deep ponds

[ajb]

I read in koi carp magazine that raad hassan's pond is 7ft deep and the magazine quote him as saying that is a little too deep and can cause problems.

My question is - what kind of problems would you get if your pond is too deep, e.g. more than 6 feet deep? If money were no object, and you had a digger on standby - how deep can you take a koi pond and still maintain good water, health koi etc ?

Regards

Adam

[eds]

This is a good question as I'm planning to go down to 8ft at the deep end of my next pond! What magazine is that article in Adam?

[pepsi]

well I hope thats not true ,because my pond is 12.5foot long by 8 foot wide and 8 foot deep.(5000 gallons).the pond has been running for 7 years, and touch wood... i've had no real problems ,and water quality is good on all parameters. Barry...

[ageinghippy]

Hi Adam,

I don`t think there are any hard and fast rules about how deep you can go, but it seems around 6 ft is the usual depth for the average keeper. Over in the USA there are quite a few of the `top end` guys with 8 - 10 foot deep ponds, I`m racking my brain to remember their names though, sorry.

The only downside that I can see with being deep, is when it comes time to catch the fish in a net. It`ll take a bit of practise, and a looong handle on your net.


Chris (another one)

PLUS....

Thanks to the crossposting, there are deep ponds over here too, I believe `Pepsi` has an 8 footer down in Brighton!!!!

[ajb]

Ed - it's in Koi Carp magazine, last paragraph on page 29. It just got me thinking, and hence I thought the forum might have some ideas.

I'm starting to plan a new pond, which may be some years off. And I'd like to make it deep to increase pond volume. I imagine there would be practical challenges about reaching the bottom of the pond , for example for netting or cleaning. I thought it might be more difficult to pump air from a bottom drain. But these are all practical issues. Would koi health be effected? Would a 10 foot pond be more suseptible to parasitic or bacterial problems versus a 6 ft deep pond? Would growth be enhanced or restrained? Perhaps the depth makes no difference to koi health, and it's simply much more difficult to biuld and maintain a very deep pond. I thought a very deep pond may hold temperature better because it would reach deep enough down that the earth temperature 10 ft down might help the pond maintain reasonable winter temperature.

I've another thought about automation, and talked to Raad at the national about the automation in his pond. I'll put it on another thread.

Regards

Adam

[ajb]

There's some potential pitfalls with deep ponds described in this thread, including some insights from Mike Snaden:

http://www.koiquest.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... =2&t=10966" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Regards

Adam

[Matthew]

I glassed a 9 foot deep pond this year. It was built with the blocks laid on their bellies, 6 foort under ground, 3 foot above and one of the walls split open after it was filled.

[B.Scott]

The one major drawback I come across is the airpressure you will need if you plan on using an airdome on the drain cover. You may find the air pump uses more leccy than you planned for the amount of bubbles you get as well as the extra strain on the pump itself

[georgeboscon]

Decks are often built from pressure treated wood. Pressure treated wood is long lasting and holds up to wet and icey weather conditions. Pressure treated wood however is treated with chemicals which have been known to be toxic.

Decking Timber

[B.Scott]

Absolutely! I had problems with the fish flashing the first three years after I built my pond. This is how long it took me to figure out it all came from the pressure treated wood that covered the filter. Every time it rained the fish would scrape and scower themselves like crazy. It wasn't until I pressure washed the wood thereby exposing an extra fresh layer of treated, unleached wood and noticed the reaction of the fish that i made the connection. I would say, for anything that is going to directly or indirectly channel water into the pond, use hard wood or if you want to be more environmentally conscious, use some of the newer plasticized decking.

B.Scott