Frank, I can empathize about the bacterial infections. Over the years it has happened more than once to my pond. When the first pond was way too shallow, any fish that jumped out was going to die from massive gram negative infections. It was in the soil and short of solarization it just wasn't going to go away from our heavy, often water logged clay dirt. Once the 1000 gallon pond was in, storm created power loss caused backwash from the Skippy filter, making the pond a deadly sewer for the fishies. Some creative plumbing solved that problem until a clump of dead leaves and trash escaped the fall cleaning and over the winter allowed bacteria and parasites to multiply until spring when the fishies were attacked once again. A plant from a not very well kept nursery sheltered parasites. The latest insult was the downpour from Katrina. Farms in the area were affected by numerous plant diseases that had never been in this area previously but which are endemic in swampland the storms had passed over. My pond over flowed from the downpour and the rainwater, which was actually dirty from sediment, brought both diseases and parasites to the pond along with an oil slick. That was a hard one. Even with the help and advice of the sages on this forum, I lost twenty-one koi and fancy goldfish. Some I had for over seven years. I don't wait for the trouble to show itself now. I just go ahead and treat the water before the bad rains hit. I try to be philosophical about it but dang, I hate to lose my finny friends. There can be a problem with asphalt shingles. They leach chemicals and oil into the rainwater. If you could spread a tarp over the area that is draining into a holding tank some of that could be reduced. It would have to sit long enough to allow some of the chemicals to sink to the bottom and others with any oil would float. The top could be flushed off but only the center water could be salvaged. Then it would have to be aerated and treated before it could go into the pond. Does anyone from your area sell water by the tank? That would get you started and then you could treat the farm pond water to top it off or the half gallon a minute could be run to the pond continuously. That is a horrible rate. What do you do for your home? What supplies the farm pond? Sandy

First off NEVER put feeder fish in a pond. They are often diseased and shipped in too small of containers, introducing yet more fish disease. I would sell the feeders back or put them in a tank and remove all the water and begin again. I have worked extensively with feeder fish and every morning we'd scoop out 20 dead or dying out of the 300 they raise in a 10 gallon tank. I have a Water Gardening book coming out soon, so that may help. Also I'd get the complete test kit as mentioned above. BTW if you have any lotus or water lily's to trade, I am volunteering to plant them at our new park. TY! Here is a link that might be useful: FB

Congratulations on taking the next step! OK....where do I start. First, consider going bigger. A LOT bigger. Koi get very large, over 30" in length and need space. Koi should have between 300 and 500 gallons each, so at your planned 1600 gallons you could realistically expect to keep no more than 5 koi. If you can double that to 3000 gallons you would be much better off. Depth needs to be a minimum of 36", although 48" is much better. 36" isn't very deep for a 32" long fish. Bottom drains are a MUST. Koi are very messy animals and produce a lot of waste. Most of that waste will sink right to the bottom and sit there until you remove it by vacumming, or the bottom drain carries it to the filter. You can buy bottom drains, commercially made. All you do is set the base in a bed of concrete in the bottom of the pond and attach the pipe that will be burried under the pond and come up at the side of the pond where it ties into the filter. Lay the liner in and get it secured. Then cut a hole in the liner in the center of the drain. Use sealant to prevent leakes and attach the plastic ring that comes with it with the stainless screws they provide you with. I have installed 5 drains in my own ponds and never had a leak. Get a 4" drain...anything smaller just won't move enough water. small koi will coexist peacefully with plants.....but the bigger the koi get, the more they will damage the plants. Koi love to dig in the pots and shread leaves. That is just their nature. You can have plants that stick up out of the water (iris, cattails, etc), just use a heave pot and use heavy round river rocks all on top of the soil to keep the koi out. And you many find that as your koi mature, even the rocks won't keep them out. Rocks on the bottom are a HUGE mistake. They trap debris that should not be left in the pond to decay. they provide a safe harbor for bacteria and parasites to breed, and koi can become injured on them. Seriously....leave them out. They do not look natural to me at all. In nature, you do see creeks with rocky bottoms, but I have never seen a lake or pond with a rock bottom. I love the look of a black liner bottom. When you have a beautiful collection of colorful koi swimming against that black bottom, you see the true beauty of the fish without the distraction of the rocks. Besides....the rocks will get covered in algae and won't look as nice as you think. I prefer to see koi when I gaze into a pond and not green rocks. A good supplier of equipment is AZ ponds. You can find them on the web. They are a little short on customer service, but their prices are unbeatable. Oh yeah....you need a skimmer too. You may want to check out a website called koishack. There are many wonderful threads over there in the construction forum with loads and loads of pictures. I just completed a new filter for one of my ponds that works every bit as well as a $1500 nexus filtes and it cost me around $150 to make it. Instructions for that are over there also.

Although I had quite a number of real Koi (Carp), most of my fish were Shubunkins. Even my "Butterfly Koi" were actually Shubunkins, not Koi. From: http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Pond,%20Shubunkin.htm "Origin. Goldfish originally came from China. Fanciers took them to Japan and then to England where they developed a calico version called the shubunkin (or poor manÂs koi). Many U.S.-grown shubunkins get shipped to the U.K. -- at least the best ones go there. Shubunkin Types. Standard shubunkins look like regular goldfish with a calico overlay. "Calico" involves a mixture of blue, white, black, red, and orange colors in willy-nilly splotches. Butterfly shubunkins develop a tail often as long as their body (like what the comet is supposed to look like). Bristol shubunkins grow a much more developed tail with rounded lobes. We never see these here. We get the long torpedo-shaped guys." There are some people who raise all the varieties, however, so that article is not completely correct. Nonetherless, I loved my Poor Man's Koi, especially my Butterfly Koi. They were like beautiful orange angels flowing through the water - some had calico colors and patterns. Two had dorsal fins and tails that were all black. The Shubunkins were much better behaved in the pond. They didn't churn up the bottom and devour all the plants like the real Koi tend to do. I had two huge "Ghost Koi", and boy were they monsters. Huge ugly charcoal grey Koi bred in England by breeding common carp with Koi. They looked like prehistoric fish. Just hideous things. They really churned up the bottom. They never swam, they tore through the water constantly at a terrific speed. And BTW. I found out what the Scarecrow gismo is that you were talking about CD3. Pardon my mistake. No, I had never seen those before, but after having looked at them on the internet, I'm sure I wouldn't want one, but thanks just the same. That was very thoughtful of you to suggest a possible predator remedy. I now have a dog that is an Irish Wolfhound-Border Collie mix. He keeps the racoons away pretty good. We shall see how that goes anyhow. ~SweetAnnie4u