need help/advise

[Nate Dogg]

I am going to try to make a pond this spring (in a month or so). I have been doing some research I just wonted to run everything past yall also I know it needs to be bigger but this is as big as it can be. The pond will be build right next to the house (see pic), I live in Louisville, Ky. For winter we get 1-3 days that are low teens to single digest. With 2 weeks in the consecutive 20's. For summer we get 90's for a few weeks off and on with lots of high 80's. The pond will get morning sun.

All of the below is from what I have drawn up with a approximation.

size:
The sideby the house is 13ft the curve is 20ft and the other side is 11ft
surface size 60ft sq
1ft depth is 27ft square and cube
3ft depth is 33ft square and 99ft cube
total 126ft cube for 945 gallons


construction:

the pond will be a black tarp
the pump pondmaster 1800 or 2400 gph (which one)
filter pondmaster 1000 filter with the pm 500
20 watt UV sterilizer


The Look:
This is in the picture but I don't know who hard it will be to read

The look I am looking for is a waterfall at the far end (upper right hand corner) I am giving 3 feet of room on the sides to build this. This will hide all the plumbing. Around the edge there will be 1 foot of room with rock holding down the tarp. Between the rock I will be putting monkey grass (I love the look and we have tons of it where the pond will be). The pond will have a 1 foot deep 1 foot shelf with different aquatic plant. The rest will be 3ft deep. I want it to be a nice koi. I am not interested in giant 3ft koi I am wanting more of a swarm.

My questions

I what should I do differently or what am I doing wrong with filtration UV sterilization and the over all construction. 1 thing I know I don't have a skimmer I was told I didn't need this. We don't have any trees near (60ft away and down hill) is the nearest.

 

[Nate Dogg]

what about fish tunnels. Our back yard is fenced in protected by dogs. The dogs will stay out of the pond they hate water

 

[Moneypit]

That is on the small side for koi, they will get big and produce a lot of waste. I would look at using a bottom drain to a settling chamber and external pump, then to your pond filter. This way you can remove a lot of the solids and keep them out of your bio filter. Using a submersable pond pump makes filtering the waste harder as it chews it up into little bits making it harder to filter it out. Other wise you are looking at a maintanance nightmare, been there done that. I started with a pond just like you are describing and things were ok for the first year or so untill the koi out grew the pond.

 

[Nate Dogg]

what would this settling chamber and pump cost approx. also the pond is slightly elevated compared to the rest of the yard

 

[Moneypit]

That depends on what you can get a tank for in your area, pump probably around $200-$300

 

[Asianleful]

You should get some more flow in the pond than just from the water fall. Placement for filtration is very important!

 

[oldfish]

If you are interested in building a good pond for koi you should contact your local koi club.They can show you some ponds in your local area and give you the advise you need to be successful. Joining your local koi club will save you more time,money,and agravation then any other action you can take. http://www.louisvillekoiclub.com/

 

[kendragon]