A Koi Pond Water Garden - What do you think of?

Apr 24
07:45

2009

Nick Fisher

Nick Fisher

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What do you think of when you hear this phrase? Koi pond water gardens are becoming affordable for nearly everyone and they don't have to take over the garden.

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When you hear the phrase Koi Pond Water Garden,A Koi Pond Water Garden - What do you think of? Articles what do you think of? Is it the formal koi pond water gardens of Japan that come to mind with an elaborate system of pools and formal landscaping or is it a small koi pond in your own backyard?

Whatever the answer, the great thing is that koi keeping as a hobby is now open to anyone who is willing to put the time and effort into starting this great hobby.

If you are a koi keeper you are really a water keeper first. Whatever size your koi pond, however many fish you have and whatever their size, the most important aspect of koi keeping is maintaining the quality of your water. Koi ponds are closed environments, whatever gets put into them stays in them unless you do something to remove it. The food that you feed your fish is either converted into waste by the fish or if left uneaten simply adds to the organic matter and helps to build up pollution.

Your koi fish effectively live in their own toilet.

Did you ever as a kid, win a goldfish at the fair only to watch it die a few weeks later. You may not have realised it at the time but it was probably poisoned by its own waste which will have built up in the bowl and caused the oxygen levels to fall.

Well. If I was being force to live in a toilet I would want to do everything I could to keep it clean. Koi can't do that so as a koi keeper it is your responsibility and if yuou don't, then you won't be keeping koi for long!!

There are three main aspects to maintaining the water quality and consequently the health of your fish. They are Mechanical Filtration, biological Filtration and then the pump that will drive the whole system.

Lets start with the last first. The pump needs to be the right size and this varies from one pond to another. A good rule of thumb is that it needs to be able to pump roughly half the volume of the pond every hour so that the water is kept moving, aerated and filtered. Too slow and it won't work, too fast and it will simply overwhelm the filtration system.

The mechanical filter system is where the pump will send the water. This will include a settlement tank which uses gravity to let particles in the water filter out. This again needs to be the right size for your pond and to compliment the pump. Too small and it will allow particles through to the biological filter which will cause it to clog up.

The biological filter will be made up of several chambers, based on the size of your pond, which will contain a medium through which the water passes. This could be anything from mesh to glass beads. The pre-requisite is that it provides adequate surface area for the friendly bacteria to cling to. These convert the waste products that the fish produce such as ammonia into harmless chemicals. At certain times of year it may be necessary to seed your biological filter with additional bacteria to get the system going after winter for example.

This is a very simple explanation of a complex system and I would strongly recommend always getting professional advice when planning a koi pond water garden especially when it comes to the filtration system. It will be one of the most expensive elements of the pond but there is no point in buying any fish if you don't get it right.

Enjoy your koi!