Pat & April's pond

Summer really was upon us this time, weather and all !!!!
Our next visit was to Pat & April's 4,000 gallon pond on one of the hottest Sunday afternoon's we had had in 2011.
Set in a lovely lawned and planted garden containing acer's,hostas roses and hanging baskets sat Pat & April's pond.

Square in shape and lined with a box welded liner a 4 inch bottom drain feeds a Nexus filter unit as the main filtration for the pond. A skimmer line also ran from the pond via a heating system, TMC 55 watt UV and a E.A eazy pod filter adding to the filtration of the pond all this situated out of sight behind the pond.

With water returning to the pond via one of the many returns, cleverly masked with the use of bamboo. A large pergola covered the pond to protect it from the full sun that the garden enjoyed.

The koi were a real mixture of varieties and sizes with many go sankes but perhaps a fondness shown towards the chagoi and ochiba shining through as there were many good examples of each in the pond.

A large attractive Shusui also cruised around the pond hoovering up the food when offered, it had to be fast mind with the number of chagoi's it was competing with.

Another great visit had by the East Yorkshire Koi Society, thanks to Pat & April for the invite.

It's not all pond visits and fun you know!

Well it is really but this May weekend was taken up with a different kind of fun......

The East Yorkshire Koi Society ground force event.

I have not gone mad it really happened.

Darren & Helen were in the process of rebuilding their pond, they had a hole and were ready for the concrete to create the base to house the bottom drain & for the walls to be built upon.

Darren had mentioned that he was having the concrete delivered and wondered if anybody was available to help...........
"Are you mad I thought?" "Im not barrowing tonnes of concrete on my weekend off" was my initial thought but the promise of bacon & sausage sarnies for brunch was the carrot I and others were swayed by to help.
One after another members of the E.Y.K.S volunterered to help, soon there was more than enough to make it a much easier job.

The Saturday morning arrived and sure enough everybody turned up to help move the concrete including Helens Dad who had the pleasure of moving the first barrow load of concrete and........spilt it!

Overloaded barrow, operator error or a flat tyre on the wheel barrow,
we will never know the reason why but with a helping hand from the others it was all soon cleared up and we were off. I never personally counted, maybe Helen or Darren can let us know but about an hour passed and we were nearly done, two people had been in the hole supervising where the concrete should go whilst levelling the concrete off and the rest of us using one of the many barrows to carry it to the hole.

There was also enough for Keirans new pond too.

All involed really earning and appreciating the bacon and sausage butties.

A really great morning of hard but worthwhile work, showing me what great members the East Yorkshire Koi Society has.

Mike & Rachael's Pond.

The next pond visit was an evening trip to Mike & Rachael's 4,000 gallon pond.
British Summer time certainly didn't let us down either, the weather had been nice all week and then on the night of the visit....it chucked it down!.
But a bit of rain doesnt stop the East Yorkshire Koi Society.

The garden contained many potted bamboo's,acers and hosta's of varying colours and sizes as well as a number of hanging baskets,really managing to make the most of the space available.

As for the pond itself, it is rectangular in shape, block built and lined by fibreglass.

It is filtered via a single 4" aerated bottom drain feeding an Evolution Aqua Nexus 300 filter. The system is powered by a 12,000 Oase Aquamax pump then back through a TMC 55watt UV through a mid water return to the pond. A really simple system but one that works for the pond. He also has two Hi blow air pumps, one for the Nexus and one for the bottom Drain.

The inhabitants of the pond are mainly go-sanke with just a few exceptions including a Chagoi, Ochiba, Asagi and a shiro Uturi.

The fish were bought from Premier Koi and the more recent additions have come from Neil & Harry at Dock Koi.

The pond is covered by 3 sail shades at the minute to help as the pond is in full sun all day but Mike is looking to build a pergola over the pond in 2012.
Another great visit for the E.Y.K.S thanks.

Roy & Chrissie's Pond

With the arrival of Summer and the lighter nights upon us pond visits began to come thick and fast. Next up came a trip to Roy & Chrissie's 4,000 gallon pond.

The pond is informal in a shape best described as "like a number nine".
It is filtered via a 4inch bottom drain that runs to a Nitritech filter system more than capable of keeping the pond and fish in tip top condition.

From the last Nitrech vortex the water gets pumped, depending on which pond return through a sand filter, a fluidised bed filter and a 55 watt TMC uv. All the filters are housed in their own filter house allowing maintenance to be carried out whatever the weather.

The pond had seen the arrival of an attractive pergola over the winter months to help with shading and also offer some protection from the debris that falls from the surrounding trees.

Roy & Chrissie's koi vary in type with many go-sanke and a number of great metallics.There are also two very large koi a chagoi and an ochiba cruising the pond always on the look out for food.

