Estimate on price - building a pond

Koitoy wrote:
You said the magic or dreaded word "Koi". Research Koi ponds as they
are typically deeper,
.... true
include bottom drains, settling chambers, Skimmer, filters that may include anything from vortex systems,
bead filters, trickle towers, or combos of these items.
..... nope, dont have to

http://weloveteaching.com/mypond/mypond.htm
........... my pond is made of 2x4 greenwood sides with greenwood plywood, carpet
padding, permalon liner, the filter is 2x8 pine with 2x5 cedar front on the filter
and around the front. I DO have a big ass air blower @ $400 but it isnt totally
necessary. I have a pump for the water fall. Once a year I pull out the plants (to
take em inside for winter) and suction out the crud in the filter with a wet vac. I
do use a UV light but the filter really sucks the rest out. The pond has been up
since 2000 and I can still see the stones knocked out of my lily pot and a couple
wrinkles in the liner on the bottom and have never cleaned the bottom at all.
All summer I walk out, sit down, feed the fish. once a week or when I remember I
squish the snails attached to the little wimp pump that feeds the UV. A couple times
in the summer if I think the water is slowing I pull up the pump to clean off the
grate that keeps junk outta the pump. A couple times a year I run 500 gallons or so
out and replace. Other than that ...... I just enjoy it immensely. absolutely cheap
and simplicity itself to take care of. Ingrid


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Wrote:
Koitoy wrote:
You said the magic or dreaded word "Koi". Research Koi ponds as they
are typically deeper,
.... true
include bottom drains, settling chambers, Skimmer, filters that may
include anything from vortex systems,
bead filters, trickle towers, or combos of these items.
..... nope, dont have to

http://tinyurl.com/ac7dv
........... my pond is made of 2x4 greenwood sides with greenwood
plywood, carpet
padding, permalon liner, the filter is 2x8 pine with 2x5 cedar front on
the filter
and around the front. I DO have a big ass air blower @ $400 but it
isnt totally
necessary. I have a pump for the water fall. Once a year I pull out
the plants (to
take em inside for winter) and suction out the crud in the filter with
a wet vac. I
do use a UV light but the filter really sucks the rest out. The pond
has been up
since 2000 and I can still see the stones knocked out of my lily pot
and a couple
wrinkles in the liner on the bottom and have never cleaned the bottom
at all.
All summer I walk out, sit down, feed the fish. once a week or when I
remember I
squish the snails attached to the little wimp pump that feeds the UV.
A couple times
in the summer if I think the water is slowing I pull up the pump to
clean off the
grate that keeps junk outta the pump. A couple times a year I run 500
gallons or so
out and replace. Other than that ...... I just enjoy it immensely.
absolutely cheap
and simplicity itself to take care of. Ingrid


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ingrid- Rock on! If your pond works for you- then great. My pond
needed a redo when the Koi grew to 6-8 lbs each. My simple system did
not work anymore. The new system provides crystal clear water, and the
water quality tests excellent, even though I feed the fish a lot. There
is more then one way to have a pond, and I am glad that you enjoy your
pond. But with 6 years experience with Koi- I stand by my
recommendation to do a lot of research, and plan to include adaquate
filtration. Happy ponding.


--
Koitoy

Koitoy Wrote:
Wrote:
Koitoy wrote:
You said the magic or dreaded word "Koi". Research Koi ponds as they
are typically deeper,
.... true
include bottom drains, settling chambers, Skimmer, filters that may
include anything from vortex systems,
bead filters, trickle towers, or combos of these items.
..... nope, dont have to

Just to counter balance the 'how not to do it' and the 'how to burn
money faster' approaches....

Here's the 'how to do it extremely cost effectively and end up with
very happy koi' approach

1) Dig hole in diggable ground, at a steady pace, couple of cubic
yards at a time, over winter when it is convenient to wear thick
clothes and heavy boots.... Dig down 1.5' over most of the area, ramp
sides up by one foot (big tip, dig half the depth, use dug stuff to
raise sides aka dig half a pond to make full depth)

2) 40' x 20' was the target. To cost effectively use 25' wide roll
stuff.

