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I'm new at this hobby

mon
Koi Lover

Nov 4, 2004, 11:06 AM

Post #1 of 20 (2515 views)
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I'm new at this hobby	Can't Post

Hi to all

!
I just started with this hobby with a friend of mine. I just found out today by accident about the forum and Koi club. Didn't know all of this existed. I'm building a small pond and im working on a tight budget. As a matter of fact its all DIY approach.

I'm looking for second hand biological mats or any cheap biological mats I can buy. Appreciate any help or suggestions. Also aside from the mats I also need advise on what materials to use if any for waterproofing since i'm building a cement pond.

Thanks,
Mon

divein
Koi Lover

Nov 4, 2004, 12:17 PM

Post #2 of 20 (2506 views)
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Re: [mon] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

hi mon! welcome to the forum Smile

i hope we can be koi buddies!!!!!!!! Tongue

if u need help u can ALWAYS send me a message eny time Wink

ur freind , divein

mon
Koi Lover

Nov 4, 2004, 12:26 PM

Post #3 of 20 (2504 views)
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Re: [divein] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi divein!
Tnx for warm welcome. Your actually my first koi buddy. I've never been on the net as much as when I started to get into koi's. Actually i just have 4 small ones which i bought last tuesday.

Expecgt a lot of questions from me cause i'm really going nuts on the construction side. Of all the filtration system I have set my mind on a a three-four chamber filtration. Vortex a couple of biological filtration and maybe a holding chamber where i can place my submersible pump. All of this are still in the drawing board.

Me and my friend mark made one filtration using orocan plastic cans and neltex pipes. seems to be working but makes an ugly sight.

Again thanks so much for the warm greeting.
Mon

mike c
Koi Kichi

Nov 4, 2004, 12:39 PM

Post #4 of 20 (2501 views)
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Re: [mon] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

welcome to the forum mon,

where did u buy your koi?

how big (gallons) is the pond you are planning?

____________________________________

If you know how it works, you'll know how to fix it

mon
Koi Lover

Nov 4, 2004, 9:31 PM

Post #5 of 20 (2484 views)
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Re: [aragorn] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Mike!
Nice to have discovered the forum. About my pond I have 2 small ones. They are a little over a 100 gallons each. Will experiment with this before making a bigger one. So far so good. Maybe in a month or two i should have a couple of new ponds.

I got my kois from a friend of a friend (etoy Gregorio). I'm really experimenting on filtration and construction. Hopefully my next pond will have a bottom drain using a pipe with a 6inches in diameter.

Maybe if i get my bigger pond going I would be able to get a few nicer kois.

mike c
Koi Kichi

Nov 5, 2004, 12:41 PM

Post #6 of 20 (2466 views)
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Re: [mon] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

a single 4" pipe can probably handle up to 2500 gallons

so a 6" pipe is probably overkill. i prefer 2 4"s rather than 1 6"

anyway, i started out the same and waited 6 months before i moved my koi to a bigger pond.
good luck!

____________________________________

If you know how it works, you'll know how to fix it

mon
Koi Lover

Nov 5, 2004, 3:31 PM

Post #7 of 20 (2458 views)
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Re: [aragorn] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

HI Mike!
Tnx for the info on the pipes. What about Biological mats (new/second hand) would you know where I can get them?
Do you guys use other forms of water proofing material aside from sahara cement? Assuming my pond has a leak after cementing it what would a good remedy be? Has anyone encountered this problem before?
Thanks,
Mon

mike c
Koi Kichi

Nov 5, 2004, 7:30 PM

Post #8 of 20 (2450 views)
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Re: [mon] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

aside from sahara cement, you can use "super thoroseal" but its only available in light colors ...
another option for dark colors is "elastomeric" paint

here's what i did with my pond: sahara cement - elastomeric - sahara cement - elastomeric again
with my filter chamber ... the same except change the elastomeric to super thoroseal (color is irrelevant in the chamber)

note: super thoroseal is different than thoroseal

here's what i forgot to do: it always leaks where pipes come through the cement, i put marine epoxy on the circumference of the pipes (but forgot to do the same with the bottom drains)

so im using my pond with a leak.

____________________________________

If you know how it works, you'll know how to fix it

mon
Koi Lover

Nov 5, 2004, 9:20 PM

Post #9 of 20 (2446 views)
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Re: [aragorn] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

Fantastic Information!!!!!! I personally used power mix and thoroseal. This is what I used simply b"coz this was what the hardware store recommended. As a matter of fact the hardware even recommended that i mixed the black paint with my power mixed to get my dark/black effect. I didn't even know that a "super thoroseal" existed. But you used elastomeric over super thoroseal, Was this only b'coz elastomeric had a darker color? Or did elastomeric perform well for you?

