Hey guys…long time lurker and have loved watching everyone’s ponds being built via Koiphen!!! With that being said, we are getting ready to build a new koi pond and using a professional builder who has been great to work with. He is one of the VERY few builders in the area who knows what TPRS, BD, UV’s etc. are!!With all that being said, I want to build this ONCE and thought some feedback and/or suggestions might be in order. I know there are very different schools of thought on filtration, etc and with that being said I had a LIM bead filter before and LOVED it. I wanted to use that again but we augmented it with a gravity fed vortex. Without tearing my plans to much apart
, let me know what you think and where we might improve/change, etc.
Little history: I Inherited a small pond at the old house in Atlanta and got extremely attached and as a result moved my 4 koi in the back of the car to Raleigh. (Thanks MCA for those moving tips back on the Atlanta Summer Pond Tour!!). They are currently in a Rubbermaid stock tank and enjoying life in the garage!
Brief overview of the pond: With the new house and backyard, the pond is a balance with my desire to have a Koi pond and my wife’s desire to have a formal and fully landscaped backyard. The size of the pond will be approximately 8x16 with 4.5 to 5 foot straight sides sloping down to 6 feet in the middle (I know bigger would be better, but the yard is limited and there are other needs like patio, outdoor kitchen, etc!). The pond will have a deck going around one side (built off the current screened in porch) with a small observation deck on the far side. It will be cantilevered over the pond by a couple of feet with a reflective material, perhaps mirrored tile under the deck so it appears that the pond flows back under the house. It will be built like a swimming pool with rebar, shotcrete and ultimately sealed. My father-in-law is the landscape architect and designed the entire thing along with our front and side yards. An engineer reviewed the specs for the cantilever, bluestone patio, etc that but up against the pond, so we should be ok with the red clay here in North Carolina.
The Filter Plan: The current plan calls for one 4 inch LIM BD gravity feeding to a Wave 36 vortex with self cleaning micro screen. It then passes through a Wave II ¾ HP and a Bio Wave Plus 60 . After the bead it will flow through an emperor HO 120 UV back via 4 TPRs under the waterline. In addition to the TPR’s there is also a small reflecting pool (4x4) with a formal piece of sculpture that will feed a sheet waterfall dropping 4 to 5 inches into the main pool. This will be plumbed to have a winter bypass and can regulate flow to it from the filter area.
There is also going to be a skimmer that I think is plumbed also into the vortex (One of my questions for later). The BD will have an air dome and plumbed separately with a Hakko 80 providing the air supply.
I don’t have any plumbing specs at present, but hope that gives enough to get me started. Couple of questions I have are:
Should the skimmer be on its own circuit or since I am not feeding a massive waterfall or long stream, can the Wave II handle the suction I want on the BD and the suction from the skimmer?
Should we plan for two bottom drains or with sufficient slope created in the bottom can one handle it?
We are talking about building the deck out of Ipe, but it is really expensive and was curious about dry cured ACQ that will be stained and sealed.
Here is a drawing that I did a couple of months ago, that while not all that pretty, should reflect at a high level the design.
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and lovin' it!!
