My 800 gallon outdoor pond

[Gobies et al]

Here are pictures of the 800 gal. pond that I don't have anymore. I used bog filtration which kept most of the plants out of the reach of the Koi and did a beautiful job of keeping the water clear. I would start the pond up in April and made a tent of clear plastic over it to heat it and had a "door" secured with Velcro I could access the fish. The last picture is looking through the doorway. The 2 largest Koi are ~ 23" and the smallest ~15".

[PintoHawk]

Ohhh, that's VERY cool! A beautiful set up. :D

[CACAdmin]

That is a beautiful pond and koi. Great idea about putting clear plastic over it. I guess that would serve a dual purpose in the spring... increasing the intensity of the light and thus helping warm the pond and preventing heat loss.

What made you decide on bog filtration? I notice you said it kept 'most' of the plants out of reach of the koi :laugh: ... I guess some didn't escape their voracious appetites (which could prove to be a big drain on the wallet, I'm sure).

[Gobies et al]

I put other plants in the pond, reeds, some Canna Lilies and Water Lillies, as the Koi were less inclined to eat them.

I went with bog filtration as that mimicked nature. The water from the lowest region of the pond was sucked through a prefilter, into the bottom of the bog, through gravel and polished going through another layer of sand. The cleaned water then overflowed into a channel where it picked up oxygen and then as a waterfall into the pond.

I cleaned the prefilter weekly and the bog portion not at all. I would get a slight bit of green water at about a week into start up and then clear water. I did do manual skimming, periodic cleaning and small water changes. I could see my fish, including my Rainbowfish, from inside the house ~25' away.

I was so impressed with bog filtration, I also used that method when I set up a 300 gallon indoor pond.

[Melody]

Looks like a healthy and happy pond and such a nice spot overall! No predator problems?

[Gobies et al]

Thanks for the compliment. I found the pond side very relaxing.

We didn't have any problem with predators except of the human kind. Birds would come and drink at the bog and when there was enough vegetation they would also bathe there. We only had one incident with vandalism and that was enough! Somebody threw a 3 pronged pitchfork over our 6 ' fence, didn't spear any fish but did puncture the liner. The holes were small and we didn't find them until the following spring. The water loss I had contributed to evaporation!

[CACAdmin]

One wonders about the actions of some people. Thankfully, not only did they not spear any fish but also that they didn't hit or spear any other creatures or people.:wideeyed: