Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

We're in the planning stage on doing a medium-large Koi pond.... I need your input! We're gonna be digging it in mid-July, when I take a week off.

We're looking at a 15x15 - 20x20 size. Too big, too small? How big is yours for comparison?

What/how are you gonna dig next time? I called and a Bobcat Excavator from United Rental is $175 a day *choke/gag*!!! Digging out roughly 20 yards of dirt with a shovel sounds pretty unrealistic. I now have a V8 explorer and a 6x14' double-axle trailer, so I can haul dirt easily at least.

Should I get a 2nd water-only meter installed? I'm thinking yes.

I'm heading down this afternoon to the watergarden place down Dawes road to price liners. Have you been there, are they decent?

Are you still satisfied with the filtration setup, should I copy it?

Are you still set on using a bottom drain?

Help!

Scott has my cell # if you prefer to talk over phone.

sounds like you got your work cut out for you, i say..rent a back hoe, and did a 80'x60'x30'deep pond and put a diving board on one side of it, and throw bass and catfish in that mug..now thats a pond

I would say rent the backhoe... We dug the one in the yard and expanded it, we dug kevin's mom's and expanded it and we dug the grow out pond at Kevin's mom's all by hand ... If we build one at our next house we are talking about getting a bobcat to dig it for the most part. As for the liner... we got a really good deal at Home depot (they sell it by the foot) for the growout pond at Kev's moms sometimes if you get them at the end of the season you can get a better price. Also you have to figure in the depth and width when you are trying to decide on the the liner, the Koi like the water deep... I am sure you know this but just in case... We used one width on our pond and a different on the pond at MIL's.. the thing about her's is we connected 2 ponds with a channel and that meant using seaming tape (PITA) ... we used like 20x20 or 25x20 on her pond I am sure Kevin wil correct me and I think we used 20x20 on ours...hers is much bigger than ours around but ours is deeper. I know that probably doesn't help any but just consider the depth say 3 foot x 2 plus the width of the pond say 8 is 14 foot you could use a 15 foot liner but you wouldn't have much play or over lap which you need to keep the liner tight at the top... but with a 20 you would have too much.... Okay I sound like I am talking around corners.... I will quit....

I will not dig another pond by hand, i can tell you that. If you do dig it by hand, soften the dirt with a waterhose the night before. As far as the bottom drains, i will never go without another one. There are so many pluses to having a bottom drain it is unreal. Also i will never use another mag pump as long as i am alive. Try a Sequence pump, its external very quiet and has the reputation in the pond community like Iwaki does in reef tanks. A good quality Pond skimmer is a must, dont try the pool skimmers, i am very dissatisfied with them. Go ahead and shell out for a good POND skimmer. A true pond skimmer does not have to be dumped as often, because they hold more material and skim better off the top instead of letting water slow through the sides. I dont know why you would need a water source for the pond. We very rarely have to add water, rainfall normally takes care of that for us. Unless you have a leak or a waterfall that splashes alot of water you should be ok. I do know this for a fact, i will never do another waterfall. They are a pain in the ass and you will spend more time dealing with it than the freaking pond. Do not buy anything from pond elegance, they are very overpriced, you can get a good pond liner shipped to your door for a fraction of what they want. There pumps are 2x -3x the normal price. Even there rock is twice as high, Gulf Stone is much cheaper. I love to look there, but now knowing how high they are they will not get my money anymore.

Welp, turns out that Deanna backed out after a few days of thinking about spending $1k on a hole in the ground with some fish in it. Soooo, we decided to dump another $400+ into the reef tank instead

Thats cool, unless you spend a ton of time outside its not worth it. I very rarely even look at mine.