Cost....there were many extra bells and whistles that I wanted specifically added. I told myself that I wanted everything ready now. The original project was for a 20k pond with floating rocks, upper pond, 2 bottom drains, pump, uv filter , and the large filter. The price of the project was escalated by the fact that most pond companies run when you mention a bottom drain. Most pond installation companies only know how to install an aquascape system. I already have a 2000 gallon pond with that system. I wanted a koi pond, not a garden pond. Please understand I love my garden pond. So to find a company to do what I wanted, i had to pay hotel fees since they were out of town. I didn't like it either, but the closest company that did what I wanted was 2 hours away in Allentown Pennsylvania. I heard about them through my koi club. So to give you an estimated cost, I said in a past thread I could of bought a brand new truck with the money spent on this. The end project, I increase the pond to 45 k gallons. Why? Because I'm single with no kids and I can. I added another filter, another drain to the top pond, unforeseen drainage plumbing under the pond, electric and water ran directly to the pond for another 10k including labor. I giggle when I think about having this pond in my back yard. I became the most popular person in my neighborhood over night. I wonder how much they would of noticed if I bought a brand new truck.

Where koi are concerned, 1500 gallons is small. What is your fish population? The smelly water is very good for plants. Little critters could be dragonfly larvae.

Marti8a, Thanks. We did a little on line research and we know what to expect in the way of eqp ... luckily there is an easy out of the way place to site it. Not sure if we have local pond tours ... garden tours, yes. KMarcel, Glad to hear you enjoy them. We are planning on 4' minimum, and a bottom drain. I want the little fellas happy! Annie, Those are cool. But I think we need something with visual weight to anchor a 17' wide circle ... these are so delicate. Cloudswift, It sounds delightful to have koi. I am not sure about hiding places vs cleanliness. Some things I read advise to keep the bottom clean and empty, it seems... Good news about straight sides. Ours would be straight, since a slope would look odd within the stone circle IMHO. One thing DH said is that any heron that is on our property would have two choices. 1) An almost 2 acre pond with carp, bass, sunfish, frogs, snakes and (as of their delivery 2 hours ago) a seasonal supply of 200 trout, 100 feet from our house. Or, a 17' wide pond only ten feet from our house with a few koi in it. Hopefully they don't have a taste for koi! KSWL, I see your point. And I do try to keep to the vernacular, although some elements ... indoor pools, flat screen TVs, etc are hard to make "ye olde"! I think the issue here is that you will only see them when you want to. They are off to the side entrance. Most of the time, it will just read as a fountain, which is why the fountain cannot be asian, modern, or italianate. Lazy, That is very sweet and kind of you to post again to press your point! From my breakfast room banquette, I would probably only see a small trunk of a new tree (given the roofline and the windows). I would like to create a reason for people to go to this overlooked patio area. I need a draw. A tree won't be.

Consider doing some serious research. Asking people for opinions only gets you opinions which are almost 100% passed back and forth so many times people actually start to think they're facts. You're doing pretty good. You already understand no nitrite means no bacteria. You used the term "total ammonia" too which is good. You're already smarter than the average bear. Let's bump it up one more notch. Lets start with the easy stuff. You don't mention the temperature of the water but I have to assume it's pretty cold. Nitrifying bacteria slow down as the temp drops. At 39F they stop. At 46-50F they only work at 25%. So trying to get a bio filter going is a bit silly in most climates in winter. Moving the fish back to the pond has the same issue, no working bio filter. Moving them back to the pond must work cause that must be a safe place cause millions of ponds overwinter fish without loss. Must because of bio filter...right? Nope. A little harder now is the term "ammonia". When pond people talk about ammonia they almost always think of it a chemical. That's a problem. Ammonia in the pond is 2 chemicals, NH3 and NH4+. They're kind of the same, the difference is just ions. But ions are the thing doing the harm to fish so kind of important to us. What's an ion? Forget about it...not important to us. We only care about how to keep fish safe. There are lots of terms for NH3 such as "free ammonia", "Ammonium hydroxide" and probably what most people just call "ammonia". Let's make it simple and call it "deadly ammonia". This is really what scares us. Lots of terms for NH4+ too "ionized ammonia", "ammonium". Lets call this "safer ammonia" because for fish that's what it is, safe. Most tests are for "Total Ammonia" which of course is the total amount of deadly and safer ammonia. So a total ammonia test by themselves tells you almost nothing when ammonia is detected. There are test kits for telling the difference between deadly and safer ammonia but most people use total ammonia tests. This causes lots of fish deaths as people do all kinds of crazy stuff to lower ammonia...which may have been safe to begin with about now fish are stressed by the "fixes". The weird thing is deadly and safer ammonia go together. You always have both. And they change from one to the other in the blink of the eye as temperature and pH changes. As temp drops "deadly ammonia" converts to "safer ammonia". As pH drops same thing "deadly ammonia" converts to "safer ammonia". As temp and pH go up safer turns into deadly. You've been raising pH, or trying to keep it up, and have been cheered into doing so, to get a bio filter going which probably can't start due to low temps. Keeping the pH up is also busy converting safer ammonia to deadly ammonia. For example there will be about 90 times less deadly ammonia when pH is lower from 8.5 to 6.5 at 68F. By letting water temp fall and letting pH go down the fish can be safe even when total ammonia tests are crazy high. My suggestion is to find a ammonia - ammonium chart on the web you like and use that along with your pH test and water temp to determine first if you have a problem. It's likely you don't have a problem...but are doing things that could cause problems. If you have a problem then water change is the best option imo. Adding an ammonia binder means test results will be meaningless and you'll be flying blind. If needed water changes are often you could consider a 24/7 drip water change. Even with treated city water these can work. I also suggest letting water temp fall to around 40F. Converts most deadly ammonia into safer ammonia and almost stops Aeromonas bacteria from growing. I would not let water stay below say 37-39F for days. Lots of people with froze over ponds think the water temp is near 32F but that's another myth. Fish under ice in a backyard pond are likely enjoying a 39F temp. With an above ground tank the water temp can drop below 39F, even below 32F so you have to keep the temp up a little. Low temp also lowers fish metabolism which reduces ammonia production. Natural selection kind of worked this all out for us...as long as we don't "fix" it. I suggest letting pH fall to wherever it wants to be. You could force pH lower if you really wanted to, knew what you were doing, AND actually had a deadly ammonia issue AND water changes were a problem for some reason. Be really careful of people saying pH should be this or that range. They almost never know what they're talking about and are just repeating what they heard from other repeaters. In reality it's almost impossible for normal water sources to have deadly pH levels. Trying to push pH into some made up range with little understanding is more dangerous. Some other small points...size of the tank doesn't really matter. Sure, bigger the tank the slower ammonia becomes of problem...but it's likely to still be a problem. All the rules of thumb on ratio of water to number/size of fish is a bit silly. Just made up number out of thin air. Fish are kept safe with testing and understanding. Most city water now days don't use chlorine but instead uses chloramine. They sound the same so most people think they're the same and give the same advice they did 20 years ago for chlorine. Chloramine is made by adding ammonia. When we add chemicals to remove "chlorine" that ammonia is released which is why those pond products add an ammonia binder. And why total ammonia tests become useless even with temp & pH charts. Adding binders means you have no idea what's going on ammonia wise in the water unless you have specific tests for the binder.