4 more in the weeks following that initial stocking. I added 6 grass carps, also fingerlings in October.

In the veggie pond I placed 34 goldfish, 8 vlei kurpers and my son "dropped" 4 Oscars and two funny barbel like things in the veggie pond as well.

I placed 8 Platies and 8 Mollies in the final filtration trough. All of these fish were placed in the system in the first 4 weeks and then I placed a strong prohibition on any new fish into that system.

The veggie pond and filtration inhabitants was done for specific reasons, each of those species had a task. The goldfish are extremely effective in cleaning up algae growth. The Platies and Mollies were placed into the system to control the mosquitoes and the tilapia was earmarked to help with algae and other water insects.

Many people, including my own family was of the opinion that I have lost my mind and were unrealistic to think that I will be able to get a self sustaining eco system going.

I battled with algae and mosquitoes and "muggies". But in the meantime the mollies and platies started breeding and by late November the presence of the "muggies" and mosquitoes in the final filter chambers and sump was almost non existent. It was also around this time that I noticed the first small kurpers appearing. The gold fish was also spawning but I noticed very few actually making it to "fish" in that veggie pond. I think between the other goldfish, the kurpers and the oscars the fry did not stand much of a chance.

My plants were struggling because the bio mass in the ponds was too low to sustain them and I was forced to add fertilizer. I used seaweed extract and twice a week we poured around 100ml of a double diluted mixture into every pot. This helped the plants but also fed the damn algae.

In July I bought two earthworm farms from a guy in the Cape and by late October the worms were beginning to produce around  3 litres of "tea" per week. Diluting this 10:1 meant that every week I had 30 liters of organic fertilizer of the highest quality. I started feeding this to the plants both in the pots as well as spraying the leaves. The spray has one huge advantage in that it basically wipes out all sorts of critters that wanted to eat the plants. The most important thing is that this worm tea is completely safe for the fish.

During November and December I lost two koi to what is believed to be dropsy. 2 of the grass carps in the veggie pond also disappeared and only 3 oscars made it to 3 inches.

Now remember all my koi was placed in the ponds as fish of around 70mm long. These fish looked almost lost in the big ponds but I calculated how many big koi could be sustained comfortably in each pond and then stocked those numbers. My idea was that the fish must grow into the ponds.

By late December I began to see the plants were needing less feeding and in January I stopped feeding them all together. The koi was now around 100 to 120mm and the increase in bio mass was obviously beginning to show it's effect in the nutrients that became available to the plants.

By this time my water was crystal clear and this is when I began to notice goldfish in the koi ponds :) The only way they could get there was through the pumps. Initially I netted a few of them and placed them back in the veggie pond. I also noticed mollies in the veggie pond and the only way they could get there was through the pumps down the whole koi pond system and finally into the veggie pond. Quite amazing to me. They did not hang around in the koi ponds and followed the streams back to the veggie pond.

In April I noticed that there was a really big population of kurpers in the veggie pond and a few in each koi pond. I am sure I am going to see a huge population explosion of kurpers in the Spring. The original 6 is now the size of my hand. I will harvest the kurpers for my own consumption but I am afraid that I may be forced to introduce a fairly aggressive predator into the system to contain the numbers. I am not too happy with the other species in the koi ponds and I am planning to net them all out in Spring and place a fairly big Blue Kurper in each pond to sweep the fry up that pass through the pumps. I initially considered a bass but the problem with bass is that they grow fairly big and a bass will grab anything that fit in it's mouth and that will certainly also stops me from ever again place small koi in my ponds. If anyone has any advice on a good predator I would like to hear it.

I am sure that all of you can imagine the huge frog invasion I had to live through during Spring and I have made peace with that. Frogs are vital in nature and they are under threat. They are also an indicator specie and for that I just tried to scoop out the bulk of the eggs in the mornings while still allowing a fair number to remain in the veggie pond. I have seen how the tadpoles devour algae in my filter chambers and along the edges of the ponds so they are obviously part of the system and I need to accommodate them.

In May I cut feeding the fish back to around 10% of what they got previously. I am feeding 3 times a week now. The result of this is that the koi is keeping the ponds very clean and when the algae started appearing in early June it was only in the two stream beds. 

A friend of mine is a Marine biologist and I asked him about my drastic feeding reduction and he told me that it good to starve the fish during winter. According to him it allows the fish to work off their fat layers and trim them out for the Spring. He reckons that if you do not trim them out in winter you get a situation where the seasonal fat layers start building up in the fish and this is apparently the reason for so many fatalities in female koi when they are around 3 years old. I don't know how much is true but it does make sense and the truth is that the species in my ponds are not feeding aggressively in winter time when in the wild.

In mid June we had a severe cold spell and that killed the 3 oscars and fair number of the mollies and platies. It was expected but deep down I hoped they would survive. I really grew fond of those three oscars :( ... they had some real attitude.

Now the current status is that since December I did not add any chemicals to my ponds and I also did not test the water this year. The plants looks good, the fish is well with no visible ailments and I feel things are fine. I will add some salt this coming week because it will curtail the string algae in the streams and I do have a few fish that flashes from time to time. I will not add too much salt because the plants really suffer if you push the salt too high.

Interesting is that all the hyacinths died off in my ponds.

As I sit here tonight I am of the opinion that I have achieved my goal of establishing a koi garden and that my ponds have matured into a well balanced and healthy eco system. My koi are between 170 and 300mm now. The bulk is in the range of 250mm with a few smaller ones and a few bigger ones. I am happy with their growth. If I fed them more aggressively I am sure they could have been bigger but I do tend to be quite sceptic of overfeeding any animal.

Here are two pictures.


I will post another contribution on more details of the ponds as well as the spinoffs around the ponds. I planted strawberries, mixed birdseed and sweet potatoes. The latter was done to assist in getting the soil ready for next season as well as priding rapid ground cover.

Thanks again to all that contributed here and I am happy to say that I think that I have achieved basically all of my initial goals.

Sjoe! Die damme lyk nou mooi Colyn!  ;)

Thanks Cassie.