Thread: Building a small koi pond waterfall.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

Sorry I dropped out from this thread and others for a couple of days

Minor importance - take care

That looks perfect!

Just be careful where you place the BBQ as you do not want to smoke out the area, or the upstairs windows.

Originally Posted by JPPR2

I always liked Koi fish but reading the maintenance here and on the internet I think I will scrap the idea.

I used the term "Koi Pond" because it is a term we all understand being from different countries, in no way am I planning of keeping Koi. I was watching a YouTube documentary about these people from the UK who traveled to Japan to look at koi farms, some of these fish cost thousands of dollars.
Are you kidding me?
A few goldfish some guppies, and mollies, maybe a couple of catfish that I will never see again because they are bottom feeders, but do clean a lot of the stuff that settles in the bottom, and that's it. With so many people around me in need, I would not be able to sleep at night after spending that kind of money on stupid fish.
- By the way, I love the cement work at your property, I wish I could get someone that does work like that around here.
Perhaps I will post about it at the Khon Kaen FB group page and get a recommendation. Yours looks great. Your water planters look great also.
Well done all around!!

There is a reason I designed the cement pond the way I did

"the cement pond" ? after re-reading it I realized I must I sound like Jed Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies LOL

Hey BB,
We seem to have the same taste in house paint color schemes. .


Nice place you have there to relax. I love having the house lifted. The underneath always stays very cool and usually gets a good breeze blowing through. Our mutts love it too. They usually lay belly flat on the cool tiles. Occasionally we get a fast moving dove that thinks its a fly through until they commit suicide into a window.

Originally Posted by Slick

If the pond is in direct sunlight it'll bloom REALLY badly, at least mind did. Nothing I did could stop it until I built a little roof over it.

Not talking about algae on the walls of the pond & stuff, but full-on bright green water. Once that starts, its a biiiiiiiiiitch to stop.

I have half covering. There is only few days in a year when I experienced some green clouds. And never using a chemical against algae (unlike am using in swimming pool).

Even sometimes I throw in the pool a green veil fished out from the filter cascade that they have something to play with.

Actually, the kois as some kind of carps does not need a poor H2O water. That's only good for some kind of aesthetic show.

How I have it this morning, kois in over 10 years, hearing, seeing me, awaiting their food:

Originally Posted by Schuimpge

The green algae problem in part comes from switching off the pump at night I think.
Without continuous circulation, you'll never establish a healthy colony of bacteria, they'll die from lack of oxygen, even after a few hours.

Switching off evenings, if not forgotten. And switching on morning, many times forgotten. And the pumps is intermittent only, depends on how much I open the flow valve.

Unlike my system of slow flowing to the filter cascade, from there the pump is sucking when the last water reaches a higher level, another more efficient style is a sucking directly from the bottom of the fish pond, filling the filter cascade.

Mostly running permanently. Then some kind of filter cleaning is timely needed. Friends of mine have it, made by a special company for 10 times more then our poor system, the company coming also for the regular cleaning. However, it has not avoided few casualties.

You sure have beautiful koi there Klondyke. Next couple years hopefully getting my new house build started and that will get plenty of water areas. Pond, swimming..

Originally Posted by Schuimpge

My suggestion would be to put a layer of filter-floss on top. That layer would catch solids and the 'clean water' gets to the bioballs.

Done, will do the same on the "dry" part where the water is sprayed on the bio-balls.

Originally Posted by JPPR2

We seem to have the same taste in house paint color schemes.

Brilliant minds think alike LOL.
I like earth tones, and I wanted a traditional look so I don't stand out like a sore thumb in the village.

Originally Posted by Klondyke

I have half covering. There is only few days in a year when I experienced some green clouds. And never using a chemical against algae

I like your plant decorations, I started something similar. At the garden place I saw some lava rock that was hollowed out and could be used as a planter. Tomorrow I will go get some and see if I can make it look like some of the plants are growing naturally in the rocks. I also got some moss that the water is running trough , it could aid in the filtration a bit. Lets see if it survives.

Originally Posted by Schuimpge

You could also put this filter in the water on a couple of stones, with 1 or more crates submerged and 1 or more above the water as a Wet/Dry setup.

I like the innovative simplicity of your wet and dry system, I think I will impairment some of your components.
The first stage I have is a wet system, I think I will stack a dry system with a drip tray on top of it , much like yours.
Thank you for that detailed reply.

As the carps are liking muddy waters, also the kois can survive in algaesh waters. And they will dispose of the algae.

You can see often at larger restaurants where they keep such pond for the show with not very deep water - and not much care either.

Also at PTT gasoline pumps some Amazon coffee kiosks have built shallow channels with kois.

Originally Posted by Klondyke

Also at PTT gasoline pumps some Amazon coffee kiosks have built shallow channels with kois.

I have seen many of these ponds at various Amazon coffee shops in my travels. I have asked on and off about how they are maintained, most have said "They do nothing, Just feed the fish". I would also believe somewhere there is a ball park calculation on how many fish per liter of water so it does not become loaded with fish waste. Originally when I thought about Koi fish, I considered 2 or so small ones. But I am liking the Goldfish and skeeter eating guppy idea much better. I clearly do not want to be a slave to the pond.

