Jesus that just blowed my mind. Wow. I would love to see your setup. You need to give us some pics.
Koi and my first pond
- Thread starter Enemyarms
- Start date
Enemyarms;5061372; said:
haha, I'll start a build thread for the indoor.. the outdoor is moving slow as the ground is just now thawing.
The koi will be fine in the winter, just need to prep them.
Feed them a good, quality diet throughout the summer and give them some more protein in late Aug. into Sept. like worms(wax,crawlers,red). Cold water food will probably start near the end of Sept. and continue into Oct. but that is totally weather and temp. dependant.
Keep a hole in the ice by continuing to run the filter, a small pump placed upward on a shelf to constantly breaking the surface, or an air pump also in a shallow shelf/end. You can use a stock heater, but I would combine it with one of the others since they short out easy.
The main problem will be the lack of volume. 1300 gals is OK for a handful of 4-6" koi for a season, but they grow fast and produce a lot of waste.
They eat like Oscars and crap like cats....
I have a 1300 gal pond with just under 3X turnover and can't imagine having more than 1 Koi. In fact, I don't have any Koi. My next house will have a large enough pond to house them, but that won't be for several years, or if the housing markets makes a sudden 180.
Goldfish are a much better choice in my mind with the volume you have planned. If after a few seasons you want to go bigger, you can. Liner ponds are very easy to expand or re-work. Get your feet wet with a small pond and get it dialed in. Once you fell comfortable with it, keep it or go bigger.
Feed them a good, quality diet throughout the summer and give them some more protein in late Aug. into Sept. like worms(wax,crawlers,red). Cold water food will probably start near the end of Sept. and continue into Oct. but that is totally weather and temp. dependant.
Keep a hole in the ice by continuing to run the filter, a small pump placed upward on a shelf to constantly breaking the surface, or an air pump also in a shallow shelf/end. You can use a stock heater, but I would combine it with one of the others since they short out easy.
The main problem will be the lack of volume. 1300 gals is OK for a handful of 4-6" koi for a season, but they grow fast and produce a lot of waste.
They eat like Oscars and crap like cats....
I have a 1300 gal pond with just under 3X turnover and can't imagine having more than 1 Koi. In fact, I don't have any Koi. My next house will have a large enough pond to house them, but that won't be for several years, or if the housing markets makes a sudden 180.
Goldfish are a much better choice in my mind with the volume you have planned. If after a few seasons you want to go bigger, you can. Liner ponds are very easy to expand or re-work. Get your feet wet with a small pond and get it dialed in. Once you fell comfortable with it, keep it or go bigger.
really koi can survive in 20-30 F degree water? so you mean they still alive if the pond with frozen solid water?mshill90;5061340; said:
usually when the water in the top of the pond froze, the water under it still more than 32F and higher at deeper. The water will be about 39F at maybe 4-5 ft under the ice( I'm not sure, its been a long time since i read that). Koi always like pond with strong currents, so if your pond have strong water current flowing the ice will be thin or may be no ice depend on how cold it get!
I may skip koi and get goldfish. Really think it won't freeze? That would make me happy. Everyone was saying the water would freeze in the pump and pipes. The liner ive got is 14x14 how would I combine more than 1? Wouldn't that cause a seam and alow my water to leave the pond? If I found an easy way to do this, i could dig it deeper.
I am in Ohio and no expert. I have a small pond in my flower bed out front. I have a few goldfish in it. I run the filter through the winter to keep it from freezing. And all the fish live through the winter. I started with feeders in there, and the first couple winters through the feeders into my small farm pond. 20 x 50 deepest end about 9 feet. That was 10 years ago and they are still living out there. It freezes over in the winter. but not solid obviously. The goldfish are upto a foot long in that pond now. I am think about putting some koi in there now to see what will grow. That pond has no aeration or filter.
how cold it can get in your area ! I never seen koi pond with strong current around me get freeze water, and it usually get around 20 here in the winter!Enemyarms;5061951; said:
man, you live in Iowa, it gonna be hard to keep that pond from freezing! but you may keep the ice thin and some free ice surface for air it might work out!
