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    Thread: Seth"s koi pond build

    1. #1
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      Seth"s koi pond build

      Greetings everyone,

      I've never kept koi before. I was into saltwater reef tanks for about 10 years and I've bred and raised clownfish for a little while so I do know a few things about fish and water but this will be my first koi pond. My wife and I are lucky enough to own a beautiful craftsman home on a little over an acre in Santa Barbara. We completely restored it 7 years and destroyed most of the landscaping in close proximity to the house when we replaced the foundation. We've been wanting to landscape the yard ever since and so this pond is part of a larger project to redo the yard in front of our house. I'm a car and I spend most of my free time in my workshop restoring cars so I'm going to hire a contractor to build this pond.

      After spending some time poking around the net I decided that the pond had to be concrete. I know that I really only have one shot at this so I decided to buy the pond design package from Sacramento Koi. Here is the design that they came up with https://sacramentokoi.com/design/89093105/

      I spent a lot of time on this forum looking at pond builds and people's issues with ponds etc. I met with four different pond builders and even after telling them that I wanted a proper koi pond (not a landscape pond) they tried to convince me to drastically change my design. One claimed that a bottom drain was a liability and the other claimed that "natural" liner pond was the way to go while at the same time telling me that it was going to need to be emptied and thoroughly cleaned out one a year. Sounds like a lot of work to me.

      My main goal is to keep nice big fish and have as maintenance free pond as possible.

      Here is the site

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      Here is the concept
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      All of the filtration will be about 75 feet away. I'm building a small concrete pad that will be enclosed. I'm leaving enough room near the filtration area for a possible quarantine tank.

      I've also made a couple changes to the initial pond design. At my contractors suggestion I upgraded the pump to a pentair AES spartus varaible speed unit. I've also added a incoming water filtration system and a system that will perform automatic water changes and use that water for irrigation.
      Attached Images Attached Images   
      Last edited by Jammyauto; 05-12-2020 at 09:04 PM. Reason: removing upside down pics

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    2. #2
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    3. #3
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      Welcome Seth and thanks for joining Koiphen!

      I've never been a big fan of using 3/4" jets in a koi pond. They require a high head pump and ultimately
      use more electricity to run. I think Sacramento Koi usually also runs bottom drains directly to a pressure
      type filter which I think work better with some sort of mechanical filter to remove larger debris before them.


      Just some help with picture taking with a mobile device:

      https://www.koiphen.com/forums/showt...s-on-the-forum

      Looking forward to watching your build!
      --Steve



      Koiphen 2021 Koi Person of the Year!

    4. #4
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      I’m sorry about the upside down pictures
      Here is where we are at today
      After subtracting 8” everywhere for concrete the pond at it’s widest points will be 25’ by 16’. I’m guessing it will be just a tad under 10k gallons.
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      Last edited by Jammyauto; 05-12-2020 at 09:01 PM. Reason: duplicate pictures

    5. #5
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      Quote Originally Posted by icu2 View Post
      Welcome Seth and thanks for joining Koiphen!

      I've never been a big fan of using 3/4" jets in a koi pond. They require a high head pump and ultimately
      use more electricity to run. I think Sacramento Koi usually also runs bottom drains directly to a pressure
      type filter which I think work better with some sort of mechanical filter to remove larger debris before them.


      Just some help with picture taking with a mobile device:

      https://www.koiphen.com/forums/showt...s-on-the-forum

      Looking forward to watching your build!
      Hi Steve, Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try to edit my posts and delete the upside down pictures.

      I'm not to worried about electricity as I've got a rather large solar array and I'm going to be adding a few more panels to cover this pond. I'm already running a full 1500 sf auto repair/fab shop and AC for a 4000 sf house and a Jacuzzi and I'm currently spending around $100 per year for electricity. I'm also looking at adding some tesla house batteries but that's a different project. Last year we managed to avoid the power companies power shut offs during peak fire season but it's only a matter of time before we are up against that again.

      I have already bought all my parts for the pond however I have not assembled them yet. It's not too late for me to made additions to my filtration system. What would you suggest as a mechanical filter ? I'm assuming this would not be sealed so it would have to be placed below the pond water level and before the pump ? The pond will have a skimmer with a basket so it should collect floating debris I believe.

      Tomorrow the excavator comes to finish digging out the hole. Exciting !

      Seth

    6. #6
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      Thumbs up My thoughts

      1. Nice Sacramento set-up but you should put mechanical filtration (sieve/RDF) before biological ( Sacramento).
      2. Not sure if pond lights are pool or spa. I suggest the spa size lights. They put out enough lights ( unless you want the Friday Night Lights look).
      3. 18” shelves around a pond make for great seats/steps for raccoons/herons.
      JMHO
      Best to you in your build.
      "Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please".
      Mark Twain
      US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910)


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    7. #7
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      Ditto removing the shelves and also adding some pre-filtration before the direct suction to the pump. You should also add some bio filtration like a shower filter , or a moving bed filter after the bead filter . Contrary to Manufacturers claims , bead filters are poor bio filters.
      If You want to keep the direct suction , a Zacci sieve would be a perfect pre-filter, the 24’’ does about 10,000 GPH .
      http://www.deepwaterkoi.com/Zakki-Si...akki-Sieve.htm
      I would also rethink the 1’’ jets. If You use larger underwater returns, You can gravity feed them from a bio filter .

