Planning Your New Koi Pond

1. Size

   The size of your koi pond will depend on how many fish you ultimately want to keep, how much space you have available to you, and how much electricity and water you are willing to dedicate to humanly and properly care for your koi in the long term. A larger pond allows you to enjoy more koi, more stable water chemistry, and a more immersive koi keeping experience as a whole.

2. Budget

   The budget of your project will be dictated by a few different factors. The overall size of your new koi pond, and whether or not you wish to incorporate more elaborate features like bridges, floating steps, decks, fire pits, and koi viewing windows. Don’t try and save costs by down sizing the koi pond filter.

3. Location

   The location of your koi pond should be considered both from a design and functionality perspective. The flow of your landscape, existing slopes, landscape structures, large trees, soil conditions, and existing underground utilities should all be considered. Pick a good spot for your new koi palace.

4. Shade

   Shade is one of the most important factors and things to consider when planning for a new koi pond. Koi do not like to be in full sun for more than a couple of hours each day, and algae likes to grow in full sun. Shade is critical for a successful koi pond project. Shade will dramatically reduce the amount of koi pond maintenance, and is the best idea for a koi pond.

5. Filtration Location

   The location or proximity of the your koi pond filter system in relation to the fish pond is also important to consider. The further away you filter system is from your koi pond the more expensive it will be to install the system. Filter systems can take up as much as 30% of the total square footage of a koi pond if comparing the filter system size to the koi pond itself.

6. Hiding The Filter System

   Features like decks surrounding the koi pond can be a great way to hide the filter system. Filter systems should also be shaded to protect equipment from UV damage. Aesthetically it is recommended to have a plan to hide the filter system below ground or build a structure around the filter system. This is less visually intrusive and also allows you to have a near silent filtration system.

7. Cycling

   Cycling a koi pond is the last phase of the a new koi pond build. This process can take 3-6 months depending on water temperatures and the size of your new koi pond. Once your pond is fully cycled you can add.