I recently moved from my parents home into a 2-bedroom apartment.
We have decided to close my natural/rock/gravel 6500-gallon pond, because being that I no longer live in the home, the maintenance for ME is just to much.
I have 16 koi in the pond, all purchased same time all aprox 8-10 inches in size.
With this fish load, the fact the pond is natural gravel, with no bottom drains, and the fact the pond is only 6500 gallons I must do frequent partial-water changes during the months the pond is running.
Last summer my water bill was aprox $800 every 4-months!!
Would it be possible to keep 4 of my 10-inch koi and raise them in a BARE-NO-GRAVEL=NO-POOP-TRAP 180-gallon-aquarium?
I relize this amount of water is very small for koi, and I know the rule of thumb is 1000-gallons of water per koi, but I think these rules could be bent quite a bit if you are willing to do the water changes without ever missing them.
I would setup the tank so filtering-power would be OVERKILL as well as using my very powerful outdoor HiBlow air pumps so that the water would be saturated with oxygen.
Most importantly MASSIVE DAILY 75% water changes with a dechlorinator.
Could this be done? I cannot see why it wouldn't work, water bills would no longer be an issue since my water is free.
Many years ago I kept Oscars in my basement in a 180 gallon tank, I had 8 adults at one point, they were fed heavy, but I never missed my water changes had overkill filter setup and the fish thrived, the only issues were with fighting between the fish sometimes.
We have decided to close my natural/rock/gravel 6500-gallon pond, because being that I no longer live in the home, the maintenance for ME is just to much.
I have 16 koi in the pond, all purchased same time all aprox 8-10 inches in size.
With this fish load, the fact the pond is natural gravel, with no bottom drains, and the fact the pond is only 6500 gallons I must do frequent partial-water changes during the months the pond is running.
Last summer my water bill was aprox $800 every 4-months!!
Would it be possible to keep 4 of my 10-inch koi and raise them in a BARE-NO-GRAVEL=NO-POOP-TRAP 180-gallon-aquarium?
I relize this amount of water is very small for koi, and I know the rule of thumb is 1000-gallons of water per koi, but I think these rules could be bent quite a bit if you are willing to do the water changes without ever missing them.
I would setup the tank so filtering-power would be OVERKILL as well as using my very powerful outdoor HiBlow air pumps so that the water would be saturated with oxygen.
Most importantly MASSIVE DAILY 75% water changes with a dechlorinator.
Could this be done? I cannot see why it wouldn't work, water bills would no longer be an issue since my water is free.
Many years ago I kept Oscars in my basement in a 180 gallon tank, I had 8 adults at one point, they were fed heavy, but I never missed my water changes had overkill filter setup and the fish thrived, the only issues were with fighting between the fish sometimes.