Here they can be seen happily feeding on the giant mealworms they were being fed.

It was another great pond visit for the E.Y.K.S, thanks for the chance to see your pond and koi.

Charlie & Helen

Back in February, another pond we were invited to visit this year was Charlie & Helens 2,000 gallon indoor pond.Whilst it was still cold outside we were all snug indoors able to look at some very lucky koi making the most of their surroundings.

The pond is pre-formed and round in shape,filtered via a 4 inch bottom drain to a Nexus 200 unit,returning back to the pond via a 55 watt TMC UV and over the waterfall, supplying ample oxygen to the pond.

Although it was my first visit I could tell from the reactions of the other club members that the fish had all put on some serious growth since their last visit, this no doubt helped by the temperatures reached in summer inside the building and Charlie & Helens maintenance regime.

As well as the pond we were also treated to an out of season B.B.Q which went down very well with the E.Y.K.S members, so well it was talked about well into the summer. Thanks for the invitation to visit your great pond and for looking after us so well.

Roger & Tracey's Pond

Our second pond visit of the year for the EYKS was Roger & Tracey's pond and garden.

Roger & Tracy's garden had a large lawned area surrounded by some lovely flowers,shrubs and trees.The pond is an elongated figure of eight shape containing 5000 gallons and is five and a half feet deep. A great feature of the pond was the veiwing window, these are now a very popular addition to ponds allowing you to see the koi from all angles.Good for spotting problems such as raised scales or ulcers before they really take hold. But I bet not many windows were installed while the fish were still in the pond as Roger sucessfully managed to do .

Most of the koi in the pond would be classed as large, being around the 24inch mark and they were all very good feeders, fed by the Cloverleaf auto feeder throughout the day and in addition by both Roger & Tracey whenever they could.

As with all large ponds you also need a large filtration system to keep the pond in tip top condition and this pond certainly had that. Gravity fed to Rogers home made filter, based on a well known filter unit. This was easily big enough to handle the 5,000 gallons alone. Water from this filter returned to the pond via one of the many returns.

Further filtration was provided through the home made trickle tower and a fluidised bed filter.

The whole pond system is powered by Grundfos water pumps and returned back to the pond via a TMC 55 Watt U.V and an electric heating unit. Aeration for both the filters and pond was through a number of Secoh 40 airpumps. All this making for a very impressive filtration system which after seeing the quality of both the water and the koi works amazingly.

Another great night was had by the EYKS, thanks to Roger & Tracey for allowing us to see their pond.

The Great Outdoor's

After what has been the harshest winter for many years, some koi keepers around the East Yorkshire area were certainly pushed to their limits with instances involving frozen  pipework, pond leaks, pond walls collapsing and even occurrences of frozen koi!

With that in mind it gives me great pleasure to be able to write about the East Yorkshire Koi Societies first outdoor pond visit of the year at Lee's pond.

After week's of drought like weather this Spring across Britain our first get together happened to be the Sunday morning of the only down pour we have had in May. Whilst waiting for the phone call to tell me that the visit had been called off due to the rain, the sun burst into life and the visit was on.

I arrived to find a good showing of club members already there, quite a few new faces of new members to the Society, which was nice to see as well as the usual suspects. After a few introductions it was time to explore. Lee's garden was surrounded by some very nice Japanese themed plants, shrubs, Acer's and Bamboo's.It is a real sun trap and conditions were obviously favourable for the plants as many were very large specimens then it was time to look at the pond itself.

Informal in shape the pond fit's into the space available perfectly. It's raised and covered by a wooden pergola to provide shade and protection from the elements for the fish. The pond is almost five feet deep and contains 3500 gallons giving plenty of room for the fish . The first thing to draw the eye was the pond viewing window which was set in the pond wall, this allowed us to see the true size of some of the pond's inhabitants, mainly koi of varying sizes and varieties,( including Sanke, Kohaku, Goromo and Ochiba Shigure) but also a number of very large common carp around 20inches in size.

Next was the fully enclosed filter area containing all the gadgets needed to keep the Koi happy whilst allowing Lee the ability to carry out any maintenance necessary whatever the weather . The  main pond filtration is via an aerated bottom drain attached to a Nexus Eazy 200 filter with the system being powered by a Sequence pump before returning back to the pond through an in line TMC 55 watt UV. This provided ample filtration taking into account future growth of the koi. Lee also had a custom made in wall skimmer which at the time of our visit was not running because .....you guessed it winter damage, (which was on his to do list ) returning back to the pond via a pond heating system.

The visit was enjoyed by all the East Yorkshire Koi Society member's and our thanks go out to Lee and his family for the kind invitation and hospitality shown to us....... A truly great way to start the koi season.