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ua hua's 5,000 gal. water garden(pics of spring 2017 last page)

30K views 104 replies 54 participants last post by  pfcs49 
#1 · (Edited)
I thought I would share some pictures of the pond I put in about 10 years ago and the koi that reside there. This pond is 11' x 16' and 3'6" deep. It has had 3 generations of koi spawn but I haven't had any spawns the last 3 years and I have no idea why. Without further rambling here is the pictures because that is what everyone wants to see anyway.
 

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#6 ·
Thanks for the comments. It freezes over in winter except for the waterfall and down by the skimmer box where I put a stock tank de-icer. The fish all stay in there and huddle at the bottom. As long as the top doesn't completely freeze over so there can be some surface exchange everything is just fine. The fish stop getting fed once the temp reaches a certain point because they can't digest the food.
 
#12 ·
Well the pump for the waterfall has been making some noise for awhile and today it decided to crap out. I still have the old one that I replaced 3 years ago because it seemed like it wasn't pumping the volume that it used to so it will work until I get a new one ordered. I figure that 3-4 years of pump life is about what I should expect since it runs 24-7 everyday of the year.
 
#16 ·
Thank you!
What pump are you going with?
I think I will try get a Tsurumi waterfall pump since I have heard good things about them. If anyone has any other suggestions for a really good quality pump let me know since I'm still checking around.

http://www.tsurumipumpsales.com/tsu...scharge-direct-replacement-series-p-1809.html

Love it man! Wanna come build me one when I buy a house? haha That's a nice looking Koi too... the one with the serrated longer fins.

You couldn't afford me. J/K. I was a lot younger back then and it took me a week to recover from all that work. I wouldn't think about doing it again especially now that I am older. It was all dug by hand and using a wheel barrow to bring in tons and tons of rock was not much fun. Some of the bigger rocks by the base of the waterfall took 4 people to put them in place. If I had to do it again I would put in a pondless waterfall. I do love the koi but I think a pondless waterfall is just as beatuiful as a pond without the maintenence. By the way the koi is a Gin Matsuba butterfly and I have had her since she was 3 inches.
 
#18 ·
I need a high flow pump that goes in a skimmer box. It needs to pump a large volume of water about 24 feet away. The Laguna pumps are more of a pump and filter in one type of unit.
 
#19 ·
Beautiful pond! I love the natural look. Your koi are beautiful- I love the shusui. That is one of my favorite varieties.

I try to keep my koi down to less than 10 adults for 2500 gallons but the darn things keep spawning, so I have to keep trying to catch babies which is really difficult. If I'd been able to tell (or choose) sex back when I bought them, I would have bought all females (I like their chunkier body shape), but oh well, LOL!
 
#23 ·
Thank you and that fish is definitely one of my favorites too. I did the spring cleaning a couple of weeks ago and removed a bunch of bullrush and sweetflag that was getting out of control. I will try to get some new pictures put up here soon,
 
#26 ·
Thanks. I do have corcksrew rush in there also. I like how it stays alot smaller than some of the other rush varieties.


That's so Beautiful <3

How much maintenance is involved in the upkeep?
Not as much as my aquarium that is for sure. Once a year in the spring I take all the fish out and put them in 3 seperate stock tanks and drain the pond completely and get all the dead leaves that fall from the trees in the fall out and completely flush out the waterfall and skimmer box. After that intial cleaning all there is to do is clean the skimmer box foam weekly and the waterfall foam every 3-4 months. I haven't had any fish spawn the last 3 years so last spring I tried things differently and left the fish in and just vaccumed the bottom and did a 70-80% water change hoping to see if they would spawn if I didn't drain the whole thing and they didn't. I'm hoping to have a successful spawn this year even though I don't plan on keeping any of the babies unless I see some that have unique markings. It's pretty neat seeing all the different colors you can get from a spawn. Several of the fish that are in there are from spawns 4-5 years ago.
 
#28 ·
I know its pretty crowded even for the large volume of water but I have grown really attached to the ones that are in there as I have had 3 of them for 13 years now and last year I sold 5 of the koi that didn't have the best markings. I may try introducing some new blood but I don't just buy any koi that I see. They have to be some nice looking fish before I will add them. It really isn't that big of a deal if they spawn because that just means I have more to find homes for and on top of that I always ended up keeping the ones I thought would end up looking like good fish when full grown.
 
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