I had both of my kids fell in my 18" deep pond 3 times in the past while they were three years old and I was there got them out.
They are now 5 and 6 and they had a lot of experience on how to stand and play with the water next to the pond. I am still
in the process of how to keep them out of a 3' deep pond. My kids love to play with water and fish and my fish love to play with
them too. I am going to put them in swimming lession this summer but how are they clambing out of the pond as their height.
About the small pond. I used to live in vietnam while I was young. My dad has a mud pond and also a small concrete pond (approx. 2000 gallon) without filtration. We bought 30x 2" koi and put them in mud pond and some in concrete pond. We fed them the same type of food. Eight months later, koi lived in mud pond grown into approx. 15" big and koi in concrete pond grown into approx. 5" big. one and half year later, Koi in mud pond grown into really big but koi inconcrete pond still small.
Nathan,
Where Is Sugarland? I always look at the location when people are building ponds or having issues because the general location often makes a difference. In this case the depth of the pond. A shallow pond would totally freeze solid in some locations.
Any way I agree with Russell. Do what you want with your pond. You can read and learn here and probably like the rest of us you will always wish you had done some things differently.
I did not know anything about ponds or watergardens when I started. My first pond was an old bathtub sunk into the ground. I had seven small koi and a bullfrog overwinter in it the first year. By spring I realized they needed more room.
For several years I built them bigger ponds.
My favorite pond is my 5,000 gallon pond. It was also built before I knew about bottom drains. It is a liner pond. Hole dug directly into the ground with no block work for sides. It is 17 years old and I have had no issues because it has no collar or block work. (I was careful and took precautions to prevent issues when I built it, such as edges are slightly higher than surounding soil and sufficient liner over it. All water runs or drains away from it). Now keep in mind this will not work for everyone. It depends on the kind of soil that you have, but in this area many ponds are built this way without issues.
My point is there are ways to do ponds with less expense. My favorite pond above is only 3 foot deep. It is much easier for me to maintain by myself. The fish are easier for me to catch. It is easier for me to cover it with a net in the fall. I can do all of this by myself.
Now I do have a larger 17,000 gallon pond with bottom drains and it is 6 1/2 feet deep, but it I have to get help when catching fish, covering it, etc. I also have a 1,000 gallon pond and a 500 gallon.
I would suggest that you try to do at least the 3,000 gallon pond. But keep in mind that the cost between that size and 5,000 gallons is not much unless you have to block it up. There is not much difference in the cost of the liner. Most of my filters were built by me at fairly low costs. Also keep in mind that you can add filtration as your fish grow and you need more filtration. So you can make improvements later if needed and it does not have to be a such a major expense in the beginning.
If you have seen and like koi, you will never be happy with just goldfish.
Do what you want and can afford and do not let others discourage you. Many do not have the perfect koi pond, but still get much enjoyment from them. You can keep healthy koi in less, but sometimes it may mean more work for you.
Good luck with your pond and may it bring as much joy to you as mine have to me.
Nancy
Nathan Tran ////!!!!!!!????? Nathan Tran my question how old your kid?? even pet store there don't know nothing About koi pond. Pet store koi there all sick fish collor not thing like koi pond fish, can pay $5 to $15 some pet store from $35 to $135 koi but never and ever compare to pro koi from $75 to $300 koi totally deferrence if you can buy 25 koi for $5 you don't know when it's dead. Or you can have 3 koi with $100 ea with breeder name or can pitch petstore sick koi.
Nathan Tran I show a trick how to get kid a way from your pond. This how I do, my filter pit the deep the same at my pond and I put girl the filter pit and tell her donot come in to the pond without daddy. and my boy I will put two level fence that what I will next and my pond also have two level. fist level 18x10x2 and second level 10x7.5x2 that for safety.
My priority is:
1. Water garden (natural looking pond)
2. Crystal clear and clean water.
3. Koi fish
4. Gold fish.
Since koi is not my first priority, I was happy with cheapy baby koi in the past. Now, I found I can't put koi in my shallow pond so gold
fish is ok for me.
if you don't want that, only the best way you can call JAC
Zac Penn
904-288-6199
Zac@DeepwaterKoi.com
with temp's tank with 40" tall from 6' to 8' with butget try talk see what going.
