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Depending on how far from your house the pond is, you could try an air pump sited indoors and run the airline to the pond. I think you would need to insulate the air line and maybe build a low wooden frame over the pond covered with bubble wrap. Just some 2x1 battens with bubble wrap stapled...

Watercress is my favourite way to tackle blanket weed in a natural pond. You can try the supermarket variety but I have found the true wild stuff is far more vigorous and robust. Just plant as much as you can, directly in the pond or even in pots, it grows very fast and needs to be removed in...

Koi love soft plants, they pull them up, eat them and generally enjoy messing around with them.

Ha ha pond whisperer! Well I am no expert when it comes to liner built wildlife ponds as I only have long term, real life, experience with rigid and filleted ponds. The main issue with a rubber liner ponds is just when they are getting mature, looking great and becoming low maintenance, they...

Fiberglass over cement is the way to go, where I live it would cost you around £60 a square meter to have it done or around £35 - 40 a square meter for the DIY materials. However polllester resin is oil based and going up in price rapidly. Not to difficult to apply once you are experienced but...

That is exactly the sort of thing that I do but unfortunately I live across the sea! Perhaps garden centers would have something that can be adapted or there might even be a commercial something from a koi dealer, @martin-green might know of something?

If you wanted to really go for it then a fiberglass box standing on the edge of the pond filled with baked clay balls, planted with cress and with the bottom drilled with mutable holes over the pond edge. Pump pond water via a spray bar into the box and let it fall back into the pond. That...

Absolutely any form of vegetable filer is a good idea.

Nice, neat pond, you could add a few baskets of water cress as it grows really fast and is great for using up nutrients in the pond water.

Well to start with it is not my fish but lives in a pond that I built 32 years ago and I am presently working on. However I did supply all the fish including two sturgeon, I imported 20 of them when there were 8” long in 1989. They were sold to me as Diamond back Sturgeon and suitable to be kept...

It spends 24 hours a day sucking the sides of the pond so I guess it feeds on what ever it can find in the short weed that grows there, It will also eat floating koi pellets that drift into the sides, it will stick its head right out of the water to get its mouth at water level….. funny old thing!

I have been working on replacing some decking on a pond that I built way beck in 1988, in fact it is the third time it has been replaced! Most of the fish are 30 + years old, there were two sturgeon at one time but just the one now ……

Well pond design is all about making the customer happy and I have very reluctantly built a few square ponds but I am more partial to curves and natural gravel filter beds. I foresee much blanket weed in the above pond unless there will be some form of shading but it is a fantastic size pond...

Well the main difference is the volume of water to fish ratio, there is a lot of tolerance in a pond of that size. That is a fine formal pond and not a cheap build, easy and basic construction with sensible filters but you would have to like square corner boxes and straight lines to really...

I think that is a interesting perspective, I guess that is not something I have never considered but as a professional pond builder I tend to advertise and build ponds that last a life time and beyond but of course you have a point should you not wish to have a permanent pond .

Mesh in concrete is a bit old school and you still have to use a weak cement mix. Reinforcing fibres are much more efficient, basically very fine hair like fibres are added to a very strong cement mix. In fact not a new concept as horse hair and lime plaster has been around for hundreds of...

I have already written on this forum about this sort of construction but yes fibreglass is very resourceful. So there are two methods of in ground pond building that I have used to professionally form long lasting ponds. There are limitations to the depth and the shape before other methods...

Yeah working now @frederick thompson .

Ok well that is meant to be an television advert but the video wont show and now the forum wont let me delete it ....!!

Ha ha here I am feeding my fish in 1984.

Ok, depending on the quality of the liner and it flexibility, you might have to back up the liner with cement as the gravel may not hold it neatly in place . Personally I am not a fan of gravel as it never stays put and will migrate over the grass. It might be easier to strim around the stones...

To make it look as natural as possible the stones should be partially in the water which means the liner should go under the stones and lip up behind them. So you could cut another 50-75mm shallow shelf and save the turf, place in your liner an fill the pond near to the top, place the stones ...

Ok that’s great then! Although personally I think the beauty of koi is not only how they look but watching them grow and getting attracted to the individual fish. Obviously a purpose koi pond is considerably different in design and function that the one you have planed. After seeing your garden...

Hi Tucker, nice green garden you have! I know you are excited and keen to find out all about ponds but dont rush into anything. You will have to make some big decisions before you start digging but i will start the ball rolling and suggest you studdy koi carp requirements. They grow big ...

