Simply Koi and More Koi

With Kim moving back to Kent and being only 5-miles from where I live now, Kim needed a new pond. Kim is now in a lovely rented terraced cottage and therefore could move again at any time, plus digging up the garden isnt a possibility. Kim's Koi are currently in a couple of temporary plastic paddling pool type of ponds, not a good home for a long period of time.

Options were limited and whatever was built and it couldnt damage the property in any way and needed to be easily removed again.

As some of you will know Kim uses a wheelchair and crutches all of the time, but there is no holding her back at all. She wants to do everything to help LOL

We decided to build it near the house on a block built paving area






At the back of the garden were some 4" square and 5" square Oak posts that the current owner said Kim could have. So I decided to use these as a frame for the pond. These should be strong enough to hold a bit of water! Kim decided that the maximum height of the pond would be 42" at the front laft corner piece. The floor does slope as well, nothing is flat!

All needed to be fixed together though, so using some of the 4" posts I constructed 4 corner pieces to allow each of the sides to be constructed.


These took a while to make, I'm no carpenter and working with these heavy pieces of wood was slow going. Then I made up the front pieces and fitted them to the two front corner pieces. The front and back will have 3 x 4" beams and the sides will have 4 beams, just so it goes togther easier and there is some wood left on the corner pieces!




I then made the back up as well, same as the front. That was one weekends work, a good Saturday and a couple of hours on Sunday with a hangover!

I was off to North Wales from Mon-Fri, so yesterday I was Back at Kim's

The other two sides were made up now and all screwed together. Some of this was the 5" square pieces, which had to be circular sawed down to 4" and that wood is tough! Also fitted the skimmer in place




I've also robbed some old filters, pump, UV, valves from my now defunct growing on pond and brought these to Kims house

Plans have been drawn up for next weekend and left Kim with a few jobs to do on the filters during the week

Pleased with progress so far, lets hope the weather holds out so I can work for a few more weekends and get it finished.

Hi Bob,

Great stuff mate and sorry i could not make it Ive ti help but hopefully will get over soon and lend a hand

Loads to do yet Gazza, so if you are free (or anyone else for that matter!) to join me at any time that will be great.

Top job Bob.

Nice one Bob, an easy pond that anyone can have just two downers to be aware of, I will bet that the block paving will sink, not going to cause any problems to the pond but the landlord may have something to say in time. The one thing You do need to make sure of is that the air brick can pull air, Blocking one will reduce the amount of flow to the others, as they work by pulling and pushing air between each other. On an old property there may only be one front and back so make sure they can still do there job.
Justin

Hi All

As you can see Bob is doing a fantastic job, he kept doing the design for it then he would change it and then when he thought he had cracked it, just before he started I asked if a skimmer could be fitted!!!!!!! Which bless him he sorted out. He is also putting a window in

So far I havn't been able to do much to help which is annoying to say the least but hopefully Bob will find some jobs for me to do soon, I was meant to get the wood for the inside sides this week and had a woman moment thinking they would fit in the car ooopps

This afternoon Bob has tried to fit all the pieces of wood to screw the inside walls to and where the wood got so wet this week and with it being such hard wood his circular saw broke, which slowed things down a bit. He has also worked out how to keep the air brick ventilated which he was concerned about. It should hold around 1000 gallons when complete, not ideal, but fantastic with what there is to work with. I will try and add some photos but at the moment a message keeps saying the files are to big

Anyone who would like to come round and help Bob, is more than welcome.

Any more up dates how it all going Kim/Bob ??

Hi Tommy

Unfortunatly I had a bad fall last week which has caused a bit of delay in getting alot more done, but last week Bob managed to get all the metal things in place to keep it square, and cut and fitted all the pieces needed to hold all the ply in place.

The wood is so hard and it was quite wet last week so it was heavy going on the tools and all I could do was sit and watch. I have changed the filter to how Bob wanted it but it needs a bit of tweaking which hopefully I will get done this week. If the weather is kind to us Bob thinks it will be finished in 3 weeks

Hope your feeling better soon Kim bet you cant wait to have the pond finished.

Hi Lee

Your right there, and I think the Koi will be much much happier as well

Here is a photo of a couple of the Koi that will be in the new pond and the filter as it is now. The filter is an old Oase Biotec which has been adapted, it now has one inlet and two outlets it will have moving bed K1 type media fed from a vortex with Bobs homemade easy by an Oase 5500 through a 15w UVC, the skimmer will be able to be turned on and off by a valve as and when needed. As there are no drains in the garden the vortex will have a length of flexi hose attached so it can run off

Hi Kim
I glad for you to be back into Kent it has been far too long since we last met and having a good chat between ourselves if you need an Aquamax 5500 I have a spare 1 that you can have it does not have a cage as used it as a dry pump
BTW the pond is looking great 1 Bob

Hi Pete

It is great to hear from you and the offer of the 5500 pump is brilliant as Bob has said to try and find one so you are a star.

Bob is doing a great job on the pond and its just the right height to rest a cup of tea and look at the Koi and if you prefer to sit we can watch them from the window. Bob tried to get as much gallonage as possible with the space we had, and when my friend who owns the house said I could put it there I was over the moon as they are near the bottom of the garden at the moment and I hate them being that far away, so this way I can come downstairs in the morning and open the door and check them, like I have always been able do, and I can also look out off the window, oh happy days are coming

kimr wrote: oh happy days are coming

And a few very nice koi too judging by the photos last night!

Don't forget you have witnesses to those promises Bob made Kim!

Hope it all continues to go well for you.

Cheers

Bob

Hi Bob

Thank you last night, and if I need witnesses I'll come to you

I have told Bob he can keep them in my pond for as long as he likes and when/if he does build a new pond he will have some nice Koi to put in it.

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Here is a photo of Bob working hard



This is just one of the posts with all the cuts made ready to take all the pieces. The pond is really heavy, but Bob has made so it can be moved when the time comes.



This is a photo of the Filter before it was changed, it had 2 inlets and originally a 3" outlet, which I had already changed to 11/2" outlet. Although the filter has 2 chambers Bob thinks it will work as a single moving bed. So I needed to block 1 inlet up make block the old outlet and make 2 new outlets



Blocking up of the old inlet


These needed grinding down



Trying to work out how to keep the K1 type media in I drilled holes where the outlet was going

All done, Bob has now worked out a better way to keep the media inside, so I have change it slightly, but the way Bob has said will let the flow be a lot bigger. Also Bob thinks that it will not have to airated as the way he will have the water coming in will keep the media moving. Weather permitting more to be done on Saturday