We cleaned up all the algae. I am going to have to let some grow…because the koi are getting hungry, and we are going to have to feed them often. Bigtime often.
What have our darlings done? Well, our largest, white-gold Ari, patchwork quilt Kenpachi, Renji (pinto orange/white, which is called ‘kohaku’,) are about 7″ long. Ari is 8″. This is not big for a koi, which reach adulthood at about a foot or two and can grow to three. The spectacle of Ari and Kenpachi up on the pebble beach like spawning salmon is impressive enough. They’re hunting worms that breed in the waterfall and fall down between the rocks. The smaller koi are learning the trick of moving small rocks.
Finding numerous of our pond margin plants that they could get hold of now stripped of leaves and roots and floating in the skimmer basket…ah, well.
Replant them, yes, easy. They’re back in the skimmer basket this morning.
This morning we found 4 ten-pound rocks from the margin at the usual feeding station now are down on the bottom of the pond, and it’s going to require a bath to go after them and replace them. I’ll bet food had gotten stuck behind those rocks, and Ari wanted it.
Our scaly children are adolescents. We wonder what else can be made a koi-toy.
Dear C.J Cherryh: First, I’ve got about 30 of your titles most of which I purchased new from Amazon or the for the out of print one, Ebay. It goes without saying I’m a fan of your writing style. You come up with the most interesting characters in your novels. I too am considering putting in a pond but also have gophers and ground squirrels and because of the size (40 x 30 x 5′) can’t afford concrete. My solution is to line the floor and walls of the pond with (12 x 12 x 2) inch concrete paving stones on sand and then cover the floor with a large plastic pond liner. Hope it works. You wouldn’t know who makes the best pond pumps and bio filters would you? Last question: any chance that you will ever write a sequel to Tripoint? I think it would make a nice trilogy. Just a thought. Be well. dicook.
Thank you, and welcome in!
No sequel to Tripoint currently planned, but, who knows?
Re pond stuff: take a look at the Savio systems, and then visit http://www.pondliner.com. They have good service behind their sales, and they can, with their heat-seal equipment, create you a liner of any size, and you can talk to real people who actually know their stuff when you call. You’re actually good with 3′ for koi, although deeper would be nice, and actually you’re good in most climates at 2′ and change, because due to ground-warmth and the way water freezes, from the top down, you’re not going to get 2′ of ice in a 2′ pond under any kind of normal circumstances, particularly if you insert a pond heater ring: they don’t heat the whole pond: they just keep a gas-exchange hole open; and the fish are fine. According to what I understand of the pond-freezing process, it just won’t freeze to the bottom, even if surrounding lakes have far more feet of ice. I’ve not known anybody with a pond and a gopher problem, but it would certainly be embarrassing for the gopher who tried to claw its way into a pond bottom. You might ask the people at pondliner if this is a problem, or if they generally have the sense to perceive the liner as not-dirt, ergo a barrier.
I use no bottom drain: I have a Savio skimmer providing filtration and a Savio waterfall unit that provides bio filtration and aeration. There are a number of natural products you can use to increase the efficiency of your filter. If you use the tag cloud feature on this site to gather posts about the pond, you can follow my recent battles with algae, which we now have beaten. My pond is about 20 x almost3 x 12 or more. EPDM is the best liner, and you use a fiber underlayment to keep it from punctures, but EPDM is pretty darn tough. You might also search the internet to see if there is a pond store near you. The one place where I wouldn’t take local advice is where they advise to use 2 sided tape and some glue to join two pieces of EPDM together, especially when you’re working in huge sizes: that stuff is heavy, it pulls, and it gets dusty as you try to work with it in the back yard, which doesn’t help tape stick: I prefer the heat-bonding they can do at pondliner.
@dicook…you are going to *like* this site! Re the pond: listen to CJ; her advice is the best. If you put in a waterfall make sure your liner is well sealed. You don’t want water or splash getting behind it. My pond guy says you *can* use pond tape but all surfaces have to be absolutely clean. Even so you will probably have to reseal with silicon every two/three years. My brother has a small pond in New Hampshire which does fine all the long winter With a small heater. We are still in progress, have not bothered with a bottom drain and have found CJ’s knowledge invaluable.