I didn't also know that I needed marine epoxy. I thought it was enough that i used sahara cement and the waterproofing that the hardware recommended.

Again thank you so much for the information. I have a couple of tubero and workers coming in tomorrow to repair my leaking pond. Maybe the solution is in the marine epoxy b'coz i burried the pipe under the cement.

Its embarassing but i'm one of those people that tends to go overboard when I get into something. I Have 2 small ponds working pretty good (pretty good coz I have no comparison) but I also started to construct my 3rd pond. This time I wanted to incorporate a waterfall.

Thanks so much for sharing that info!

mike c
Koi Kichi

Nov 5, 2004, 10:21 PM

Post #10 of 20 (2445 views)
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Re: [mon] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

koi keeping is equivalent to addiction and obsession. im hooked myself. Blush

anyway, i used elastomeric so i can get a black background. i think super thoro is only available in gray. sky blue and white? i dont know if elastomeric is really useful but i know i applied at least 6 coats of elastomeric, vs. only 2-3 coats of super thoro in the filter chambers

there is also a product called thoroplug that can plug leaks even when there is water, but i have never tried it myself.

you need to dry the area to apply the marine epoxy and wait 1-2 days of dry/hot weather before adding water.

re: bio mats: i couldnt decide which one was better so i bought some jap mats from bio research and some matala mats from a friend.

____________________________________

If you know how it works, you'll know how to fix it

(This post was edited by aragorn on Nov 5, 2004, 10:24 PM)

mon
Koi Lover

Nov 6, 2004, 8:42 PM

Post #11 of 20 (2405 views)
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Re: [aragorn] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Mike!

Being new at this I already made some errors. Before reading a lot about pond building I was relying on submersible pumps to pump the water into the chamber. Anyway I'm almost halfway done with my new pond which is still small pa naman.

I am currently designing what I hope will be a good breeding/home for Kois. The pond im currently designing should more or less hold about 40,000 gallons more or less. When done with it I plan to share the design and hopefully people and members can give there comments bad and good. Better the bad one's so I will learn faster. Hopefully I can finish the design by monday or tuesday. I don't know if my dimensions are correct and same with the size of my pipes etc. I also have no idea with the kind of pump I need to use. All I can do for now is the design of the pond, vortex, filtration and pipes. If the design are all correct then we can easily adjust the sizes, pipes, pumps, etc.

Maybe if you guys get together in your club I can drop by and show my design. Maybe to premature to post it.

Thanks for the support!

mon

hinz101
Member

Nov 7, 2004, 7:05 AM

Post #12 of 20 (2394 views)
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Re: [mon] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hello Mon

Welcome to the wonderful world of koi keeping!

If you have pix of your pond under construction please do post it. Most of the members here post in under pond construction but you can just post it here for the club members to see. You can always visit Kois & Ponds for there regular session every thursday night and have fun with the other members. How big is you pond? what kind of filter media would you be using? If you have access in buying the book koi kichi then this would be a great help with your pond construction.

Hindley

mon
Koi Lover

Nov 7, 2004, 11:25 AM

Post #13 of 20 (2376 views)
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Re: [hinz101] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

HI Hindley!

I hope it becomes as wonderful for me as it has for you guys! Lol

So far all headaches. Hindley im one of those people that has a computer, digital camera etc but is not able to use it to its full potential. In other words I have pics from beginning and is being being updated at least once a week since construction seems a never ending task but unfortunately I have no idea how to upload it within the 97kb allotment. A single picture alone is more or less 335kb already and I even tried to copy and paste in microsoft word and still the file is still big. Should I convert it to a PDF file? Sorry ha.

Anyway I have been to Koi's and pond a couple of times and have met mike hernandez once. Nice guy and very accomodating lke everybody else on the forum. My only problem with going to kois and pond is how do i stop drooling?????? Everytime I see there kois and same with there ponds it always makes me think if i can even have a single koi that is even half the size of there hundreds of fantastic kois! Aside from drooling I also know for a fact that I can't afford there kois which even makes the trip to kois and ponds frustrating. Nothing against sila mike they have every reason to price there kois at that range they are really beautifula and I would probably price them more if I owned them my self.

