Koi pond idea

[kOi12]

After some advice

Thinking of setting up a koi pond in my garden once the summer season is over however the 'pond' will actually be the intex 12ft swimming pool currently set up for the kids to use during summer... Anyone ever done anything like this...?

I know they are held in similar set up's albeit they are classed as holding tanks!

[Drogo]

I'm not sure I trust several hundreds of quids worth of Koi to a kids pool for long.

[extraT]

What an interesting idea!

We have the same pool (see my “outdoor pool thread” floating around here somewhere), fully filled and on a level surface it’s 56k litres. The actual material seems very strong. Sink it into the ground and If needed add a pond liner. If you can’t sink it (and if it is the same model as mine) it’s around 4feet tall, so maybe seeing the koi would be a bit difficult.

[Boosted LS1]

I wouldn't bother with that. It's preferable to have something sunk into the ground with a liner. That way it'll be insulated from the cold. Or have something raised but with sleepers or bricks around it perhaps.

[otolith]

Raised ponds work well for koi, but you want the above ground part to be well insulated and 4 feet is 1-2 feet less than you really want. Filtration arrangements may also be difficult to do well enough.

[kOi12]

extraT said:

What an interesting idea!

We have the same pool (see my “outdoor pool thread” floating around here somewhere), fully filled and on a level surface it’s 56k litres. The actual material seems very strong. Sink it into the ground and If needed add a pond liner. If you can’t sink it (and if it is the same model as mine) it’s around 4feet tall, so maybe seeing the koi would be a bit difficult.

Thanks for your reply! Wasn't sure if it was interesting or silly! Space isn't an issue as my garden is in excess of 200ft.

I was thinking of simply keeping it raised. putting sleepers around it (walling it) and topping it off with scaffolding boards on the edges. The internals would have lights submerged around the hex points (say six lights) so seeing them wouldn't be an issue as the liner is blue itself as well. I would put a small waterfall there as well and it could work pretty well but as another poster highlighted, 4ft may not be enough for the koi.

I also have to content with all manners of animals as i live in the country side which may put complications into the works as well, i.e. herons.

[kOi12]

otolith said:

Raised ponds work well for koi, but you want the above ground part to be well insulated and 4 feet is 1-2 feet less than you really want. Filtration arrangements may also be difficult to do well enough.

This was a thought of mine, filtration for the pool itself as well - the intex pool does have holes in it already for the basic swimming pool filter however.

[extraT]

Whilst I’m not not sure exactly what filteration system you’d need, I’m almost certain it would be “large size hose” to “small size hose” connector. Unless you find a way of modifying the existing filter (sand or filter balls- which is what we use) to accept whatever is common in a koi filter. If it’s anything like a big standard aquarium filter (again, see the “photos of your aquarium” thread for my newly cycled tank), isn’t it a case if buying the correct media and throwing it in to that filter? If possible, that would be one less thing to worry about.

[Boosted LS1]

My filtration is via a wheelie bin :-)

[otolith]

For filtration, for koi, I would always want a bottom drain to gravity feed a large, multi-stage filter, with the pump on the clean side. Gets rid of all the fish poo without the pump forever needing unclogging, and the physical filtration is easy to clean.

So I’m not sure that it’s optimal for a proper koi pond, but that’s not to say it wouldn’t make a lovely raised pond for goldfish, orfe, and a few small koi.

[extraT]

Op, any updates?