I am off to N.H. for the next week to see bro’s pond and League of New Hampshire Craftsmen Show.
What do you know about water depth, smartcat? You’re snowier than we are. I have a source saying 2 feet even in icy climes; others saying 3. Our pondplace has 5, in one spot. One of the things we’ve found is that koi love the deep water when threatened, when cold, etc, but they also love a feature we installed on a whim: the Pebble Beach. We frankly ran out of steam while excavating (we didn’t use a backhoe: we used a mantis tiller, and we used the extracted soil to build a berm around the pond, thus automatically creating a looping sunken path around it…)and we looked at the last bit and said, let’s just keep that spot shallow, build it up to a slant, and have a beach. We threw in pebbles and small rocks, and that, situated beside the waterfall, is our crew’s favorite spot. The sunlight easily warms the rocks and algae grows there, and small worms that live in water get there between the rocks. A koi’s greatest joy in life (outside getting a big feed from you) is rooting among small pebbles for treats and sucking algae off rocks. So this is their playground. They get so excited in the pursuit of whatever-it-is they look for that they come halfway out of the water, and since they’re all smooth rocks, it’s just a slip-and-slide for them. So plan a shallows.
Since my own algae battle, now diminishing, I can name you two real good algae fixers, one a killer that’s organic and doesn’t hurt your fish or kill your invertebrates; and the other a bacterial soup that is used for small lakes. What goes in a 4000 gallon pond (the pond you’re talking about is probably toward 10,000 gallons) is half an ounce: it comes in bottles as small as a quart, and it costs 87.00 a quart. On the other hand, it lasts a long while, it doesn’t go bad, and I have found nothing as efficient at hyping the bacterial action that breaks down sludge on the pond bottom. That means it reduces algae. Above all else, anyone with a pond over 1000 gallons might want to invest in this rather than an equivalent expense (taken all together) in dozens of remedies that don’t work.
Koi prefer slightly acidic water, so limit the concrete (basic) the water is exposed to. And pond plants floating in a floating ring (to keep them out of the skimmer) reduce algae.
Lilies want about 2′ of water. And a good growth of lilies sucks up pond waste, too.
I’ve got brand names when you get down to that.
Proge dug our pond by hand. We ended up leaving one VERY BIG ROCK in place at the edge. (It may be ledge) It makes a very nice shallow area and is well padded. We used several layers of pool solar cover under the liner. We have one spot that is about four feet deep on advice from our pond guy. I’m not sure this is totally necessary as a friend’s is three ft. at its deepest and her koi do just fine with a small heater for the winter. In fact they have been breeding like crazy. It’s kind of neat to see a hundred little guys come up for feeding but I understand why she is getting rid of them.
Bro’s pond is barely three ft. and he is in N.H. on Lake Winnapusaukee. It’s c.c.c.cold there. Last year there was snow at Easter. As I’ve said his fish do just fine.
Another local very Art Deco pond built in the thirties is like a little tiled four ft. deep swimming pool. Goldfish survive the winter with no heater coil or anything.
I’m thinking now that the main thing is to provide a a small heater ring for the winter and try not to obsess too much (HAH) about the rest.
Dear CJ and smartcat: Thanks for the info and the incredibly fast replies. I’ll check out Savio and Pondliner. So… if I read you right (no pun intended): dig out the pond, line it with the concrete pavers (gophers and ground squirrels), cover them (pavers) with sand and a fiber padding, measure and order up the custom liner, install same, put in bio-filter and pump, fill with water, add fish and plants. Even I should be able to do that. I’m in SoCal so freezing shouldn’t be an issue unless climate change is going somewhere we don’t think it is. Side note: is there a way to use spell check in this system? I’m the worlds’ worst speller. dicook.
Here’s another online source with solid info. I don’t so much use their products, but their advice is good.
http://www.aquascapedesigns.com/
Alas, no spell check, but if you’ve accidentally done something you HAVE to fix, let me know and I can use my miraculous admin powers to make it better.
