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So my mother has been wanting a Koi pond for some time and I finally got around to digging it and putting down the liner. I didn't know about this section at the time or I would have taken more pictures.
The dig, Dig Dug style:
Thirty dollars of plastic liner and a sixty five dollar pump later:
Bought a lily pad thing, which I was told needs a fertilizer pellet every month and for seven fifty I can have about 8-10 pellets. I was also informed that in a matter of two days it would rise to the top of a good 4-6 feet (as it was in only 2 feet of water). I was needless to say skeptical, but as it turns out she was correct, in only 24 hours the first leaf rose to the top of the pond.
The next day almost 70% of the leafs had gone to the top and not only that, it bloomed.
So this is WIP as the thread image suggests, anyone with ideas or input please feel free to add as I plan to continue working on this one and also plan to build a much larger scale koi pond soon.
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Holy shit, nice fuckin job man.
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Good work, I don't think I would have the patience to do that.
I wonder if you could use bigger rocks near the edge to hide the liner a little
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Fun fact- You don't need to buy Koi fish. Koi are just glorified gold fish. Go buy a dozen 99cent feeder goldfish and they will become as big as Koi (Fish grow as big as their environment let them). They have the same unique colorations and are cheap as hell!
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The stream that my mum put in our back yard (it's only about 3 metres long) has concrete lathered along the corners that are exposed so that it holds the plastic sheet in place in bad weather and so that rocks could be secured within the cement for a more natural look. It doesn't look half bad now, though it's been years and the ferns and lilly pads are overgrowing a bit.
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What type of fish did you get? And how many of them?
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Nice one, it seemed to have turned from a hole in thr ground into a fish pond really easily. Is laying the sheet all it takes?
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I have to hunt down some larger rocks on the cheap. I hate the fact you can see so much of the liner.
The only two Koi fish we have were given to us. We also got some larger goldfish you can see in the pictures and a dollars worth of the pet store ones. I think the large ones were only like three dollars each.
There is at least a couple days worth of work between the first picture and the rest sadly, but it really wasn't all that hard. Dug the hole. Cut and removed all the roots. Put the plastic in the hole best as possible while trying to make the sections that overlap not noticeable. Slowly start filling it with water while making changes to the walls by filling them in with sand behind the liner.
I sadly didn't think about making shelfs when I first dug it. You need them for plants that just sit in the water but can't go deep. It also made the whole pond look much larger so it worked out well.
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I was always told that you either have plants in your pond or Koi fish. If you have both the Koi fish will eat the plants. It's the reason why we don't have Koi fish.
I think you should try to "hide" the sheet more, so lay more stones and perhaps even put cement in between.
Also the water in your pond is not clear yet, but that will improve over time.
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You'll get problems in a year two if you didn't put some bast fiber or anything coparable under the plastic. The roots will start to grow inside your pond and one day or another they'll penetrate the plastic.
Putting some gravel in to it first also helps.
I learned the hard way :(
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Once I figure out how to upload pictures properly >.>;; I'll post some pictures of the work I did for mine- 4 tiers leading to the main fill thats about 2-3 ft deep. It is absolutely massive and took 2-3 months to complete 100%.
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I think that you should put more plants around so they don't look so sparse. Even more decorations would be nice.
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This isn't entirely wrong, but a Koi can get much larger than a goldfish can.
Nice pond, I'd add some frogs. Frogs are cool and you can eat them.
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Koi can grow much bigger- but with a pond that size Goldfish will do really well, they will reach about 6-8 inches sometimes a bit bigger. Also on another note- Depending were you live be careful with Animals. I've had raccoons try and get at my fish. I also live near the water so its not uncommon for me to wake up with a bloody Heron in my fucking pond T_T (One of the reason I like the cheap goldfish alternative)
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we had a few above ground koi ponds way back and raccoons would always come wreck up the whole thing and eat all the fish. lame.
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Yeah, I was wondering, what about a cover? Do you have one if necessary?
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You aren't supposed to cover it, it's best to cement it
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No, I mean a temporary cover over the water.
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I never thought about a cover system, but I was warned multiple times about everything from birds to raccoons eating my fish. It would be hard to cover it with the plants around the border.
I am working on building up the ground on one side before putting down a bunch more plants, a small stone path to a table. Will take pictures when that is done, and anyone else with a fish pond of any sort please post pictures!