Hi Fred funny enough I found an old roll of that packing tape in my shed, it will work very well in a trickle tower filter as once opened up and loaded in the filter, the surface area is huge but perhaps the main benefit over the ceramic medias is that it wont clog up! Also the tape offers an...

I am sort of semi retired Fred, i would get to board without a bit of work. I was a manager of a large Koi farm here in Guernsey in the 1980s and early 90s then i stated a hard landscape business specialising in Japanese features and koi ponds. I have no idea how many ponds we built but there...

I can see that would be a huge benefit Fred, of course three speed pumps have been around for a long time but having this type of modern technology is great . Some of my customers are running three kilowatt swimming pool pumps on their Koi ponds but sometimes you need that sort of power to feed...

Hi Fred, i am sure you trickle filter will work well. I am a huge fan of this type of filter, I used to make my own version from fiberglass. I use parcel packing tape to fill the filter, the black hard plastic tape used to secure large boxes . The tape can be bought in huge rolls for about £50...

How much do you think he would weigh Fred?

Thanks Fred and the same to you,your family and your fish ...

The most successful ponds I have ever built have large planted gravel beds, some are 30 years old and still going strong without the gravel ever being completely dug out replaced. My best advice would to to get as much open space and volume of water as possible but with 50% gravel bed, the easy...

Fred, you are back with us! I was getting concerned......

I found a way to make a nice pond edging, there are some pictures here.... https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/nice-pond.12645/

Amazing!

Thanks lan, we went to Maidenhead and I bought them out of stock! No chance of that, I love my home with a passion, it is nice to give the car a run though as guernsey only has a few roads that allow you to travel at 35mph - most roads are 25mph max.

Guys, I am in Southampton for a few days (visiting a friend in hospital) is there anywhere I can buy replacement UV tubes within reasonable driving distance. I live in Guernsey and nobody will post tubes to me, so I would like to buy a few while I am in England, if I can....

Standard greenhouse shading is very similar to hessian sacking but it is made of nylon plastic type stuff & will last for many years outside. Where I live, it is available "off the roll" in most garden centres & often comes in different weaves ie 20% shading 30% etc.

Quite entertaining though.....

Hey fred those Gunnera are great! I think they produce the largest leaves of any plant! I have a few customers with absolutely huge specimens in their garden, they might not grow so big where you live though? I used to have one in my own garden, over about 20 years it grew so large I had to get...

Water Cress, it needs sun & warmth to really get going but is very fast growing and has always been my choice for vegetable filters.

Hi Fred, it will be interesting to see if you get any blanket weed issues during the pond first full summer. Hopefully not, but your water looks so clear you might if you we get a lot of bright sun this year.

Yes they are still going, I sold both fish to the owner after I had built his pond around 25 years ago, they were just a few inches long at the time. The pond is around 12000 gals and around 7' deep but the interesting thing is the owner has swam with his fish virtually every day over the last...

All the really big Koi that I know about in my my area are in fact cross breed, mirror carp - koi carp. These two have lived together for over 25 years now, the Sturgeon is around 5' long & the Ghost carp around 35lb in weight.

Here is some more direct info... http://www.chembondproducts.com/mixing_instructions_01.html

Ha Ha glad I piqued your interest :) Yes you need a mixer, you make the mix accurately using a 3 gallon bucket, 3 x corse sand one x cement and "I cant remember the amount of fibres" 250 grams maybe? I have been retired for a few years now! So it depends on the size of the hole but you really...

Yes that is right, I think it was the early 80s that I first came across the product. The advertising campaign features block built houses without cement between the blocks, just dry laid 6x9s & then coated in fibre mix inside and out! Originally fibre mix was mixed in equal parts of sand &...

Hi KS, I don't think I mentioned concrete? I am talking about a different process, rein fibres are hand mixed into a cement base with coarse sand, the fibres are 18mm long & form a unique pliable texture that can be easily manipulated & applied to bare soil, up to 100mm thick on near vertical...

Under certain circumstances a good quality pond liner will last for years but, they have a few inherent issues that I don't like. I am not saying they are not the best option for a lot of people but, a flat sheet does not fit a round hole without ugly folds, these folds are often most noticeable...

Personally I am not keen on pond liners full stop! From a professional pond builders point of view, rubber liners are fraught with problems & almost inevitable 'come backs' from costumers, from a DIY pond owner - builders, view they are great! Judging by the work completed by Augusta, I can...