Thanks
It’s not what I don’t want to have a deep pond. Just for the safety of my kids and neighbor kids a shallow pond is still much safer than a deep pond just in my opinions. Even with fence around the pond I still don’t trust those kids. I guess I have to email Tom Burton asking him how he can manage koi in 18" deep pond. This is going to be my last chance before my dream broken in apart.
Last edited by Nathan Tran; 04-25-2012 at 05:33 PM.
If safety is the reason for not having a deep pond then put in a safety net over the pond.
here goes:
Last edited by vipertom1970; 04-25-2012 at 05:59 PM.
Whos pond is that Stephen? Got more pics and specs of it?
Your list looks a lot like mine. I'm glad you have given thought to kiddo safety. For far too many it is an after thought. My pond kids are tall enough to get out of the pond, but I had to take dog safety in account when I built mine, lol.
Don't give up on your dream. With all things we are typically told best way to do something. With most things there are also other ways. Remember wise planning can allow you to do something with today's budget that can expand and improve down the line. Maybe you save some dollars by skipping the concrete and doing liner first. The hole won't go away, you can always convert to concrete down the line if the liner makes you unhappy. At the same time you could make any other changes. Maybe you could do liner with a kid safe removable fence and pool alarm around it so you could go a bit deeper. Maybe liner plus winter cover so you can stay shallower. Lots of options.
I'm just getting off the ground with my first pond but what I have learned after a whole lot of reading is that there are a lot of different ways to raise a fish and each way has its pluses and minuses.
Stacy
Last edited by Shadow99; 05-07-2012 at 12:44 PM.
If your building your pond, I wish I knew then what I know now OCD, every morning by the the pond, I look back at the beginning thinking I had all the info to get going, (yep I I knew enough) HaHa, best to build the biggest deepest pond you can fit on your land. Yes you start out with all the fancy goldfish, then a few years later you decide why not try just one Koi, then wow that is awesome, gotta have more, it's all good 17 koi now all healthy, water perimeters great, I just sit here every day wondering how I can get this 1500 gal pond up to 3k, I did my moms by just throwing a huge liner over her existing pond, used old ground level as a shelf, and added 6 layers of 6" ledgestone all around, just so happened she had killed all her fish so I had no problem, but here where do I put my fish, during construction???
A big aerated, shaded, covered play pool, If you don't have a big qt tank.
Nathan, my advice is that this is a hobby, and one that can wax or wane depending on your level of interest. Many people on here have strong opinions that are very valid for the path in the hobby they have walked. Which is often that they started off at some level of interest, and grew exponentially into koi fanatics. Maybe you are at the beginning of that curve, and maybe you will never take that path of seeking to grow 3 ft long show koi. If you just want some fun koi in a $3,000 pond in your backyard, it can easily be done. I had about 10 koi in a 14' pond that was only a couple feet deep in Denver CO, and it dropped to -10 degrees F for a week and not 1 of the fish ever froze. I only lost them to carelessness in water changes, and diseases they had when they shipped to me. You're in Sugar Land TX? They're going to be just fine in ~20" of water. You're not going to have to take your koi to the shrink because they are depressed they can't exercise their swim bladders or anything. I promise. I have seen enormous ponds, some of them in Japan, with large koi that were not more than a couple feet deep just about anywhere in the pond. You could easily get a box pond kit with no bottom drain and only a skimmer/waterfall filter and pump (add a UV) that would house koi for a few years until your kids are bigger when you can put them in an Intex pool for a few months while you dig the pond deeper and add a bottom drain later. Don't let anyone dash your dream of having a small koi pond . I've seen fish that were ~10 years old and only ~12". Mine get a lot bigger because I buy good food and feed like crazy, but that's all preference. If you really want to see the enormous shallow ponds, I have pics somewhere. Like everyone said though, it does leave you prone to predation, so if a heron drops into your yard you've got a banquet. If you buy $10 koi it's probably no bigee. If you start getting into nicer koi it could really hurt.