I googled gophers and ponds and, yes, it is likely those pavers are a good idea. Coyote urine sprinkled about the pond (yes, it comes in a shaker can) can deter raccoons and other fish-predators, and it will upset gophers, but not necessarily drive them off; deep water is a heron and raccoon defense: so is size of the fish; and a set of fine wires strung above the pond can deter herons; also effective against herons is a ScareCrow, which is a sprinker with a scary face and a motion detector. Don’t forget to disarm it for a garden party. 😉
dicook: you might consider putting something like hardware cloth (actually a tough wire mesh-small holes) under the stones to stop burrowing/chewing action.
Y’ know, hardware cloth alone topped with river gravel (rounded, and then sand might do it. Might at least reduce cost of the pond bottom.
Dicook, I have only one thing to add: PICTURES! Sounds like you’ve got a large area and it’s gonna be magnificent. Ours is only half that size and takes up about half our fairly large backyard. One thing you might consider, going that large, to get the proper scale, you’re going to need some hefty rocks. Because ours is relatively small, we get away with scull-sized and slightly larger. I can lift all of them, so they’re under 100lbs (don’t think I can lift over any more…used to. :D)But while we’ve done ours sort of making it up as we go along, I think you’ll need to do some serious rock placement planning! (I privately lust after several our local pondstore lady has in her backyard. Oooooh my! She has one about your size…takes three mega pumps to handle the water flow! :0
Besides fun for the koi, a shallow slope to the surface somewhere is vital if you don’t want to find drowned birds, toads, and other critters in your pond, and you want variations in the shallows and in vegetation if you want to attract varying species of wildlife.
For a description of a backyard pool primarily designed for wildlife, see Elizabeth Moon’s blog.
http://e-moon60.livejournal.com/321954.html#cutid1
And also find her links to her pond posts at her other blog. 80AcresOnline. She takes fabulous closeups of dragonflies and other crtters. The Moons have 80 acres of reclaimed overgrazed, overused land north of Austin, TX that they are managing for wildlife habitat, and are up to 800 species (plants, large animals, bugs, and all) and counting.
Great advice all. I’m thinking one of those large fake boulders right in the middle with an eazy slope onto it. I will add a shallow area for the plants and critters. I also wouldn’t mind seasonal visits from ducks as they migrate north and south. So I’m thinking of some kind of piggyback bio-filter system which can handle the extra bio load when they are in attendance. Anyone ever get wild ducks from time to time? Pictures for sure. :C:…
We haven’t had one yet, but it’s easy to set up a pot-filter for a temporary situation: just get a 5 gallon bucket, a submersible pump, a little bit of filter mat to prevent floss getting into the pump, and a big wad of pillow stuffing, the synthetic sort, which is a cheap way to buy filter floss. Just put a 1″ diameter hose on the pump, long enough to fountain on the surface, and plug it in. It’ll help clean your water and set up a bio action asap: helps to use some bioactive additive. No problem with the ducks or geese, except they’ll eat your flowers.
BTW, has anyone seen this? Scroll down to catfish likes pats! Hope this posts.
Try again http-colon-icanhascheezburger-dot-com-slash-page-slash-4-slash. Scroll down to video.
Try this one: http://icanhascheezburger.com/2010/08/06/funny-pictures-video-catfish-petted/
Thanks AbigailM, I *reeeellly* need to learn how to post links. BTW, have you had any more painted buntings.
Hi, smartcat! Didn’t see any buntings at the feeder this spring, but I wasn’t there as much. I hope they are on the property, but usually you spot one by hearing the call, and I have never been good at recognizing them by ear.
At Cheezeburger, if you click on one of the LOLs to get the comments, and then navigate one at a time forward or back by the NEXT or PREVIOUS links, you get the individual URLs in the address bar that you can cut and paste. I just cut the individual address of the catfish one and pasted it into a WWaS comment.
I’ll do that Cj. Good idea. When ducks are in attendance in the pond, esp. if they are nesting, just wheel out the extra filter, plug it in and let it do it’s work. When they have left for the season, unplug it and wheel it back in for storage. Thanks, I’ll set that up. DCook.