Rate my Koi pond

K

KingSobieski

Veteran XX


Not quite done yet. I was just contracted to dig the holes and lay in the roof membrane and do the mason work, so pretty much just ended up shorting myself out on the profits since I did pretty much the whole thing as a sub. Me nor the other dude ever built a Koi pond before but now we are seeing the business potential and maybe have 2 other Koi pond jobs in the works.

I had to piece together 3 sheets of 10x20 roof membrane. Should've just spent the money and got a 20x100ft roll. That's definitely a time/cost investment if we do multiple ponds.

Personally, I think I would have used a 220v spa pump and spa filter but right now they're just going with some walmart DC fountain pumps and they have a filter that you toss in. So from my hot tub experience, I would have some suggestions for improvements.

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Should've plumbed this into the bottom of the pond with a 3 piece shower drain and then ran the output to the opposite end.
 
Will they eat the dead skin from your feet?
In Vietnam there would be an outhouse over the pond. Fun watching your shit drop to splash and the fish have a feeding frenzy. I treat it like Olympic diving, some ooohs and ahhhs and call them chinese if no splash or yemenese of they belly flop.
 
The first step was to use blue tarps to pad the holes with before the rubber liner went on. I guess it smooths it out more and protects from punctures.

I used the method for typical roof membrane seaming work.

Obviously though, the best method is to just buy a membrane that is large enough to not need to be seamed but with these awkward shapes and different size holes, I'm not even sure if that would've been feasible. I did consider just using masonry, like pouring a concrete floor and then building up the walls with bricks and doing a pool plaster but it just simply too much time/$$$ for a 'budget' pond. If I had a pond, I would definitely just build it out of masonry. The rubber seems 'hoaxy' to me and you can't completely hide it.

You overlap the 6", fold the rubber backwards, then prime, lay down the self adhesive tape, then fold back again, then prime the top, then paint on thin layer of rubber cement, then roll out the seam tape.

It was a problem where the rubber was seamed together because it had to fold over the seams in some spots and it caused it to buckle out. So I once everything was placed, I used the rubber roof caulking for any trouble areas, then glued another layer of tape on, then once it was all the best it could be, then I over lapped the seamed areas with another sheet of membrane and primed, taped, primed taped, to attach.


With the first water fill, there does seem to be a lot of oily stuff floating on the top of the water. I filled the water today, so will see if its all missing tomorrow. A spa pump would be so helpful since it can be switched over to 'drain' mode. That would make the water changes a lot easier.
 
A dude that gets free pools from facebook marketplace, and resells them with installation left a bunch of shit in my storage place. One giant complete above ground pool with a liner, and another smaller pool without the liner. Wonder if a guy could make a liner the same way KS?

He left all the pumps and etc that goes with them too.

I rate it 4 out of 5 Crystals only because you left out the Koi.
 
I like it. I like the stone work too. Here our ponds need to be less than a foot deep (300 mm) or the pool fence code is enacted. It got strict about 5-10 years ago. I put large rocks in bottom of our pond to reduce effective depth, but what the means is plants like water lilies won't like it too much. Water Lily likes deeper water. So I plan to mesh the top (to protect the fish from birds anyway) and then I can remove some stones and water littles will be happier. This pond is small, is just a very large round planter pot.

Also, lighting makes them look great at night. An underwater light at night looks unreal. It's like a whole other world down in there with little fish swimming past the light as they get a little warmth off it. I use a small spot light that points upwards onto the reeds coming out the water.
 
I dug two deep pools and they're connected by the 'river'. One pool is 3ft depth and the other is 4ft depth. They have mid depth 'shelf' that wraps around to make egress easier should someone fall inside. Should be safe enough for anyone 2ft and taller.

Plas - I would say, that above ground pools, should it have the pump + the filter + the liner, you have the equipment for a pond. That's probably an even better starting point than a hot tub. If it's a circle pond, the liner is easier to install. The river made a big problem for trying to fold a square liner into that shape. I don't know what the efficiency is between a pleeted spa paper filter and the sand filter.

I think a spa filter is better because you could remove it and rinse it out with a garden hose. The sand IDK, you might just need to change the sand every year.

I guess either might work. If you dig the depth of the pond deep it won't freeze over in the winter.

Just digging the pond out took me about 10 hours by hand work with shovel and wheel barrow. I did it over two days.

The pallet of limestone cost $300. For 4x 80lbs of mortar cost $30. If you got the above ground pool parts you'll have like, $600-700 to a pond. (tarps, rocks, mortar, PVC pipe)

I think it's totally worth it. If I had the space I would build a dope ass pond.

I think I would dig a trench down the wall and under the floor and lay in 2" PVC pipe for the drain, then pour the floor in concrete around the shower drain. Then place the liner into the pond and cut the X for the drain, then silicone/bolt the drain together to seal up the rubber puncture. The return can be a water fall that returns filtered water and the water fall drop is the aeration.
 
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