Future Improvements

Never satisfied, these are things I would like to add to my pond in the future.
Filter improvements

 
No pond enthusiast is ever happy with any filter system.  If you ask 5 koi experts about filters, you will get 10 different opinions.  Twenty years ago the standard filter was an upflow gravel filter whose volume equaled twenty to thirty percent percent of the pond's volume.  Since then a better understanding of the relationship between water quality and filter design has come about.  Various innovative designs have also come about.  These include enhanced filter media as well as new concepts such as bubble bead and fluid bead filters.  

My current filter is a three stage design.  The first stage is a large strainer to keep debris out of the pump.  The second stage is a three cubic foot bubble bead filter.  The current third stage is two upflow chambers.  Originally these chambers were filled with gravel.  The gravel was replaced in 2000 with 12 sheets of blue Japanese filter mat.  I think water quality could be improved by splitting the third stage into three or four parts.  The two current upflow filters would remain.  One new fourth stage could be a 'veggie' filter.  Nature pulls impurities and wastes out of water in many ways.  A small pond, maybe eighteen inches deep with a surface area of ten-to-fifteen square feet, and filled with some type of floating aquatic plants would use the root systems to remove plant nutrients, just fish wastes and their by-products, from the pond.  Water hyacinths would work.  In Singapore they use hydroponically grown pandan grass.   It is important that floating plants be used.  Water plants with the green leaves under water do oxygenate water during the day but the photosynthesis process uses oxygen to generate carbon dioxide at night.  This can cause stress in the fish due to oxygen deprivation during the night and morning hours.

Another possible fourth stage is a 'trickle tower.'  Trickle towers drop water onto a course filter medium.  The water trickles through the tower constantly dribbling until it reaches the bottom and then flows into the pond.  These type of filters are used in marine environments.  The filter medium is not submerged, but it is constantly getting a shower.  They are supposed to be one of the most efficient ways of removing nitrates and nitrites from the water.  The trickle tower picture below is  from http://www.qualitykoi.com/vs_products_detail.cfm?ska_id=FLT005 where there is a complete description, but it looks like an easy weekend project to build once the materials are acquired.

Installing a Pond Heater

Installing a heater to keep the pond temperature in the low to mid-seventies would have several benefits for the fish.  If the pond temperature drops below the mid-sixties, koi growth slows and feeding must be reduced.  Koi are cold blooded animals.  There also is strong evidence that the immune system of koi starts to shut down as the water temperature approaches sixty.  The aerobic bacteria in a biological filter also shut down as the temperature drops.  Spring time is notorious for outbreaks of ulcer disease and heating has been shown to prevent this outbreak.  KOI-USA printed an article about installing a natural gas fired heater in the September 2001 issue.  Click here to see an article about the virtues of heating on a site that will custom design a heater for you site.  The article is written by a retired scientist and he includes all his references.  My first reaction is to modify a solar swimming pool heater which ought to be an option in Southern California.
 

Pondscaping Improvements

 
The purpose of pondscaping is to frame the pond and its koi in the most effective visual environment. In order to help control algae I put up an overhead shade cloth cover.  The cover is rated at 95% shade which is too much   Because of the tropical plants surrounding the pond need some shading, replacing the heavy duty shade cloth with 40% (40% lets 60% of the daylight through) would still help control the algae.  A longer term, and more expensive solution, would be to replace the temporary shade cloth structure with a permanent lattice structure.  One contractor I talked to quoted a price equal to the initial cost of the pond.  So much for the 'County Fair Special.'

In addition to koi and tropical plants, My wife and I raise Australian finches.  A little outdoor aviary with a bunch of Lady Gould finches and a pair of Scarlet Chested parakeets would add another visual and audio dimension to the environment.

While no picture on this web site shows this, the pond can not be seen from living room if you are sitting down.  Replacing the window with a sliding glass window or French doors would make the pond into an extra 'outdoor' room especially if the overhead lattice structure is installed.
 

A Separate Isolation Pond

 
There are two times when koi must be isolated.  One is when you buy new fish and one is when the fish are sick.  New fish need to be isolated for at least three weeks in order to guarantee that they are disease, parasite, and fluke free.  An ideal hospital pond would be about 500 gallons, have its own filter and aeration system, a UV light, and include a heater capable of keeping the water temperature above seventy five in all types of weather.  Hopefully the pond would only be used as an isolation pond and never as a hospital treatment area.

 

Importing and Raising Koi

 
Every koi fancier fantasizes about importing or breeding spectacular koi.  Breeding requires special skills and facilities.  The ability to judge and cull fingerling koi is a skill that takes time and money to develop.  The best way to obtain this knowledge would be through some sort of apprenticeship with an expert breeder.  This is not a real option for someone living in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

Importing and raising koi is a viable option.  One of my fantasies is to build several 2500 gallon heated ponds.  Fish would be imported and re-sold.  Some of the better fish would be grown and the choice fish would end in the big pond.  Eventually the large pond would contain only choice jumbo fish.  To be truly successful one would need two things.  The first would be a special relationship with one or two breeders.  The second would be accepting the fact that it is a hobby-business.  To be successful it would have to provide me with the enjoyment of the hobby but with enough profit to cover the costs, overhead, and depreciation with a little profit left over, and I would have to be willing to part with the inventory.