    8. #8
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      Quote Originally Posted by catfish whiskers View Post
      Ditto removing the shelves and also adding some pre-filtration before the direct suction to the pump. You should also add some bio filtration like a shower filter , or a moving bed filter after the bead filter . Contrary to Manufacturers claims , bead filters are poor bio filters.
      If You want to keep the direct suction , a Zacci sieve would be a perfect pre-filter, the 24’’ does about 10,000 GPH .
      http://www.deepwaterkoi.com/Zakki-Si...akki-Sieve.htm
      I would also rethink the 1’’ jets. If You use larger underwater returns, You can gravity feed them from a bio filter .
      Thanks for the advise. I forgot to mention in the beginning that I was not going to do those shelves. All the sides will be vertical. I an doing some separate planter boxes with small holes on the bottoms that will be on the edges of the pond as shown in my concept.

      My next big decision is the elevation of my equipment pad. The area where I'm putting all the equipment is currently at the same elevation as the top of the pond. Obviously the Sac Koi equipment is sealed so it will work above water level but I would like to have options later on if I wind up wanting to make changes. What would be the ideal elevation to set this pad at so that I have options in the future ? I was thinking about setting the pad about 2' below the surface level.

    9. #9
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      Quote Originally Posted by Jammyauto View Post
      Thanks for the advise. I forgot to mention in the beginning that I was not going to do those shelves. All the sides will be vertical. I an doing some separate planter boxes with small holes on the bottoms that will be on the edges of the pond as shown in my concept.

      My next big decision is the elevation of my equipment pad. The area where I'm putting all the equipment is currently at the same elevation as the top of the pond. Obviously the Sac Koi equipment is sealed so it will work above water level but I would like to have options later on if I wind up wanting to make changes. What would be the ideal elevation to set this pad at so that I have options in the future ? I was thinking about setting the pad about 2' below the surface level.
      It's hard to know an exact depth because gravity fed filters would require being placed
      very near pond level and the filter themselves vary in height... but if you make it deeper
      than you think you'd need, it's usually simpler to lift and fill under the filters to pond level as opposed
      to trying to dig deeper later. Here's an example... filters and pumps are placed on blocks and
      and later filled up to level the filter pit out:





      It's a great thread if you have some time...

      https://www.koiphen.com/forums/showt...nhouse-Project
      --Steve



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    10. #10
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      Like Steve said , go deeper with the filter pad / pit . It’s easy to create raised block decks to lift equipment up .
      I would also go with 4’’ bottom drains and piping , to allow for gravity flow in case You upgrade to better filtration such as an RDF .

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      The end of day 2. The excavation is done. I had pictures from when I put in all the underground utilities and I thought I knew where everything was but we did hit a 1” copper supply line to my irrigation. So I had to replace about 5 feet of copper pipe.
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      Digging out the pond went very smoothly but we hit bedrock where I wanted to place the filtration. I’m currently only about 20” below pond surface level. I’m 75’ from the pond. I could move the filtration but it would wind up a lot further away.

    12. #12
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      Lookin' good!
      Moving filtration away from the pond with small pressure jets and larger pumps that the Sacramento Koi
      designs use will increase the running costs too. Might be worth it to see if you can bust through the bedrock.
      --Steve



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      Concrete this week !
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    14. #14
      icu2's Avatar
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      Lookin' good!
      Hope it turns out just like you want!
      --Steve



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      Quote Originally Posted by icu2 View Post
      Lookin' good!
      Hope it turns out just like you want!
      Only time will tell

      I read the whole thread that you suggested about that pond in Colorado. That's a pretty serious project !

      I was unable to go through the bedrock and I decided to leave the design as is for now for the filtration. The location of the equipment pad is about 30" below pond surface level. Probably not enough for gravity fed filtration system.

      I know that it may wind up costing me more money in the long run but there is a location actually right near the pond that is lower (the other side of that retaining wall) where I could build a nice filtration "house" . I'm kinda opposed to using that space for that if I don't need to thought because it would be right in the view of the approach to our house. I'd have to do some heavy landscaping around it to hide it. It would be fairly easy for me to tie into all the pond plumbing and do that if it turns out that the system I have now is inadequate for my needs.

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      Big progress today! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves
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      Looking good..

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      Got all the big rocks set. I’m really curious to watch them build the waterfall.
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      Smile

      Hi,

      i'm totaly new here but i saw your progress and your cute dog. What kind of dog ist it?^^

      Anyway first of all nice design concept. Do you paied the company only for the design or they also are building your pond? I couldnt get it. thx

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