New Garden Fish Pond

[neilsignum]

Don't get any more Fish!
Your pond is only going to be just big enough to suit the fish you already have.
An 8'x4' pond is 32 sq feet of surface area and the guidance is for an inch of fish for every sq foot of surface, so as you already have one 14" fish, that leaves only 18" of 'spare capacity' which is probably about right for the other 4 fish you have that are 4-6".
Also I can see loads of koi sticks floating around the edge, the water is likely way too cold to feed them yet, if they do take the food it is likely they wont be able to digest it and it can do them real harm as at low temperatures it is just rotting in their gut.
Water temperature needs to have been above 10C/50F for 2 weeks before putting food in (and just a quarter of the sticks I can see) and never let any stay in the water more than 20 minutes to pollute it - it'll be rancid enough in that little pond with so many fish and only a waterfall for circulation and aeration, any filter you might have under those stones can't possibly be anywhere near big enough for that stocking level.

To do it properly you really need a filter about 10% of the pond size so 16cu ft (ish) of filtration, a pump that will shift about 1/2-3/4 of the water in an hour (ish), also a UV clarifier (not instead of filters) probably a cyclone unit before the filters to separate out all the crud (or you'll be cleaning foam forever).
A ready built unit the Cloverleaf CL1V is a good filter combo and very compact at about 2 foot cube so actually 50% undersized but 'punches above it's weight' and a snip at £350 (plus media) and might just be good enough - obviously you still need the pump and clarifier and pipe (and safe power out there).
Spend at least £70-100 on UV (15W+) and a pump (depends on head of water, if pump on floor then 5' head to waterline - if filter in ground then 7' etc but filter needs about 500-800gallons an hour but that's at whatever the head will be (say about £200).
Do not buy any filter with hozelock or lotus written on it as they are only toys.
Oh and the pond will cost £100 a year in electricity too.
Strengthen the corner plates as you'll have over 4 ton of water in there...

[gazz10]

thanks for advice neilsignum.

took most of it onboard.

its a 25w uv am using. the filter is 5 stage kockney koi mega xl.

pump is PISCES INTREPID 12000
Flowrate: 12000 lph (2600 gph)
Flowrate at 1m lift:10000 lph (2200 gph)
Max lift: 5m

the pond was strengthened with rebar from top to bottom, and 1ft apart, it was then sheeted with ply to spread the weight of water.

also fitted retro bottom drain so it should keep the water pretty clean. New waterfall is 900mm long stainless thing so will help with aerate the water plus putting air pump Max pond volume: 4500 litres (1000 gallons)
Max depth: 1.4m (4ft 6in).

[gazz10]

sheeted




Underlay just went in



liner put in place


filling it up. bottom retro drain in place

[andy1967]

Thought there was hosepipe ban on

[gazz10]

latest pics.

waterfall in place, testing out the water flow



started to cap top of it off.



She started to decorate it all ready.

[cactikid]

tut tut ,no lifebuoy on display

[maca]

tut tut ,no lifebuoy on display

he's not getting washed in it

[gazz10]

he's not getting washed in it

cheecky ******

[cactikid]

was not talking about the soap ,the big donut thingy that floats hehehe.with lead weight as an extra.

[gazz10]

Starting to take shape, put pergola up, still few panels to fix.

[neilsignum]

thanks for advice neilsignum.


the filter is 5 stage kockney koi mega xl.

.

That filter is a toy, its way too small, the fish length figures given are complete rubbish! Water surface area limits the fish length and is the same for goldies or koi (but you do need more depth for koi overwintering) - goldies may survive poor conditions better but that's just cruelty.

[gazz10]

water still crystal clear, and all levels are good, but yes going to upgrade filter, taking the goldies out and putting into new pond that will start next month for my daughter.

As for wintering well got a 6.5kw heater yes over kill(elecro), could have did job with 2-3 kw. so will be introducing that over next few weeks.


latest addition me new chagoi





just finished painting it all, and started to put debris netting up to keep those pesky birds away n leaves n stuff.

[cactikid]

thats not good,leaving a bottle of water there for mutt to lift his leg ,flavoured water.

[gazz10]

flavoured water. she not lift her leg.

[cactikid]

well i wont mention a sex toy