Tony Swinney
Member
Hi all
I was asking Ed for some pond advice, and he suggested I start a journal so here it is...
I'm looking for advice on renovating our pond - I really havent much of a clue on ponds so any help would be much appreciated
This pond was here when we bought the house a couple of years ago, but had been badly neglected. There was a massive wysteria over the pergola which put it into darkness, all summer long, and had been dropping all its leaves into it for quite a few years.
Apparently the chap who built the pond in the 80's (can you tell ) built it as a Koi pond, and I found various bits of rusted old equipment at the bottom of the garden to tie in with that.
I got the wysteria out pretty sharpish, and dredged the bottom clear in the summer of 07, installed a couple of filters and pumps, and was then bought "35 koi for £35" off ebay - all of which were 2 - 3" long.
They are all now 6-7" long, and seem quite happy However the pond is pretty mucky again, and the water cloudy (it was really clear all of last year?), so it needs a good spring clean.
Aesthetically I dont really like the layout in relation to the garden - I would have put the waterfall at the right hand side so it faced the main garden, so that may get changed at least.
Aside from that I'm open to suggestions and recommendations, anything from change the filter, to dig it all out and build something new ! Ed Seeley pointed me towards a couple of koi forums, and they have some serious building work going into their ponds !!! I'm not sure the budget will stretch to that, but I'd be interested to know what others would do with it.
Thanks
Tony
Specs:
3.1m long, 1.8m wide 0.3m deep shelf around edge, and 0.8m deep in the middle.
Laguna pump and Powerflo 'canister' filter
2nd laguna pump, powering waterfall and blagdon box filter.
Here it is:
Some of the koi and orfe's:
The 2 filters:
I was asking Ed for some pond advice, and he suggested I start a journal so here it is...
I'm looking for advice on renovating our pond - I really havent much of a clue on ponds so any help would be much appreciated
This pond was here when we bought the house a couple of years ago, but had been badly neglected. There was a massive wysteria over the pergola which put it into darkness, all summer long, and had been dropping all its leaves into it for quite a few years.
Apparently the chap who built the pond in the 80's (can you tell ) built it as a Koi pond, and I found various bits of rusted old equipment at the bottom of the garden to tie in with that.
I got the wysteria out pretty sharpish, and dredged the bottom clear in the summer of 07, installed a couple of filters and pumps, and was then bought "35 koi for £35" off ebay - all of which were 2 - 3" long.
They are all now 6-7" long, and seem quite happy However the pond is pretty mucky again, and the water cloudy (it was really clear all of last year?), so it needs a good spring clean.
Aesthetically I dont really like the layout in relation to the garden - I would have put the waterfall at the right hand side so it faced the main garden, so that may get changed at least.
Aside from that I'm open to suggestions and recommendations, anything from change the filter, to dig it all out and build something new ! Ed Seeley pointed me towards a couple of koi forums, and they have some serious building work going into their ponds !!! I'm not sure the budget will stretch to that, but I'd be interested to know what others would do with it.
Thanks
Tony
Specs:
3.1m long, 1.8m wide 0.3m deep shelf around edge, and 0.8m deep in the middle.
Laguna pump and Powerflo 'canister' filter
2nd laguna pump, powering waterfall and blagdon box filter.
Here it is:
Some of the koi and orfe's:
The 2 filters: