Hope, I went from zero to mud ponds. I don't have a scientific bent and didn't think i could cope with the chemistry and filtration and what-all in a constructed pond plus i already had a spring-fed mud pond in the front yard as a garden feature. I assumed that the mud would take care of the kids, but it really didn't. i still had to learn the ropes. The learning curve pond was overstocked, i fed too much, too often, i had a mix of tribes in there, goldfish, koi, bull heads. it was kind of a living bouillabaisse. Took years to clean up my mistakes and over-enthusiasm. Fish got ulcers and died. Some jumped. Bird predated. Goldfish and koi fell in love and made disgusting looking offspring and mink took advantage and came up from the brook and through the outflow pipes. i mean how could they resist?
Flash forward a couple of years.
No goldfish, no bullheads (they were not killed). The koi still got ulcers and were still a random bunch of shiny objects from upstate importer of cases of koi from japan. I started water-testing. Gah. I put in a brand new pond in the field and started over, about when i joined this forum, found friends and mentors. I was besotted with shusui by then and figured i might live long enough to breed ki shusui if i tried really hard. I put in two wells and another pond. I ran air from the little barn, now pump house. i put in electric panel called "essential load" which ran the air and water off solar panels even if the grid went down. And i started using Aquamedzyme to get my fish through the "aeronoma (sp) alley" when the bacterium are rarin' to go and the fish weren't yet able to fight them off. I still struggled with ammonia. And one year i tried to keep the water warm with a swimming pool cover -- the gas the fish emitted collected under the bubble wrap and i lost my first born flock-spawned ki shusui to dropsy -- or something like it.
I had a number of mentors on this site, a couple I could write to day or night, Bless them! They lived in different time zones and hemispheres. And others, more local who jumped in to save me. Cindy took a phone call when one of my basement shusui scraped off a piece of sushi 5" x 1" by 1/2" deep and saved Stella over the phone. Stella lives and thrives in the Big Pond 9 years later. My new friends at Aquamedzyme (sold the business since) gave me the wholesale price on 25 lb buckets of the stuff. I fed the fish Blackwater Creek Gold-N and wheat germ food in cold weather.
One day I called a fish seller who was located about 45 mins from here and said, "I have a
million questions." That was John Clark of Northeastern Aquatics. He put the phone down on his desk, went out to his establishment and did some fish work, and when he came back, I was winded, but done. He and I worked out a great deal over time and it was win/win. He would seine the ponds -- I'm what's called a senior citizen! -- and take away my culls which he then sells to weekenders, other ppl with mud ponds and to outlets that sell koi. My friend, John, makes this project possible because between us, we keep the fish load down. He is the only person in real life who will talk to me about koi. LOL. I mean no one else irl cares at all.
All said, I don't use man-made filters. Possibly all the pond plant growth is good for fish. My air and flow-through water are on 24/365. My 48 panel solar array helps with the electricity bill. All of the ponds are netted and outflow pipes have perforated caps which we monitor to make sure the wily mink haven't removed them. And. I don't sell fish or anything else so i can just be a backyard breeder hobbyist working to stabilize the "elusive ki shusui" so I can breed them on demand.
What was the question?
Oh. My fish are very healthy. I attribute this in part to the Aquamedzyme, and also to fresh water, constant air, geothermal heat from the ground itself and that's what gets them through the winter. They actually grow!
I don't know if this answers anything for you == but this is how I did it.
If you have any interest in seeing how ki shusui developed, i noted and photographed the project from first egg to last pull -- right here.
if you want to see the condensed version:
www.kishusui.com
Wishing you much luck with your journey, Hope.
It will be one of a kind so do take pictures.
all the best!