One of the things which does help and in my opinion is a must if an aerated bottom drain as this helps move the water and draw waste into the drain.
How deep does a koi pond need to be?
Moderators: B.Scott, vippymini, Gazza, Manky Sanke
-
Gazza
- architeuthis moderator
- Posts: 5306
- Joined: Sat Aug 13, 2005 7:24 pm
- Location: Essex,UK
- Contact:
I like a pond with some shape and as long as you place the return pipe in some good positions i am sure you wont get any dead spots.I not sure if you can remember (seems ages since you was last round) but my pond is in a corner so i had the same thought before building but the ponds been running a few years now and it all OK
One of the things which does help and in my opinion is a must if an aerated bottom drain as this helps move the water and draw waste into the drain.
One of the things which does help and in my opinion is a must if an aerated bottom drain as this helps move the water and draw waste into the drain.
Much depends on your hopes as to stocking levels, with sensible levels as part of your planning that only leaves the pond to consider from a practical perspective.
I believe one of the contributing factors with my sisters problems with her koi is the stupid pond dimensions. It's 7' x 6' x 5' deep, which is fine for shubunkins and frogs but totally useless for Koi IMHO. Koi are large muscular fish, with a propulsion system requiring space, failure to provide adequate swimming area (as opposed to volume) will cause it's own problems.
The best method for designing the dimensions of a koi pond IMHO is to determine first what space and cash etc can be allocated to filtration. Having ascertained that we can then extrapolate the filtration capacity to give us the optimum pond volume. We then need to decide which dimensions will best serve the needs of the Koi, and depth is only one of them. Whilst on the subject of filtration, please discount that silly idea that turnover is fine every two hours, or put aside a lot of money for med's. Aim for every 30 minutes if possible, but if it's not possible with the filters you can accomodate then add some circulation at least. But do consider that rather than one filter with limited turnover potential two smaller or dissimilar filters may be better, for example a medium multibay and a small shower will be much better than a larger multibay.
In the case of my sister as quoted above, instead of 7' x 6' x 5' deep, I'd have gone for 10' x 7' x 3' deep. This would provide the same water volume but in a more useable configuration for the koi, I know this to be true because I rarely see koi swimming vertically as opposed to horizontally. A pond 7 x 6 severely limits the swimming possibilities for decent size koi, they would no sooner be moving than they's have to stop or change direction, cramping this way can lead to injuries.
Chi
I believe one of the contributing factors with my sisters problems with her koi is the stupid pond dimensions. It's 7' x 6' x 5' deep, which is fine for shubunkins and frogs but totally useless for Koi IMHO. Koi are large muscular fish, with a propulsion system requiring space, failure to provide adequate swimming area (as opposed to volume) will cause it's own problems.
The best method for designing the dimensions of a koi pond IMHO is to determine first what space and cash etc can be allocated to filtration. Having ascertained that we can then extrapolate the filtration capacity to give us the optimum pond volume. We then need to decide which dimensions will best serve the needs of the Koi, and depth is only one of them. Whilst on the subject of filtration, please discount that silly idea that turnover is fine every two hours, or put aside a lot of money for med's. Aim for every 30 minutes if possible, but if it's not possible with the filters you can accomodate then add some circulation at least. But do consider that rather than one filter with limited turnover potential two smaller or dissimilar filters may be better, for example a medium multibay and a small shower will be much better than a larger multibay.
In the case of my sister as quoted above, instead of 7' x 6' x 5' deep, I'd have gone for 10' x 7' x 3' deep. This would provide the same water volume but in a more useable configuration for the koi, I know this to be true because I rarely see koi swimming vertically as opposed to horizontally. A pond 7 x 6 severely limits the swimming possibilities for decent size koi, they would no sooner be moving than they's have to stop or change direction, cramping this way can lead to injuries.
Chi