Building Jerry's New Koi Pond

My new pond is much easier to maintain; this alone is a huge improvement over my other pond setup. The filtering system is easier to clean and perform maintenance on than my old one. This new system has a 4" aerated bottom drain that not only aerates the pond, but pulls oxygenated water into two 600 gallon settling tanks called Vortex's. These tanks settle the heavy debris out of the water before it's pumped into my large bead filter. These two Vortex's each have 4" drains. I only need to pull up on a lever and it drains the water into a drain line that runs deep in a ditch in my back yard via gravity flow into my wooded green zone area.

My large UV light bulb is easy to change when necessary. It's basically just a couple of screws, and the bulb comes out easily. The new filtering system, UV light, and pumps are all installed in my 8'x12' shed, and that also keeps them out of the weather. My new system also has a Foam Fractionator that pulls the Dissolved Organic Carbons out of the water and into my drain system.

1. This photo shows the young guy I hired to basically dig a 13'x28' hole in my front yard to start my fish pond project.

2. This photo shows the hole as close to size as the back hoe could dig it. From here forward its pick and shovel work.

3. This shows the hole after some shaping. It needed to be 13'x28' as exact as possible so a made-to-fit liner would just set into the hole when I was ready.

4. This picture shows the east end of the Koi Pond. I wanted 6 feet of the pond to be 4 feet deep, so built a block retaining wall to support the sandy soil.

5. This photo shows the installation of the first Vortex filter system, and the starting of the retaining wall that will separate the pond from the filtering system.

6. This shows the west end of the pond, where we installed the Vortex's. I needed to install the plumbing under the Vortex's so left the retaining wall low until that was finished. I then completed the retaining wall and filled the area under the tanks with dirt to support them.

7. Here is the completed retaining wall on the west end of the pond, and the sand I put on the bottom of the pond to protect the liner from protruding rocks.

8. The photo shows a cement collar I pored around the pond to support the sides. My sandy soil with huge rocks in it kept wanting to cave in.

9. This photo is another look at the cement collar. I put a 2x4 in the cement form so I could attach the liner when I was ready for it.

10. Here we are attaching the felt that goes under the liner. This helps keep the rocks from penetrating the sides of the pond. Sand is on the bottom of the pond to protect the liner.

11. This shows us installing the liner. We had to cut a hole for the bottom drain. This is a very important cut and must be sealed with glue, and bolts to the bottom half of the drain that's already plumbed in the ground.

12. This shows the installation of liner around the bottom drain.

13. This shows us filling the pond. As it fills someone must be in the pond pushing out the wrinkles in the liner. It's hard to do with a large pond like this with a heavy liner.

14. When the water gets up a ways you must cut the holes in the liner for the various pipes that make the filters work. The bottom hole is a underwater return for the filter, and the top hole is to be use as a overflow pipe. You can't plumb these through the liner before the water is up a ways because the weight of the water pulls the liner down, and it would pull away from the pipes.

15. The pond is nearly filled. The capacity of the pond and the Vortex settling tanks is about 14,000 gallons.

16. This shows us framing what will be the filter house. We needed to have the filters up and running within a few days, but I hadn't started feeding yet, so pond waste was of course at a minimum.

16. Here we had just transferred my KOI to the pond from the 1,000 gallon holding tank they used as home. Friends from the Oympic Koi Club helped me move them from the old pond.

17. This shows my pond just after I got my filter hooked up. I then could relax some knowing the water was being cleaned. I did however, monitor the PH, Amonia, and Nitrite content until the filter was running it's cycle and completely doing its job.

18. This is the little fence I built around the pond to keep my dog from accidently falling in the pond. This fence will come down later in my building and landscaping process.

19. Here is the filter house after it was sided and painted. This building houses my filter, UV light, pumps and my foam fractionator.

20. This photo shows the new AquaBead Filter, as well as the Zapp Pure UV light, Aqua Bead Agitator and a 3 HP 2 speed pump that runs the filter system.

21. This photo shows the beginning of the landscaping around the koi pond.

Jerry's New Koi Pond

IMPROVEMENTS OVER MY OLD POND: