• We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

OUTDOOR POND, ALL PIC'S

@mehaffydr , I loved your pics and the progression of the build, very well done! Was that a little mermaid or merman in your photo? Looked to be enjoying some snorkeling. ?
 
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Luc70 said:
Hello kid9, trick is to see a pond as a toilet bowl. If there is no drain, then the rubbish stays at the bottom in the pond making the water eventually very dark, dirty and stinking.

So after picturing that toilet bowl, the next step is to think on how to take the rubbish out. 3 ways I can think of...keep that toilet in your mind and think what you like best...

1. Use a net or change water with a drain pump. Not very useful, very high water bills, dirty job at best..
2. Use a pump at the deepest point and let it go through filter matts and bioballs. Closer, but the pump will chop everything very small or get stuck in big rubbish and then you have to clean a very dirty and stinky filter again...
3. Use a drain to feed that dirty rubbish automatically to a settling tank and then pump the clean water to a filter or bog to do bio-filtration.

Number 3 is what you want, thats where you get big stuff out, clean water back.
There are a lot of good plans and tips for building a pond that stays clean. Just keep that toilet-picture in mind and think: Bottom Drain Bottom Drain Bottom Drain...
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that's a really smart approach that I've never heard of! can we get some pics?
 
can
Chefken said:
Here is my DYI project from 6 years ago just after completion. The pond is a 9'x8' oval 5' deep. The project was completed by myself with only handtools. VERY challenging build. My house and yard are surrounded by stone walls and is built into a rocky clay hill typical of CT. no materials could be delivered on site. I wheel barrelled 50 bags of top soil, 500 lbs of peet, 3 tons of stone and all the landscaping materiels up hill and around my house to the build. Stones over 150 lbs were moved by flipping them onto my sons plastic sleigh and dragging inch by inch up the hill and over 400 feet to the site. The largest stones weighed aprox 300lbs.

Digging the hole took 18 months and broke two pick axes. i was working 70 hours per week six days as a Country Club chef at the time and only could work a few hours each morning. My wife thought I would never finish. This is my second pond. My house came with a 700 gallon concrete pond/watefall which i restored and stocked with koi and some natives. The new pond was concieved as a place to winter the fish as the old pond was only 20" deep and freezes solid. i will post some pics this spring to show how the landscaping came in. It looks really good but my liner needs to replaced and I am not sure I am up to tearing down all the stonework! EnjoY!

View attachment 587491

View attachment 587492
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can we get an update?
 
KATALEKEEPER said:
can

can we get an update?
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Not a happy ending for this one. The pond ran good for three years and then the liner leaked near the top of the run. Before I new it was leaking the water undermined the shelf holding up the rock face of the waterfall. It all come down. The landscaping looks amazing still but the pond needs tons and tons of work and i am not the guy to do it anymore. I have my smaller 800 gallon pond running really good and I focus on that one now.IMG_0206.jpgIMG_0209.jpg
 
Chefken said:
Not a happy ending for this one. The pond ran good for three years and then the liner leaked near the top of the run. Before I new it was leaking the water undermined the shelf holding up the rock face of the waterfall. It all come down. The landscaping looks amazing still but the pond needs tons and tons of work and i am not the guy to do it anymore. I have my smaller 800 gallon pond running really good and I focus on that one now.View attachment 1446362View attachment 1446364
Click to expand...
beautiful!
 
I haven´t posted in a while... because I don´t keep MF anymore.

Anyway, I have koi now (also MF..) and this is my tank - not exactly a pond, but an old washing tank that I have resealed and converted into a koi tank

How it was before
20200416_141516.jpg
20200416_141521.jpg

And how it looks now
20210825_153225_resized.jpg

this year I had a surprise.. and now I am making a grow out tank for the several dozens babies that survived.
here you can see few of them
20210812_122203.jpg
and one of the promising ones that I was able to net one of these days
20210815_113939 #1.jpg
Regards
Joao
 
@Joao M Wonderful job!

I've just met Fred from Portugal, a military pilot, who keeps and breeds koi too. Do you know of him by chance?
 
Thanks !
Unfortunately, I don´t know Fred.
It would be nice to know another koi enthusiast in PT. Do you know where in the country he is located?
 
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