koi carp ponds

[beer monkey]

Would love to volunteer my brother inlaw but he probably would'nt be to pleased. as for concrete blocks should be available in builders merchants. My pond was made of blocks and cement and all is good after two and half years,no liners involved,i don't keep high grade koi in it only ghost koi and gold fish etc. good luck with volunteers.

[yorkman]

With regard to aj. loss of ten fish , it would be interesting to know if you test water parameters,ie, ph, water hardness (both types kh and gh) ammonia levels, nitrite, etc, etc. As all good koi keepers know, you keep water first and foremost , the fish are secondary.
I am still lacking on finding out where pond making materials in thailand can be purchased, I am rapidly approaching the stage in making my pond where I will need a sealant such as g4 for sealing the cement, as I am not amoured with the thought of tiling, (its a pond not a swimming pool.)also, does anybody know if it is possible to buy proper concrete blocks 4" or 6" thick! and solid.and lastly are there any volunteers out there who can give an old man a hand!

I think that was just a matter of not filling and emptying the pond several times, as Lee suggested, to get the extreme alkalinity caused by lime in the cement out. Tiling and a bit of grout will not stop this. Water is known as the "universal solvent" and it will leach through.

Well you are some way towards finding your solution Leprechaun surely? The cement block method, followed by a concrete rendering (just like house walls) would do it. I'm not sure where you would get G4 sealant.....you could fetch some in ..or look into the rubberised coatings that are available for pool sealing...again with a lots of changes of water to get rid of any nasties. G4 is, in any case, just another form of rubberised sealant sold at an inflated price

Then..pumps, pool pumps perhaps, and design your own filters, again with the concrete and sealant method.

As for the help....hmmmm....with full reciprocation perhaps!! Probably easier to get a digger in and explain to a general contractor exactly what you want with your in-ground wall, and poured concrete floor, for the bottom drains, and take it from there yourself.

I dunno, I'd love to see somebody with a completed 10,000 gallon or so pond in the Udon area post here...

John

[aj]

in reply to leprechaun . no I did not test water at all, pond had been cleaned three times and filled and g/f was concerned about the waste of water , hence the ten small fish to find out. I found out and shame upon me as they say. however the pond is completly tiled and to be fair I thought that any cement residue would have been long gone. You live and learn. As a matter of interest the pond is made of bricks that cost 8 tbh each and fit into each other . they are made up near MacroS I think. They are easy to lay stronger i SUSPECT THAN THE old breeze blocks I have made ponds from before. Tiles are really cheap here so yes its tiled. There always seems to be two ways to keep koi. i PREFER A POND WITH NOTHING IN BUT THE FISH , FILTERED AND OXYGEN SUPPLIED BY PUMP AND VENTURA RETURN. Thats a prefferance only. I find fish become tamer and also that breeding is more likely . plus if they do breed its easier to seperate the young . I think there are many pros and cons to both ways. My last pond was down in wales .very formal and onle fish . it survived an attack by rampaging mink without losing a fish ,in fact one mink died . I doubt that would have happened had it been a natural pond.

[leprechaun]

Thanks fellas for the various suggestions. I am now on the lookout for a suitable container to make a vortex chamber, as the cement water butt I was going to modify comitted sucide today by jumping down the hole and smashing itself to bits. Oh! I have just found the suicide note it reads---- I am a thai concrete water butt, and I would sooner die then be interfered with by a farang! (translation to english by mrs leprechaun)

and this, one day before valentines!

[beer monkey]

May-be the Mrs might buy you a new water butt for valentines.

[yorkman]

Thanks fellas for the various suggestions. I am now on the lookout for a suitable container to make a vortex chamber, as the cement water butt I was going to modify comitted sucide today by jumping down the hole and smashing itself to bits. Oh! I have just found the suicide note it reads---- I am a thai concrete water butt, and I would sooner die then be interfered with by a farang! (translation to english by mrs leprechaun)

and this, one day before valentines!

If you have the space, try a "settling" chamber perhaps, just like a sewerage works. Feed in at the bottom and return with the top level water. A periodic partial drain out like a vortex chamber ought to be ok, and easily built like a mini pond. You could even put some plants is there to feed off this. I am considering this with lot of guppies in there, their main food in the wild is mossie larvae.

