Hello from Crossroads Texas...

Hello,

My name is Craig. I live an hour north of Dallas/Ft. Worth. Let me first say that I greatly appreciate the contributions each of you have made as the info is fantastic and very exciting!

I am completing construction of a large koi pond (4.5'x45'x60') and have erected a 47' Texas windmill next to this. I have become somewhat an expert (trial and error) at building a highly filtered fish pond, and in rebuilding a windmill who's principle design has not changed since its patent in the 1860's. I will include pictures once it is complete.

It has taken me some time to realize these plans... and now I am excited to figure out how to incorporate laminar jets into the landscape. So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered this site!

Kindest Regards,

Craig

Hi there and welcome :-)

Texas, that is great !!
I think this forum soon have covered every spot on the planet soon lol..

Cheers from Norway


Yes make a new thread and show us your garden, it sounds interesting.
Btw, you say your are an expert on create fish pond and filter

I have a friend that have a KOI pond with 6-8 fish (i think) !
He have used $$$ on many different filters, both UV-filters and other filters..

But the pond is still dirty, and it gets dirty every time (pretty fast) .
Do you have any recommendation what to do, and what can maybe be the problem in his pond ?


Thank you


Filip

Hello Filip,

Thanks for the note! I sent this forum link to my next door neighbor who is a real engineer that loves to tinker with electronics so, between the two of us, we might come up with some interesting ideas as well.

Actually I have a few friends over in your neck of the woods, mostly in Denmark.... and one of them just moved to sunny California. It is a great time of the year to be in your area (long days). I used to do business over in the Nordics and absolutely loved it, with the exception of the dark winters!

Let me rephrase my pond expertise as "becoming" an expert. I am more an expertise on the Aeromotor windmill at this point. I am in the process of finishing construction on the pond... which has been a huge ordeal in itself.

One thing I have learned from others who have built Koi ponds is it is better to over engineer the volume of water you need to turn over each day. At a minimum, 3 times per day is required for Koi ponds. That would be the first place to check as Koi fish do have a lot of waste and the more fish you have, in a smaller location, the more you have to turn the water over.

If the "dirty" aspect is more suspended (biological) than settling (mechanical), then the way to attach the problem will be different. Mechanical is the easier problem to fix in that you just need to make sure you have sufficient layers of media to sort out these particles... but that requires large expensive filters to insure proper filtering as you increase the rate you need to turn over the water. Solving the biological problems involves a balance of infusing oxygen into the pond (waterfalls, fountains, bubblers, etc.) and then having adequate "biological" filter media to grow the right bacteria. The tricky part of biological filters is getting the right PH for the right bacteria to be effective. The expensive UV filters only help clean up the very last bits not captured by this process.

The key to a successful pond is to create an ecosystem with plants and other water creatures that balance the waste generated by fish. Additionally, one important thing is there should be a good buffer (5 feet) from the garden/grass, and there should not be any water that drains from the yard into the pond... this just infuses too many nitrates into the system which kills the delicate balance needed and will rapidly cause the pond to be cloudy.

Wish I could be more help, but as I get everything operational, I will let you know of lessons learned.

Thanks again for the excellent info you have personally provided regarding laminar water jets! I wish I had more time to start tinkering... actually headed over to Central Russia to do some work for a 3 month project... so my R&D will be a bit delayed.

Kindest Regards,

Craig