Greg Bickal's DIY Series: Koi House

Iowa winters are long and cold. I live in zone 4b. The water temperatures drop below 50F around mid October. The koi quit eating food, and don't start again until early April. Spending half the year cold and starving is not the healthiest way to raise koi. My koi have outgrown the size of my indoor ponds. My visit to Japan in October 2004 inspired me to build a koi house. I broke ground on September 3rd, 2005 and the koi were moved in by November 25th, 2005. The koi house is 20x22. The south roof and walls are covered with 8mm twin wall polycarbonate panels. The house is heated via a 45,000btu natural gas furnace.


The Layout



The Large pond   Click icon to see construction of this Tank
Including filters, it is 11x19x5' deep and holds 8,000 gallons. There are four 4" DIY bottom drains, and two settling chambers, and 2 DIY overflow-type skimmers. The water is circulated through the filter system via a 17,000gph propeller pump (aka "The Luke Pump") which only uses 200 watts of electricity. Air is supplied to the pond via two 9" diffuser disks (attached to the bottom drains). Airflow is 120lpm using an Airtech air pump. There are about 30 koi in the 18-26" size in this pond (my breeding stock).



The Medium pond   Click icon to see construction of this Tank
Including filters, it is 8x12x4' deep and holds 3,500 gallons. There are two 4" DIY bottom drains, and two settling chambers. The water is circulated by two pumps, each roughly 3,000gph. Air is supplied to the pond via two 9" diffuser disks (attached to the bottom drains). Airflow is 80lpm using an Medo air pump. There are around 1,000 koi in the 3-12" size in this pond that I offer for-sale.



The Small pond   Click icon to see construction of this Tank
This pond is is 5x6x3' deep and holds 500 gallons. It has a single 3" DIY bottom drains which is connected to one of the settling chambers for the Medium pond. The water is circulated by one 3,000gph pump. Air is supplied to the pond via one 9" diffuser disks (attached to the bottom drain). Airflow is 45lpm using an Medo air pump. There are 300 koi in the 3-6" size in this pond. These koi are my tategoi tosai (1 year old koi with potential that I will grow on for a few more years.)



Xtra Small Pond
This pond is a portable tank that I constructed for when we take koi out for sale in the koi-mobile. The tank is 2x4x2' deep and holds 100 gallons. It has a single 2" vaccuum style DIY bottom drains which is connected to one of the settling chamber for the Medium Pond. The water is circulated by a 500gph pump. Air is supplied to the pond via an aquarium bubbler. There are 350 koi in the 1-2" size in this pond.



Koihouse Walkthrough Video (click play to start).
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