LOL, the concept is sound but the equipment is asking for a disaster, especially when we are trying to avoid flooding at all cost :)

I have not read all the post but if I was interested in such a project I would think about a ridgid structure rather than any type of flexible plastic or rubber. Fibreglass containers would be my first choice but nylon fish boxes would also be an option, I live on the coast and several boat...

I am not sure Fred, I was involved in landscape gardening for about 25 years. I think I was just in the right place at the right time, a time when Koi were exotic & very expensive! I sold individual fish for many thousands of £s, some of the bigger ponds cost 10s of thousands to stock. I once...

Fred, I never used a £s per gallon price, I never even thought about doing that! I would price the individual aspects based on the given dimensions ...ie .. if the pond was 6' deep the base would be 9'' steel reinforced concrete, if it was 4' deep it would be 6'' concrete with no steel. So I did...

That is an interesting calculation Fred .. £2.50 a gallon! Is that based on a concrete base, block work walls a fiberglass?

Good job so far!

Waterfalls are perhaps the most difficult aspect of a garden pond to get right. Making a waterfall look nateral is not easy but apart from the aesthetics, waterfall can cause major evaporation issues! On warm, windy summer days you can expect to lose several inches of water from the pond, if the...

Hi Frederick, it great to read about your pond, you are obviously very excited about it all :) I spent around 30 years working with Koi & building ponds, I wish that all of my customers were as passionate as you! A lot of the work I did, was for very wealthy people who wanted a pond but only...

There was an interesting case that happened in Guernsey a few years back. A watercress farmer lost all his crop over a matter of weeks, he could not understand what had gone wrong as he had been successfully growing the cress for many a year. He used pumped water from gentle stream to flow...

ZoZo, you are not so far from the truth... although not so many koi keepers will agree! I built around 50-60 koi ponds over a 30 year period and without doubt the most successful ones all had large vegetable filters or helophyte type filters in operation. However I found you need a large area...

Hi Fred, I am a little confused as you seem to be writing in past, present & future context all at the same time :) So the pictures are of your present pond but you are having a new one built but using some of the original components? Have you already bought new filter equipment?

Hi Fred sound nice! I do feel you might get more response posting on a Koi forum though? As it happens I was a processional pond builder for around 30 years however, I might not be up to speed on all the latest methods. first thing that strikes me is 3' out of the ground is pretty high, apart...

Watercress is great, it grows like no body's business!

Sorry about the spelling!

A feature of that size would require a constant top up system, probably two 1" mains water supplied ball valves set at slightly different levels so as to coupe with the inevitable evaporation. In the summer months, during hot weather both valves would quite likely be running continuously! On...

Well I don't really think it would cost that much in the UK probably more like £7.00 a week? Best check at online calculator with your area cost per unit.

@ 1500 watts = aprox £0.16p per hour = £26 per week.

I think it would stop the pond from freezing over but without some form of cover over the pond, I don't think it will do much to raise the overall pond temp by very much. Pretty expensive to run too!

Great job you did too!

All the vegetable filters I have installed are desired like undergravel aquarium filters A grid of perforated pipe is placed under a layer of gravel and a pump is used to draw water down through the gravel into the pipe work. The gravel level is just below the water surface and is planted with...

Quite possibly yes, if the pond was filled with a suitable gravel & heavily planted it might just work!

If for some reason you wanted to farm blanket weed then a fish pond with clear water & in full sun is a great way to go :) Shade is the way to go if you want to reduce the weed, as Clive suggest lily's work well but some fish like tench & carp do love to rummage around freshly planted pots...

I would build a more conventional design & place a removable mesh cover over the top. A green plastic coated 100mm square steel mesh will probably look the least offensive. I have not looked into this sort of thing for many years but there used to be several mesh options available including a...

Hi mate, I was a profession koi pond builder for over 30 years and trying to convince costumers that their pond was not leaking but evaporating .. was a real bugbear!! I don't think you can calculate such things as the atmospheric conditions play a huge role. Think about hanging a wet sheet on...

I would get a lily to offer some security for the fish, keep the lily in a big pot & replant it every year with fresh soil. Use a mix of pond soil and gravel in the pot, when you lift the pot in the winter, cut back the roots to keep the lily compact. It depends on the size of the pond as to the...

What do you make of this stament ... If water passes through the unit too fast, that is above the manufactures limit; it will be useless at killing any microorganisms at all and algae will only be flocculated. The flocculation process involves the optimization of the electric charge of the...

Hmm well I am listening but, far from convinced so far... I did not think that the free swimming algae, that are so common in high flow koi ponds, were that tiny - I did not think they were microscopic? I certainly would not expect any dead algae to lye on the bottom of a Koi pond as in most...

OK so just to clarify your opinion.... A pond in the spring, that is suffering from a free floating algae bloom causing dense green water, can be cleared with a standard size (pond rated) UV unit without the use of a mechanical filter? It is impossible for the algae cell to clump together? The...

Well the problem is as I understand it that UV filters do not work on their own to remove green water from ponds, they require a mechanical filter to remove the dead algae. As an example. a person has read that uv light will rid his pond from green water & installs a UV unit but he does not...

Yep that is very annoying ... my point is I am here to help folk, that is what I enjoy doing... not to just have the last word. However If you think you know so much about pond building & construction then I will leave to answer any future question relating to this subject :)

I really don't understand that at all & I am not sure what you are trying to say apart from contradicting me! I am not sure how many years of experience you have had with the installation of UV filters but I have had about 30 & I can only offer my personal advice. It makes no difference if...

Yes you are right that UV light will damage the free floating algae spores & cause them to clump together this will then be filtered out by the mechanical filter medium. Why does this fact imply the UV has to be sited in front of the filter? If the filter is sized correctly, then anything...

There you go...

It doesn't really matter where the uv is placed, lots of people have strong views on this but not so many have experience, the screw cap is sealing an alternative outlet.

I have to agree with Martin here, the straw appears to work in some cases as do the magnets but I always wonder if the pond would of naturally cleared without the use of straw anyway. One thing I do know is if the straw is installed in a filter & left to completely decompose or at least break...

I presently look after 7 substantial kio ponds under contract & believe me if there was an effective & safe product to rid the dreaded weed i would be first in the queue to buy it! Personally I am a fish lover & I have no intensions of even potentially harming or stressing my customers valuable...

O well I will eat my words and shut up then!

I have been professional building pond for over 25 years & have witnessed my customers trying every conceivable product available to try & rid the dreaded spring time blanket weed LOL... If there was a magic cure product, then the producer would be a billionaire! I always make a point of...

I have never herd that one before!! Shade is the best way to reduce the horrible stuff! Like most algaes it thrives in strong light.

I was involved in a Koi breeding & selling business in the mid 80s until the mid 90s, at that period in time koi were extremely expensive fish! Most fish were of Japanese or Israeli origin & to be honest of very good quality! However... it was not unusual to see fish for sale at £10 per 1" for...

Lots of Koi ponds have vegetable filters as they are called, these are normally extension to the pond IE a small (or large) shallow pond filled with inert gravel where water from the main pond is passed through & back into the main pond. We use inert gravel so the plants feed on the ponds excess...

Thanks guys, i have never been back to that pond, so i assume it is still running sweetly! I did find a few more pics of the build though...

Excellent job, you have made a great choice of filter. All to frequently you see folk using little back boxes attached to big, difficult to maintain, ponds where as you have adopted the right approach & used a decent sized filter, on an easy maintenance pond - well done :) Did you install a...

The thing about filtering ponds is size of filter! If you make a percentage calculation between the size of the suggested filter for a planted tank & the sort of filter your have been looking at for your pond, then there is an obvious differance :? I can tell you with all certainly, that the...

Can you link to the filter you have in mind?

Thanks guys - I have not completely retired its just that I don't employ anybody anymore & I don't take on any big projects anymore. However I do still maintain some of the bigger ponds that I built & the last couple of springs have been busy, there are always UV tubes to replace & filters to...

I found one of my old brochures & scanned it - about 1987 I would think it shows my planted tank with mercury vapour lighting that was so popular at the time.

Thanks mate, I have never been back to the pond so I guesse the customer was happy. I spent some time this summer working on a pond I built 25 years ago, the pond still has the same stocking of koi & two sturgeon. Some of them are really big.....

I would be interested to know how you got on with your filter choice?

More surface plants will cut out light & stop the weed but not fish will help you get rid of it! Remove as much as possible by hand, a stick will help with this, twist the stick so the weed wraps around it & you will be surprised how much you can get out!

Thanks, the capping stones were one of my trademarks, I have never published pics of how I build them in the past but as I have retired now ..... I used fiber mix cement, a 3-1 mix with added plastic fibers but, the empty moulds have to be lined with a fine sand mix without the fibers first to...