Just my ideas; I have yet to embark on this

John

p.s. I hope the interference went well

[leprechaun]

Hi all you late night guys with itchy fingers, ok, must stick to the subject matter.
the settling tank is a valid idea, and has inspired me to think about building in concrete something along those lines,space being no problem.Guppies to eat the mozzy larvae! I like it, top marks! thats truly eco in action.Should go well with my final filter, known as" bacteria house"consisting of oyster shell, on which i am hoping to grow a large colony of "nitrifying bacteria". and at the same time the shell will act as buffering material, to keep the ph constant.

Happy valentines to you all.

PS guess what mrs leprechaun bought me for valentines! Free drink to the winner.

[polehawk]

A school of guppies?

[Loaded]

PS guess what mrs leprechaun bought me for valentines! Free drink to the winner.

A bottle opener I have a CC if I win !!

Happy valentines to you too.

[beer monkey]

PS guess what mrs leprechaun bought me for valentines! Free drink to the winner.

Was it a strong young man to dig out the pond...........or Socks.

[farang]

PS guess what mrs leprechaun bought me for valentines! Free drink to the winner.

a fishing rod and a brochure on how to turn a pond into a jacuzzi

chang please lol

[banpaeng]

Don't know what he got but Falangs answer is the best so far.

[yorkman]

A school of guppies?

Yes, and some of those Archer Fish things to shoot down the mossies that the guppys miss.

Seems reasonable to me...

John

[yorkman]

PS guess what mrs leprechaun bought me for valentines! Free drink to the winner.

Was it a strong young man to dig out the pond...........or Socks.

No, she bought the strong young man for herself...

John

[FrazeeDK]

It's a bit away from the Koi issue (although Kois can have leech probs) but does anyone have a solution to getting rid of leeches in local ponds.. I have two large spring fed (nam-hin) fish ponds on the property. Both are about 12 meters wide X 35 meters long X 3-4 meters deep. I've got family that have swum in them and complained about getting leeches.. Anybody know of any natural way to kill them off or indeed any chemical way that wouldn't kill the fish I already have in the ponds and where to get it locally?? The water's a might cloudy, but it sure would be a nice swimmin' hole during the hot season

thanks,

[banpaeng]

I haven't a clue so I ask wife ans she said ducks will get rid of the leaches. I said they will eat the fish and she just shrugged her shoulders. YOur guess is as good as mine.

[briang]

I found this

How can I control leeches and

[briang]

Another way to get rid of leeches.

Another method suggested by the Schoharie County Soil and Water (Conservation District News) is the 'Leech trap.'

1. Start with a coffee can with a plastic lid
2. Poke holes in the sides of the can with a nail. Holes should be 1/8 to 1/4 inch in size. The nail holes should leave a sharp burr on the inside of the can (approximately 50 holes).
3. Put about 1/4 cup of raw meat in the can (ground beef, liver, chicken or turkey giblets are recommended).
4. Put the lid on the can and submerge it completely in your pond. A rock placed on top of the can will prevent it from falling over and will help prevent snapping turtles from tampering with it.
5. Check the trap a couple of times a week and remove the leeches. Keep the trap in the pond until the leech numbers decrease, or you no longer catch any leeches in the trap.

There are a few good Internet resources available if you would like to learn more about leeches. The Department of Natural Resources, Water and Land Resources division of individual's County, Washington offers an informative web page on leeches and the Australian Museum online offers a more detailed description of leech biology.
This from http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/ext/fish/Pon ... ~mainFrame

The punctured can sounds like a cheeper option. Another suggestion was to drain the pond and let it freeze over winter, though I doubt this method will be any use to you.

Brian

[banpaeng]

The punctured can sounds like a cheeper option. Another suggestion was to drain the pond and let it freeze over winter, though I doubt this method will be any use to you.

Brian

Hope you have some good roads for all the trucks of Ice it will take.

[leprechaun]

There are many web sites and books available, on the subject of leeches, all with helpful advice. However, it is impossible to eradicate them "in situ"without heavy if not complete loss of fish life. The only sure fire way is to completely drain all water as has been suggested, of course we dont get frosts in this part of the world, but we do get hot sunshine, which will bake all remaining eggs.
If you are in close proximity to other ponds it is likely that they will be infested too, so it would be only a matter of time before you would be back to square one.