jchrome
Koi Lover
May 18, 2002, 3:12 AM
Post #1 of 4
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Have I already conquered the algae!?
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 Hello pond-peeps! I may be getting way ahead of myself and wind up with my "fin" in my mouth  , but I recently finished my watergarden/ fish pond and I believe I've already overcome my algae problems very rapidly and thought I'd describe what I've done, and get all of your feedback. I think the best way would be to just list various specifications, so here goes:
Pond specs: - General shape: kidney; internal dimensions: 6'9"x3'9"x20-24" depth. (approx. 27 feet and roughly 350-400 gallons -I think-)
- Materials used: chickenwire/steel reinforced core, hand-mixed 600 pounds of plastic non-toxic "marine" cement, coat of waterproof fish-safe paint, ringed with rows of large pondstones.
- pump/filtration: Pondmaster 500gph submersible but with dual "daisy-chained" mechanical/chemical/biological filtration boxes (box 1 & 2 top chamber contents: mechanical pre-filter pad, chemical cabon-impregnated fine filter-pad; box-1 bottom chamber is lava-rock, box 2 is stuffed with coconut-shell fibre: all together this is 2 feet wide and 6 inches deep of filtration chambers), centerpiece is large bell-fountain.
- 1 self-made "koi castle" (basically chicken-wire tube with 10x bunches of "anachris (sp?)" threaded through structure -the koi LOVE it-)
- 45 pounds of aquarium gravel for additional biological filtration
- 10x water hyacith & 10x water lettuce. The water lettuce roots (beards) are very long and white, and provide shade, eat nutrients algae otherwise would, constant snacks for the koi and are attractive as well).
- 4 self-made waterbaskets for marginals which line the back wall of watetr garden. Baskets are lined with more (5x bunches anachris plant). These have been placed at a specific depth which allows the baskets to act as natural skimmers, they work verrrrry effectively! (I made the waterbaskets from chickenwire, gardenstakes, gardenwire and copper wire, both my wife and I are artists so this is not as out of the ordinary as it seems and they look very cool)
- couple submerged petrified african logs for the fish to swim around and hide in, also a submerged broken vase with bottom plants (no idea the name) stuffed inside, fish love all these hiding spots)
The Critters! - 4 (pond quality) koi, but hand selected best-of-bunch, they are a platinum, a yellow-gold, and two "calico" spotted. (Sorry for the ignorant koi knowledge-I'm still just a newbie as you can tell!). I chose to add other types of fish which don't get quite as big rather than way overstock the pond with koi. However, maybe even 4 koi is too much with this size pond? If so, I am have to give away a couple later down the road.)
- 3 Ryunkins; one magnificent giant calico specimen I've had for years (his name is "Captain Nemo", in fact by far is the largest fish in pond, he's nearly 6 inches with tail), one baby version of him (also calico), and then one ryukin with basically the markings of a sarassa comet! In fact, this makes him look somewhat similar to a red & white butterfly koi)
- 2 sarassa comets; simply perfect and gorgeous,
- 1 striking Shubunkin
- 2 male crabs (small sized; the male ones have the big arm) (*may have escaped pond to their death already, or they just hide really well)
- 1 crayfish (aka "craw-dad" aka "freshwater lobster") (*may have escaped pond to it's death already, or just hides really well)
- 1 humongous apple snail
- 1 black "mystery" snail =
10 fish, 2 snails, 2 crabs and a crayfish. So far everyone likes eachother. 
The pond gets A LOT (at least 6 hours a day) of direct sun, with No algae! Yes, I did have a major, major bloom after about 10 days or so of the pond running, the fix was adding more water baskets with marginals and the floating plants. I added the 2nd filter box only to double the time between having to clear the filter! To kick-start the algae fight, I did use some fish-safe algae-fix as well as "accu-clear" for clumping water. Then adding the plants, cleaned the filter a few days in the row to get all the collected dead algae and it never has gone back and remains 100% glass-of-water-clear all the time now.
So, not too bad for a total newbie eh? Well, it looks awesome, natural, we've had no deaths and everyone seems healthy, happy, and disease-free! I'll fess up if anything changes, hehehe. 
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