Can I convert a swimming pool to a Koi pond?
maggie
15 years ago
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Comments (13)
fawnridge (Ricky)
15 years agomaggie
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Converting Pool to pond.
Comments (1)Do a google pool to pond conversion search. There are several to inspire you. Here is one. http://kilk.com/pond/...See Morebuilding a Natural Swimming Pool / clay bottom swimming pond
Comments (10)Really neat. I live in Flour Bluff on the east side of Corpus Christi, and I am wanting to build a natural pond in my sandy backyard using clay and then lining the bottom with white rock and limestone. I want to make the pond look like the Comal River in New Braunfels ( a natural spring fed river) and plant it and stock it with plants and fish from the river. I live in a Zone 10A climate (nearly tropical) with an average annual low of about 31F. I have a tropically landscaped backyard, and I think having a natural spring looking pond would be awesome underneath my jungle canopy I am starting to grow in the backyard. I would like to make the pond about 10 - 12 feet long, about 8 ft. wide and about 4. 5 - 5 ft. deep. with a small waterfall and filtration for the fish and aquatic life. I would like to power this with a small solar panel attached to the fence or the roof of the house (where it can get some sunlight). Any suggestions? Thanks, John...See MoreSwimming Pool to Pond Conversion
Comments (7)We converted our pool to a pond (but with no intention of going back again) although ours was an inground unit. While that makes some difference as you can imagine there are other things that remain the same whether it is inground or above ground. First thing: size of your pool/pond to be. If you have, say a 20,000 gallon pool, do you really want to continue to turn over that volume once an hour? Most pools use 1/2 to 3/4 horsepower pump running continuously, although you could get buy with turning them off sometimes (when it was operated as a pool). Not so with a pond IF you intend to have a biofilter/fish. Turning off a pump for long periods of time is a guaranteed way of killing off the biofilter. By reducing our pool to a more manageable pond size we run the whole thing on about 200-250 watts. Secondly, your filters. The filters for your pool are excellent for taking out particles/bacteria - that's what they were designed to do - but they were meant for a relatively low loading. In a pond environment algae grow constantly, which along with bacteria and other things from the pond place a significantly higher loading on the filters. The result will be that they will need to be backwashed much more frequently and therefore your water consumption will go up. Just replacing the innards with some other media may work although you may find you cannot achieve the necessary degree of surface area/volume of biofilter to treat the original pool volume. As to the chemicals or chemical residues: stop adding any algacides and any chlorine/shock/etc. The pool will, within a week or so turn quite green. At that point you will not have to worry about chemical residues. While chlorine (free) does evaporate, chloramines don't evaporate nearly as rapidly and can persist for several days. However, both decompose fairly rapidly upon exposure to sunlight (that's why they add a UV-stabilizer to most chlorine bars/pucks). Aerating the pool while you are thinking of what to do next will help with the inevitable odor problems associated with things going anaerobic if you are not actively circulating the water. Just a few thoughts. ---David...See MoreSwimming pool to koi pond conversion
Comments (8)Sorry for my delay in responding. I was trying to find a plumbing schematic from when the pool was built, but was unable to get one. I am the second owner of this house. The built in skimmer intake pipe, inside diameter is just over 1-3/4". I'm not sure if the dual bottom drains are valved individually, but with my research I would say probably not. The pool was built around 1991 and from what I saw, they would both be connected to a single line feeding to the filter. Not sure what size pipes. The water from the current filter does return through jets in the walls of the pool. The jacuzzi is on the same system, and I have electronic valves that divert the return to the Jacuzzi at programmed times. The jacuzzi jets are in the wall also and have bubbles through those jets when it's on. Not actually in jacuzzi mode. I have a 3/4 hp pump. was a mistype. I don't really care what color the pool walls are. They are white (well mostly) now and I have seen pools with blue and black. I'm not sure what the pool is made of. It is a typical in-ground pool, built in 1991 or so. It does hold water well, although I do have to replenish in this Texas heat. That is another concern of mine. Evaporation and how to keep it full without tap water. It gets direct sunlight for many hours of the day in Summer. The water temp is about 83 degrees now. Know I'll have to find some way to shade it. Thanks Mike. I appreciate any suggestions you may have....See Moretclynx
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