Play It Koi's Pond - Details from the Pond Tour

Play It Koi's Pond was recently featured on the 2018 WK & WGS Pond Tour. We were very honored to be selected and had a great time as usual with the members. 

Many people have asked since then for details on how we built the pond and "How we keep the water so crystal clear"? As such, we're sharing the write up included in the show to help answer common questions about pond design, filtration, and components that we get asked.  

--------- From the 2018 Pond Tour --- 

The Cooke’s Pond was built in the summer 2016. It took approximately 2 months to plan and 3 months to build over the course of several nights and weekends. The outcome is a beautiful 15 ft X 12 ft kidney bean-shaped pond that is 6 ft deep and approximately 6500 gallons total.

A composite deck, with a 6 ft viewing platform, wraps around one-half of the pond. Rocks of various shapes and sizes, some up to 750 lbs, surround the other half of the pond to create a more natural look. A large old cedar tree stump, which sits submerged opposite the viewing platform, reaches its roots out wide to create a natural hiding place and provide balance to the otherwise rocky landscape.

Besides the hundreds of beautiful Japanese koi, the main focal point of the Cooke’s pond is the falls. They stand 4-5 ft high and mostly plunge straight into the main pond creating a constant splashing sound through the heavily oxygenated water. Just to the right of the falls is a small jet shooting a thin arched stream of water into the pond. This jet, as well as the falls, are illuminated with PondMax color-changing LED lights which make the pond and the beautiful koi really come alive at night. Tucked underneath the deck and around the side of the house is the Cooke pond’s life support system.

Powered by the following:

• Filtration: GCTEK AlphaOne X2 (for 30k gallons) + Poliglass bead 17k Polisher + a 3” stainless steel prefilter
• Skimmer: Savio Skimmer Filter with a 16" Savio Skimmerfilter Weir & Savio Auto Fill Valve– Modified for 3” hose in the bottom
• Bottom Drain: 3” Koi Toilet Aerated bottom drain. Aerated by a PondMax PA40 Aeration  pump
• Pumps: 2 X Artesian Pro ¾ HP High Flow pumps
• UV: UVC-6H 200W UV
• 3 X 1 1/2" Tangential Pond Returns to spin the water counterclockwise around the bottom drain 

While the Filtration is considered overkill by some, it's also what keeps this pond sparkling clean all year round and keeps the koi happy and healthy. The Cooke’s also house 4 smaller water gardens/fountains around their property. Most of these play home to colorful water plants such as lotus, water lilies, iris, and others.

When asked for one piece of advice if he had to do it all over again, Ben the owner, said he would’ve joined WK & WGS much earlier in his journey—a testament to the many benefits our club offers to many in the community.

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Update: May 2020. Photographer, Jamie Jenkins, stopped by to purchase some of our Japenese Koi. She shot some beautiful photos.