I was recently lucky enough to be able to rescue 6 Koi and a fibreglass filter from someone who has just bought a new house and didnt want them. (as the new owner didnt want a pond and woulndt pay for the equipment, the previous owner took the pump & UV and left the koi to die).
I've currently got a 3m x 2m x 0.9m garden pond which contains approx 15 goldfish and a ghost carp.
Having thought of extending my existing pond for sometime, the new arrivals have promted me to take action.
Thanks to the brilliant Koi Cymru website, I've already gained a lot of knowledge, however I still have a few questions that I'd like answering before I start.
I'm looking to extend my existing pond to 3m x 4m x 1.5m, c/w 2 x 4" bottom drains.
It will be built from concrete block, with 0.5m above ground and 1m below.
This which will give approx 18000L capacity
My questions are as follows :
1. As I'm not sure of the cost of fibre glassing or my ability to get the rendering and glassing right, I was looking at a box welded butyl liner (circa £350)is this a good method ?
2. If I'm using a liner, do I need to concrete a base for the bottom drains or can they just be back filled with dirt ? If concrete is prefered, how thick should it be if it's not used to retain the water ?
3. I'm going to lay the 18" x 9" x 4" blocks flat on their 9" side, will I be ok to just backfill the wall with dirt ?
4. I was going to purchase a vortex to go in front of the fibreglass 3 bay filter I was given. Should I go for a two inlet vortex or make a manifold ?
5. The fibreglass filter is a 3 bay unit measuring 1.5m x 0.6m x 0.6m. It currently has brushes in bay 1, flocor in bay 2 and a mix of flocor and alfagrog in bay 3. I have no data on the filter or the manufacturer, is it going to be big enough and what filter media would be recommended for each bay ?
6. Is in really necessary to use deep water returns ?
7. If I dont use deep water returns, where would the outlets be fed from a gravity fed filter setup, above the water line or below ?
8. Do I need a mid water feed if I used a seperate submersible pump mid water in the winter ?
9. If mid water feed is recommended, how would I connect this using a liner ? Are there fittings available ??
And that's it for now I'm sure more questions will come up
Many thanks
Mark
Posted on Feb 18, 2008, 9:06 PM from IP address 81.110.145.69
I'm sure more questions will come up