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I'm sure you could just lay a tarp over it. What about that?
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Nice burger in the bottom of the first picture
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Yep, had 4 in a small aquarium for 2 years, when they later were put into our pond, they grew big surprisingly fast.
I though that was a huge mushroom at first.
Can't unsee it's a burger now.
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Wow, that's a really great idea. Quite pretty, and it seems like construction is pretty straightforward. The liner is unattractive, but there are probably some better ways to disguise it. Maybe bury the liner under some gravel laid out around the pond?
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I want a koi pond.
I think one day, the perfect house for me, would be by putting some land in the middle of a small pond, building a shed on it, living in the shed, then filling the pond in with fish.
Small minecraft-esque paddle boat to re-enter civilization.
Ahh, bliss.
Edited:
Not like, fish instead of water, but as well as.
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That's awesome. My father used to own some Koi fishes, although in large aquariums. They get really really big if you take well care of them.
Do you bring the fishes inside when it's winter, or do you have some kind of a heating system (I assume you live in a warmer place than Sweden)?
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wow that's freaking amazing!
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I saw this thread and it made me think of my family's Koi Pond.
We made it 4 or 5 years ago, it's pretty big and the fish are big as well.
Huge Picture
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/9438/dsc0014yv.jpg
It's weird, I just noticed I don't have any pictures of the other side, the side with all the plants and miniature waterfall, the good side. I'll post some new pictures tomorrow if I have the time, and if it isn't raining again.
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Here's the other side.
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Wow Dippeggs, simply amazing! I can't imagine the amount of work it took for that.
Not much content, been working and haven't had time to work on the small pond but mom sent me some pictures she took with shitty phone:
Here's some recent ones:
The crazy looking log at the top is only temporary till I have time to figure out how to use styrofoam to create concrete waterfall.
Heres the first part of my much larger pond, not much yet:
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Wow, you could bury a body in one of those holes.
But instead you use it for fish.
:frown:
But on the bright side...
Great job.
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I want to build a koi pond, but I know that it could end up costing a huge amount of money and it may never get finished. Plus both my families gardens are too small and wouldn't suit a koi pond.
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this lady i know has a pond. She uses a chicken wire net thing at night. it is 4 pieces of wood in a rectangle, with chicken wire simply stapled on. It keeps the animals from going in the water for the fishies.
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I do wonder why they make the liner shiny black, surely a touch would be to adhese some kind of artificial moss around the perimeter to cover it up
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Wrong.
But yes, Koi and Goldfish are both carps. They belong to the same family just slightly different. I invite you guys to look at Monsterfishkeepers outdoor pond forum. These guys build huge pods. Some have Arapaima gigas ponds.
This guy has a pool/pond: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/fo...d.php?t=232218
Shark pool anyone? http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/fo...d.php?t=379990
Edited:
That all depends on how good of a pod you want. You can dig a hole, throw down a liner, put in a filter and call it a day or you could go all out with a 50+ thousand gallon concrete lined pool with a bigger filter and all sorts of fancy things. The bigger the pond, the bigger the fish. Some people have Arapaima gigas, Gars, redtail cats, if there's a fish you want to can have it if you build the pond big enough.
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If you made sure to clean the rocks first (and make the pond bigger initially) could you pile a whole bunch up in the inside along the edges to hide the liner?
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that looks really good op. Will look even better when the plants grow round it a bit.
how deep is it? looks like a potential child capturing device if that's a problem to you
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Assuming those clippers are the size I think they are, the pond is probably about a yard deep in that picture.
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I'd say it looks about 3-4 feet deep.
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Nice! Looks good. I've always wanted to do one. My neighbor has a really nice one that he's just been adding on to for years. I'll probably talk my parents into doing one this Summer. It would be cool to have some sort of like natural looking awning over the pond so leaves and the like stay out.
I'm sure you could get a nice little project going for $500. It's not something you could or would want to do all at once like that dude on that Monster Fish Keepers link posted above.
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Lay a small thin layer of hard flat rocks along the edge, move the tarps over that and pull tightly along the edges (Not so that it's like a trampoline, the water should be holding down the bottum segment), then cover with your bigger stones to hold it down. The tarp should be hardly visible except from the edge of the water, then just bury or cut off the excess. (Recommend burying it in case you need to adjust it or something)
Also don't worry about covering up what you can see of the tarp from this point, it really shouldn't matter if you filled it correctly.
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