In late May 2020, with travel off the table, Rick and Sherry Koske got in touch with us about a project big enough to fill a year at home. Both are retired, and they wanted something that would feel like a vacation every day. By early September they were filling a 12,000-gallon koi pond they had dug and plumbed themselves, running on two aerated bottom drains, a sieve and a bead filter. That is a system many koi keepers only get to on their second pond.
"While 2020 was a year many want to forget, we decided to turn lemons into lemonade and tackle a major home project. 'How about a koi pond?' we asked. Since we're both retired and like to be home, we thought a koi pond was a great way to bring 'vacations' home, instead of relying on pictures to remember what we did on vacation. Our koi will bring us enjoyment every day."
A walk around Rick and Sherry's pond.
We rebuilt their pond in 3D in our Pond Planner, equipment and all. Skip ahead to explore it.
A weekend call with Ben
Their first call was a weekend phone consultation with Ben, our owner. His first question: what's your goal? Their answer fit in one line.
"Happy, healthy koi in a pond that will require minimal maintenance."
Then he asked how they planned to build it. They were retired and wanted to do it themselves. Ben's reply: "A lot of satisfaction comes from building your own pond."
Low maintenance on a koi pond doesn't come from a bigger filter. It comes from getting waste off the floor and out of the water before anyone has to touch it, which is the job of bottom drains and a sieve. That thinking runs through everything they built.
Go bigger
Rick and Sherry sent us their first ideas for size and shape. Our advice was to go bigger, and they did: the pond grew to about 12,000 gallons. It took several rounds of plans to get there.
"They provided all the design analysis, such as water change-over, flow rates, refinements to pond shape, and equipment options. They also provided us with multiple system designs within our budget range and continued to work with us to tweak these designs even further."
This is version 4 of their plan, drawn June 8, 2020: a kidney-shaped pond between the deck and the patio, the skimmer by the deck, and "multiple (low) falls" on the far bank.
A month later they sketched the waterfalls: two spillways tucked under slate, big rocks set half under the water, and slate laid "slightly over edge to hide liner."
Sizing your own pond? Our guide to pond gallons and liner size walks through the math.
Building the life-support station
Once the equipment list was final, they ordered everything and we shipped it straight to their house. In late July they started digging: the hole for the pond, then trenches for every pipe back to the equipment pad, which they call the "life-support station." Here is how their system works:
- Two 4-inch Aquadyne Rhino II bottom drains sit on the floor of the pond, each with an air diffuser built in.
- The drains feed an AquaForte UltraSieve III, which screens solids out of the water before it reaches the pumps.
- A Helix skimmer takes leaves and film off the surface.
- Two PerformancePro Artesian2 pumps push the water through a GCTek AlphaONE 6.0 bead filter and a ZapPRO UV clarifier.
- The water returns to the pond through two tangential pond returns and over two 26-inch Atlantic FastFalls spillways.
- A Hakko air pump feeds the diffusers in the drains, and a Helix auto-fill keeps the water level topped up.
That is a lot of system for 12,000 gallons, on purpose. The AlphaONE 6.0 is rated for 17,000 gallons, so it has room for the koi to grow, and with the sieve catching solids first, the bead filter needs backwashing less often.
Every new system has a few snags at startup, and theirs did too. We worked through them together.
"As with any system start-up, there were a few snags, but the team at Play It Koi was right there to help resolve any issues."
Rick is a retired electrical engineer, and it shows. His equipment pad wiring is one of the cleanest electrical installs we have seen on a koi pond.
Planning a system like this? Our buyer's guides cover bottom drains, bead filters and UV clarifiers, with sizing and installation tips.
Day 1: filling the pond
The first water goes in over the liner and the bottom drains.
Then it was time for Sherry to move her old companions, the koi she already had, into their new and "MUCH improved" home. The water was clear enough to check the liner work from above, and they could hardly see a wrinkle in it.
Build timeline
- Late May 2020: contacted Play It Koi
- June 8: version 4 of the pond plan
- July 10: waterfall sketch
- Late July: started digging
- Early September: started filling the pond
- Late October: added lighting and backfilled the trenches
- Early November: laid the first ring of slate around the edge
Winter and rain moved them indoors before the landscaping was done, with more slate to lay and a patio and deck upgrade still to come. "All in good time," they wrote. "Spring will be here soon."
What the pond means to them
"This has been a wonderful and rewarding experience. Ben and Play It Koi are fantastic partners. They are incredibly knowledgeable and fun to work with. We'd like to think that through this entire process, we've made new friends who will remain a part of our lives, as will our koi."
Rick and Sherry's final video of the build.
Rick and Sherry's pond at a glance
- Built by: Rick and Sherry Koske, with design help from Play It Koi
- Build: do-it-yourself, July to November 2020
- Shape: kidney, between the deck and the patio
- Volume: about 12,000 gallons
- Liner: 45 mil EPDM, one 35-by-35-foot sheet
- Filtration: two aerated bottom drains, a sieve, a bead filter and UV
- Water features: two low 26-inch spillways and two tangential returns
- Their goal: "Happy, healthy koi in a pond that will require minimal maintenance"
Rick and Sherry's equipment
All of this came from us:
- Aquadyne Rhino II bottom drains, 4-inch with built-in air diffusers (two)
- AquaForte UltraSieve III sieve
- Helix pond skimmer, drilled for an external pump
- PerformancePro Artesian2 high-flow pumps, 1/2 HP (two)
- GCTek AlphaONE 6.0 bead filter, rated for 17,000 gallons, with a ZapPRO high-output UV clarifier (they bought the pair as GCTek's AlphaONE 6.0 PLUS system)
- Atlantic FastFalls 26-inch Big Bahama spillways (two)
- Tangential pond returns (TPR), 1-1/2 inch (two)
- Hakko 80LH air pump, the "Matala air pump" in their story
- Helix auto-fill kit
- 45 mil EPDM pond liner and underlayment
- Check, gate and ball valves, flexible PVC and fittings to plumb it all together
Plan a pond like Rick and Sherry's
Now you can walk around Rick and Sherry's pond yourself. We rebuilt it in our Pond Planner by tracing their June 2020 sketch and sizing the outline to the 12,000 gallons they built: a kidney about 18 by 23 feet, with both aerated bottom drains, the Helix skimmer, two tangential returns and two 26-inch falls spilling between boulders. The sieve, the AlphaONE 6.0, the ZapPRO UV, both Artesian2 pumps and the Hakko air pump sit in a white garden pump house at the end of the patio.
Their story doesn't give the depth, so the plan uses 5 feet throughout, which is what it takes to hold 12,000 gallons in that outline. The UltraSieve III is out of stock right now, so a Cetus gravity sieve stands in for it.
Open Rick and Sherry's pond in the planner to spin it around in 3D, watch the air rise from the drains and see every part on the list. Like what you see? Hit "Start my own pond" and design yours.