Anyone have experience with koi?

My parents bought a home in 2004 with a koi pond in the back.

Did not take long for them to sell the koi. It was just more than they were willing to deal with at the time.

So no, I do not

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have experience with koi

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I have a koi pond. Wanted one for while and finally pulled the trigger and built a 150 gallon in ground pond with a waterfall.

First year it drove me absolutely nuts because the water stayed green and no matter what type of filter I bought and no matter how much shade I put over it, the water would turn green. I was ready to fill it in and be done with it because I couldn't even see the fish no matter how hard I worked to keep it clean.

I was talking to someone one day that had a pond and they used a bog filter. I had never heard of it before. Basically a natural filtration device using layered rocks. Found a video on youtube on how to build one (relatively easy) and once I started using the bog filter the water started clearing up within the day and three days later the water was crystal clear. Very little maintenance other than cleaning the filter on the pump every month or two and opening a valve I built in the bog that lets you run clean water through it and wash out all the algae that builds up in the bog. I built a bigger one this last go round so I only do that every two months or so and it takes 10 minutes.

Went from wanting to have a koi pond for years, to owning one and wanting to demolish it, to loving it. I feed them a little every day. I say "let's go feed the fish" and the dogs run to the backdoor and run to the ledge of the pond to watch the fish eat. One of the dogs bites at the water and one of them is clueless and doesn't even realize the fish are there

It's deep enough in the winter that doesn't really freeze and the filter/waterfall flows good enough that it breaks up any icing over.

Yea. Want me to tell you more about it here/post links? Or email.

If you can post here would be great. Else if you have LinkedIn lmk. I’ll take better photos and videos once we close

Yard in question. The water is green but it circulates the water (there’s a fountain like item on the right side where the stones are). Koi are dormant I think but want to make water clear and koi healthy

this thread is chock full of helpful advice

LINK

Alright so here is the video I mainly used to help me build mine. This guy has quite a few videos but on this one he actually gives a very rudimentary drawing of the bog itself. I suggest watching multiple of his videos. It's better to dumb the drawing down like he does because you could easily overcomplicate it and it really just isn't that hard. I will draw one myself and update this post.

He used some red rubber bowl type thing he found on Facebook marketplace but I just bought mine from Home Depot. This one. Before I had used one that is actually out by the pond stuff in the garden center but it was a little more flimsy and small. The size I have is overkill for my pond but the look cool in general when they're done and the larger it is the more it helps with filtration. My smaller one cleared up my pond within two days.

So just some materials you'll need:

- Crate/rubber container like I listed above
- A couple feet of 1" PVC pipe
- 1" PVC tee.
- 1" PVC shutoff valve similar to this that can be found in Home Depot.
- Pond pump. You do not need a big pump. One mistake I made was having a bigger pump thinking that was helping with filtration but it really was just creating too much flow and sucking in/moving so much water that fish wouldn't swim in that area and small goldfish got sucked up to it and died.
- Tubing for pump. Might as well buy enough to reach across your pond because you can always cut off excess.
- 1" uniseal. You will ideally only need two but you might as well buy a 5 pack just in case you mess up or one is cracked/torn.
- Hole saw bit. This is for cutting out two holes for the uniseal to go in and the PVC to run through. I think if you cut a 1" whole it is actually too big and the uniseal is too loose. It can't be loose or there won't be a good seal and water will leak out. That is crucial.

I used 3-4 different type of rocks. At the bottom of the crate you start off with some medium sized rocks (like shown in the video), , then progressively get smaller towards the top. I didn't go pebble rocks because those are small enough where they will wash out. I put some of the red llava rocks in there because they collect algae pretty good.

I pray painted the PVC black so it blended in better and didn't look cheap. Just the visible part, not the part that would be under water. I also didn't use any PVC glue just so there weren't any chemicals in the water. Hand tightening the PVC is plenty tight enough.

A lot of the bog filter videos don't have the 1" flush out valve I linked but it 100% is better to add one. Just makes cleaning it out super easy. You would actually have to take all the rocks out of the bog to clean it out without one. This way you can easily drain the water and flush out the built up algae in just a few minutes every month or two.

You will need an outlet obviously to power the pump. But if you already have a waterfall, you can probably just tie in there. You could actually keep that going if you like the look of it. If the waterfall in your picture is running down the rocks on the right side it is actually probably helping with filtration.

The floor of the pond and the rocks will still build up with some algae, but some algae is good. You just want clear/clean water. I have goldfish and koi in mine, they are fine to be in together. Just don't put a beta fish in there You can add a few algae eaters in there if you want or certain snails will clean the bottom of the pond. Pet Smart sells the algae eater fish but I didn't even get any because the bog filter is plenty good enough. My fish are super healthy.

A few other tips. You can run your hose and just have the water pour into the top of your bog, but it filters much better if you have a back flow where you run the PVC to the bottom of the bog and let the water flow up from the bottom, That way as the water is making it's way up, it is being filtered by the rocks.

You can add certain plants to the top of the bog if you want to decorate it. I personally just like the look of the rocks.

If you got any questions, just ask.

A basic drawing I did...




The PVC pipe needs to be above the water line. The pump hose needs to run down that a few inches. I put a tee at the top as well so incase it backs up it will overflow back out into the bog. This is my old one, the new one I did didn't have the flush out valve stick out so far, it's a little sturdier if you keep that shorter/closer to the crate.



Hope that helps. For sure worth the time to build one. Like I say, I was ready to tear mine down before I did this.

Pardon if this has been mentioned already. To impede algae growth, find ways to limit sunlight on the water. A structure, a tree or shrub that won't add debris, or even better, grow lilies or other aquatic plants that cover the surface. They will also increase dissolved oxygen in the water.