Re: my pond I have a converted every sngle concrete box that i can find in my house into a pond! Right now i have two ponds working. Both ponds are more or less a 100 gallons in size. In all honesty I wanted to buy a filtration system from kois and pond until a friend suggested that we jsut make one and make it even having a pond and a koi more fun. So I also agreed and in one pond we placed 2 orocan cans and drilled holes in them. One for vortex and one to serve as a biological filtration. So far happy naman kami with the result. The other pond has no filtration yet. I was advised naman that since it is a mall pond to just buy a three stage biological filtration from Bio research. haven't found time to do that yet. might do it this afternoon.

Filter media: I used i think what you experts call a japanese mat? Its like a huge 3M floor mat. Of course it hardly fitted my orocan can and was obviously to big for my 100 gallon pond. hehehe.

Thanks for the tip on the book. Will look for it on the net.

Thanks for all the help, assistance advice, support, etc..... from your members and from the people using the forum.

mon

mon
Koi Lover

Nov 8, 2004, 12:41 AM

Post #14 of 20 (2369 views)
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Re: [hinz101] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Hindley!

Attached is the my first pond (i have 2 of this with different filtration) and a picture of my first DIY filtration. I am currently building 1 more, renovating one and have made a design for my biggest pond if ever i get to make it (40,000 gallons)

Its really not much to look at. its our first experimental DIY pond and filtration and we surely learned a lt from this.

Mon

Attachments:

1st pond.JPG (26.5 KB)

Filtration.JPG (31.3 KB)

hinz101
Member

Nov 10, 2004, 6:45 AM

Post #15 of 20 (2347 views)
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Re: [mon] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

Attachments:

Picture 46.jpg (31.4 KB)

Picture 47.jpg (36.8 KB)

mon
Koi Lover

Nov 10, 2004, 9:57 AM

Post #16 of 20 (2336 views)
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Re: [hinz101] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Hindley!
Got your pics! Was all of it your design? Is this your first pond? How big is the pond? I am also building something similar to it. Wll try to reduce it and send you the pics.

I also posted a design of what I want to be my final pond and hopefully I will stop already from building ponds and concentrate on taking care of kois.

hinz101
Member

Nov 10, 2004, 11:21 AM

Post #17 of 20 (2324 views)
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Re: [mon] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Mon

Yep all of it was mga design, I also did the waterfalls myself. It took me all day to figure out which stone goes where. I forgot the deminsions of my pond but I think its around 5-6' x 14' x 2.5' not including the filter comparments. I have 5 compartments on my filtration system. The 1st is the vortex chamber 2nd my mechanical chamber 3rd & 4th my biological 5th my chemical ang pump station and a 6th chamber as my dry sump. Post some pix of your kois too. I can send you a membership form if you want to be a member of our club here in the Philippines. Just give me your email add so I can send you the membership form.

Hindley

mon
Koi Lover

Nov 10, 2004, 11:39 AM

Post #18 of 20 (2320 views)
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Re: [hinz101] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

Galing mo naman. Is this the latest photo? Is the pond working already? I don't have kois big enough to be captured by the camera. I bought 4 lois from a friend but they are still small. I am still building more ponds (why I really don't know) and im building them deep enough to be able to accomodate bigger kois.

I also posted my vey ambitiuos desig on the forum to hopefully get advise and suggestions from members/seniors/forum participants. Hopefully with everyones comments and suggestions the pond will provide a good clean home for some kois.

Is it ok to join the club even if I have zero knowledge on kois? I don't even know the names of the kois yet. If its ok then I am interested to join. My email address is mmanotok@yahoo.com

Again, thanks for the accomodation and all the assistance,advice, comments etc.

hinz101
Member

Nov 10, 2004, 2:19 PM

Post #19 of 20 (2318 views)
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Re: [mon] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hello Mon

Here the latest pix of my kois and pond. The club can help you with your koi indentification and so does this forum.

Hindley

Attachments:

handfeeding (5).jpg (38.4 KB)

Picture 38.jpg (55.9 KB)

mon
Koi Lover

Nov 11, 2004, 12:27 AM

Post #20 of 20 (2301 views)
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Re: [hinz101] I'm new at this hobby [In reply to]	Can't Post

Nice......., Hopefully someday i will have kois as nice and water as clear. Research and reading is not enough. Its nice to hear and learn from the people who have actually done it and have also learned from there mistakes. Joining the forum has helped me a lot!!!

Thanks guys!!!!

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