3) 45° Angled sides go to a 30" deep area (deep enough for a bucket,
with water lilies to have 18" water over them) Angled sides
discourage herons, they don't like steep pond sides

4) Kidney narrow mid section has a five foot pit, where sediments
drift and gather in, the rest of the 30" deep area gently shelves
toward the 5' deep 'pit'

5) Pond size, depth and volume is calculated to accommodate five
breeding size koi...

stats: 13,000 gallons, in effect 2,500 gallons per fish. With 60% of
the pond area heavily planted with classy waterlilies, the water
quality of that volume of water being filtered by aquatics easily
coped with five fish. The fish had tons of tasty tid bits to spare
and females spawned three times a year, with a little perk of meaty
tidbits

No pumps, filters or water squelching devices. Yes, there was a
pleasant paddle to rake out sediments drifting into the five foot
deep pit on a day warm for paddling, a couple of dozen buckets to tip
out in the bog bed made for gunnera, nest to the koi pond.

Because of the low density fish levels and very big margin of safety
on water quality, nothing other than topping up required with a hose
pipe. Maybe sprinkle the pond on a hot day to oxygenate it toward
dawn, using existing timer switch

Fish never ill over ten year period... Modest Copper sulphate doses
in Autumn and Spring, to suppress fungus

Cost? Maybe $40 for the liner (traded for with classy aquatic plants)
aka zilch...

Shovel? barely used, already in shed

Stone bridge across part of the pond? that is another story...

Regards, andy
http://tinyurl.com/o8ax


--
adavisus

We had a guy with a backhoe do the basic digging of our pond. Cost was only
a few hundred dollars. The hole was 16 x 22 feet. A bargain in terms of
time and effort. In an hour, we had a hole and downhill berm. Think about
the process. We have never regretted the step. The link in the signature
will show you our end product.

Jim

"Cyde Weys" wrote in message
oups.com...
I live in Maryland near Washington, D.C.. Let's say I wanted to build
a pond outside for koi and water plants. I'd be willing to do all of
the work myself, soo ... how much would it cost? I know this depends
on how big it's going to be, so let's say big enough so that it doesn't
freeze over the winter (to keep the fish alive). If that's even
possible, anyway. Presumably I'd need some sort of lining material, the
fish, the plants, and a pump. How much would I expect to pay? And
there's probably other stuff I haven't thought of, seeing as how I
haven't done this before.

On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 08:15:53 -0600, "Carol-Ann" wrote:

snip

Or you could do as Carol Gulley / Reel McKoi does and just slitther
around behind the local quickie marts and strip malls and rip off
their shipping containers to use for small ponds.........


==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
"The original frugal ponder"
~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o

More pictures for ideas:

See my ponds thru the seasons and/or my filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Defrosted~
Tri-Cities, WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

Get snow yet Jan?
I'm still having to cut grass once a week......send some cool weather
this way along with some rain.....


On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 07:29:10 -0800, ~ jan jjspond
wrote:

===More pictures for ideas:
===
===See my ponds thru the seasons and/or my filter design:
===http://users.owt.com/jjspond/
===
=== ~Keep 'em Defrosted~
=== Tri-Cities, WA Zone 7a
=== To e-mail see website


==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
"The original frugal ponder"
~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o

~Roy wrote:
On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 08:15:53 -0600, "Carol-Ann" wrote:

snip

Or you could do as Carol Gulley / Reel McKoi does and just slitther
around behind the local quickie marts and strip malls and rip off
their shipping containers to use for small ponds.........


==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
"The original frugal ponder"
~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o

LOL

Get snow yet Jan?
I'm still having to cut grass once a week......send some cool weather
this way along with some rain.....

No snow, grass still needs winterizer fertilizer put down, but I think I'm
done mowing. ) ~ jan

Bottom posted.

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"~roy" wrote in message
...


Get snow yet Jan?
I'm still having to cut grass once a week......send some cool weather
this way along with some rain.....


On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 07:29:10 -0800, ~ jan jjspond
wrote:

===More pictures for ideas:
===
===See my ponds thru the seasons and/or my filter design:
===http://users.owt.com/jjspond/
===
=== ~Keep 'em Defrosted~
=== Tri-Cities, WA Zone 7a
=== To e-mail see website


==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
"The original frugal ponder"
~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o

I couldn't believe we had snow in town here in southern oregon (usa) (not at
my house lower down though) just a few days ago. Man - we might have a real
winter this year at last, you go ozone! With all of the garbage that was/is
going on here in this newsgroup I had actually thought you were one bad dude
roy! It's cool now that I see who the real perpetrator is you're all right
in my book roy, later! P.s. - my digital signature is above.