[QUOTE=JPPR2;4275700]I have seen many of these ponds at various Amazon coffee shops in my travels. I have asked on and off about how they are maintained, most have said "They do nothing, Just feed the fish". I would also believe somewhere there is a ball park calculation on how many fish per liter of water so it does not become loaded with fish waste. Originally when I thought about Koi fish, I considered 2 or so small ones. But I am liking the Goldfish and skeeter eating guppy idea much better. I clearly do not want to be a slave to the pond.[/QUOTE

There's indeed ballpark figures of space and volume of water p/fish. However, these are highly dependent on other factors such as sun and filtration.
As Klondyke said, Koi are ok with muddy water, green 'algae-water' etc. The only thing that's important for them, and for any type of fish that you keep, is the ammonia level in the water, which of course gets lower or zero if there is enough filtration.
Bacteria not only sit in your filter. They're inside the whole water-column. So a waterfall or feature built with Lava stone is one big filter because of all the surface it provides for bacteria to grow on.
That's also what most of these ponds at PTT have. Some fountain or waterfall for circulation and filtration.

Cheers,
Luc

"I like the innovative simplicity of your wet and dry system, I think I will impairment some of your components.
The first stage I have is a wet system, I think I will stack a dry system with a drip tray on top of it , much like yours.
Thank you for that detailed reply."

Glad I could help.. any questions or more pictures or anything, just let me know.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

Done, will do the same on the "dry" part where the water is sprayed on the bio-balls.

Nice to see it straight away accumulating algae. Hope it helps getting the water more clear..

Suggest to get one of these in the local 20 Baht shop (or from the collection at home, we're having tons of them around the house..sigh)..



Put the floss in there, and it's nicely contained and won't start sinking when more gunk accumulates.

Originally Posted by Schuimpge

a waterfall or feature built with Lava stone is one big filter because of all the surface it provides for bacteria to grow on.

I had read or heard somewhere that algae blooms lowers the water oxygen level and kills the fish, Which was also a concern of mine. That's one of the reasons I started the water fountain feature. I also like the look, and the sounds of running water. Though it does make me run to the bathroom every five minutes LOL. I am hopping that the waterfall also helps aid in the aeration and as you said the water running down the rocks once I develop a healthy bacteria colony should also act as a aerobic (Dry) filter. I am already beginning to see some improvement in the water quality.
I cant begging to tell you all how much I appreciate all your help.

^Yes, something like that.
And the most important - it was here already mentioned - not to feed them too much.

Firstly, reducing their shit, secondly, reducing the algea growing on that unused food .

I fill a lid (not really fully) of a coffee can where I keep the fish food, throwing them once a day, sometimes forget. They have to fight for that.
If not fighting then stop for a day or two.

Actually the fish can survive a months without feeding. The more they starve the more they will feed on algae.

Well said Klondyke. I wouldn't try a month without food in my small ponds, there's no algae for them anyway...lol.. but indeed, less is better when it comes to feeding the fish.

My Baby at work is an example. Cleaning lady is way too attached and hand-feeds him..
Meanwhile, the tilapia are breeding like rabbits...lol..
There's also 2 Red Tail Catfish, 2 Riverfly Turtles (or pig-nose turtles), some big sucker fish and 1 peacock bass in there.

Originally Posted by Schuimpge

She's about 12 years old now 2m long, a good 100-120kg.

wow.

deserves a full sized photo

Lol..thanks for the upsize.. She's been with us for 10 years now. Lovely fish.. dangerous if not handled properly, but waiting with open mouth if you dangle a prawn.
Came swimming into our factory during the floods of 2011 and found a drain when the water receded. She was about 90cm at the time and survived because there was dozens of other fish in there.
We found her when we removed the sandbags in that drain. Built a temporary pond and started digging a bigger one.
The two Thai guys moved her to the new pond, crew of 4. Amazing job they did. Catching, moving into a Pickup Truck and the smaller guy jumping in there to check if she was ok.. (Just to clarify, that's 100kg of almost pure muscle..she's strong enough to break your rib-cage in countless pieces just by splashing around..)..
All went well, and she's absolutely enjoying her new (and bigger) home for over a year now.
She likely escaped some game fishing farm or anything during the floods.. For the better I'm sure.
The other fish in there where all given to me because they got too big for their owners.. Only the peacock bass is 'small'. The others are all above 30kg.

Really beautiful fish! Lucky man, I bet you take good care of her.

Just like to add a bit more detail on the 'waste-cycle'.
Fish produce waste after eating food. This waste contains ammonia, something that can easily kill fish if the concentration is too high.
A biological filter basically consists of a medium that provides as much surface area as possible without blocking the water flow.
On that surface, the first type of bacteria starts to develop, and what it does is 'eating' the ammonia and converting it into nitrite.
This nitrite is also harmful to fish, so a 2nd type of bacteria starts to develop. That 2nd bacteria converts the nitrite into nitrate..

Nitrate is much more 'fish-friendly', but you can see that if there's nothing to remove the nitrate, then it builds up and eventually the concentration will be too high for the fish and you'll still end up with sick or dead fish.

How to remove the nitrate? One option is water-changes. Topping up won't help, because you don't remove the nitrates..
But.., anyone with a bit of gardening knowledge knows that most if not all fertilizers contain nitrate.
So plants grow on nitrate. In a pond or fishtank, that means we have to add plants to grow so they consume the nitrate and then the circle is complete.
There's the option of water-plants...Or you could use the pond water to water your plants (potted or in the garden). Then top up the pond with rainwater, or (less preferable), tap-water..

In the past, I used to spray my orchids and other potted plants with fish-tank water, never used any of those orchid fertilizers. They really like that, grow and bloom like crazy..With a pond its even easier. Just dip them in the pond for a couple of minutes.

Or you could set up an aquaphonic grow-bed, let the water continuously flow through that and grow some vegetables.

Cheers,
Luc