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Journal My New Filter and Pond - Lots of pictures

DevUK said:
Looking forwards to updated pics Ed 🙂 Fantastic pond/stream, I love it! One day, when I own my own house I would love to do something along these lines.
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Yeah same here 😉 We will have to call Ed to come and do all the planning, guess we will have to do the hard labour though! lol
 
LondonDragon said:
DevUK said:
Looking forwards to updated pics Ed 🙂 Fantastic pond/stream, I love it! One day, when I own my own house I would love to do something along these lines.
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Yeah same here 😉 We will have to call Ed to come and do all the planning, guess we will have to do the hard labour though! lol
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Yeah definitely be on you to do the hard work! The pond and stream have about 15 tonnes of concrete, mortar and render, nearly 200 dense concrete blocks and 300+ engineering bricks! The new concrete filter has 3 tonnes of concrete in too! Planning I can do though; in fact it used to be my job! I used to be a garden designer and did a few ponds.
 
Really beautiful pond Eds. Love the planted stream and your filter design looks quite unique.
 
Thanks guys.

The filter is fairly standard ideas, actually out of date by most standards! The real innovations, IMHO, are builing it out of concrete and the sump chamber to allow me to re-use all the water. Having said all of that, I wouldn't build it the same again! I'd learn how to build my own chambers from glassfibre and make them out of that! I'd also completely change the pond design so it's better for keeping koi, but probably less ornamental. However that's a different type of pond really! The changes I'll be doing in half term probably will be a big step forward too, both in improving the water quality and making it even easier to clean! I may even add another filter...
 
Why I missed the Green Machine do...

Well I thought I'd post here (rather than in the fish section) why I missed what seems like a fantastic weekend at the GM.

I was at the first Open day at Koi UK, a UK koi farm in Weston-Super-Mare. I spent a great day there mixing and talking koi with all the guys and girls as well as picking up a few new little beauties for my pond. Please forgive the rubbish pics, but I'm not disturbing them now they're in the QT to bowl them. I will take some better photos next weekend.

Here's the Shusui,
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The Yamabuki Ogon is the Gold one in this pic,
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The other koi I bought was Hi Utsuri, but he's too good at hiding! He's at the right side of this pic under some other fish!
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And these are my two Showas that have already been in the QT pond over winter along with some more babies,
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DevUK said:
They are gorgeous Ed! I've never really seen real Koi before, just common stuff. They look very nice 🙂 How long do you QT them for?
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Cheers mate. 😀

As I only buy koi from two UK breeders now they basically get kept in the QT pond (which is in a greenhouse) all through the winter as the best fish are available at the end of the year and in spring usually. These will go into the pond at the end of May probably. I don't need to quarantine them as much as Japanese ones as these two farms are almost completely biosecure and KHV can't get in (well as near to can't as is possible). Once they're settled I'll do some scrapes to check for parasites and, if clear, then they're ready to go in the pond as soon as the temperature's ok.

I'm really proud of all of them and for what they cost there aren't any Japanese fish in the country that can hold a candle to them IMHO. Especially the shusui who is a beauty. If she's half as good as her mum when she gets bigger then she'll be a stunner! The Yamabuki's mum's nearly a metre long too and scale perfect.
 
Sure I'll help you dig, just hire a Bobcat for the day and I'll be there to drive it!!! Seriously they are worth every penny if you're going for a decent sized pond. If you're building a new pond is it going to be a koi pond or a more general one? If so I have some great ideas for filters, including one that's totally maintenance free and very effective - honest! My next pond will have them.

What's this 1m fish then Sam? I don't have too much room as I've got 14 fish in quarantine and the koi breeder's picking me out a nice Tancho Kohaku for the next open day too!
 
Aeropars said:
thats the problem.. i cant get one of them into the garden as its a terrace house. I'd have finished it ages ago if I could get one in there.
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They do have some mini ones that will fit through doorways you know...

Other than that get a mattock! They are great for digging and breaking up rock layers as you get deeper.


TDI-line said:
Lovely fish Eds.
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Cheers!
 
Well if there's beer on offer you might be able to twist my arm!!! Any help with the design or filtration you need just ask. I've made enough mistakes to know some short cuts!
 
Themuleous said:
Ed Seeley said:
The Yamabuki's mum's nearly a metre long too and scale perfect.
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Doesn't this mean yours could end up this big?

Sam
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Only if I'm very lucky!

My pond isn't heated and to get that big you really need to get them to around 50cm by the end of their second year. To do that you need to heat all through the winter and feed them right through. It also helps if you use an RO unit to keep them in soft water as they grow more quickly and keep the quality.

If I get her to 80cm eventually I'll be absolutely ecstatic!
 
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