In the United Kingdom because of the long winters it is necessary to have deep ponds of a minimum of 4ft 6ins, and preferably five to six feet deep if you intend to look after large fish, or do not live in the south of the country. For this reason the ponds described here fit within this criteria, and smaller shallow ponds have not been considered.
There are many readers who do not live in the UK so they have to make their own decisions on what is appropriate in their own areas and I look forward to hearing from them. I have many friends in South Africa and the USA who have contributed to this website and look forward to their continued support.
To have deep ponds with vertical sides then it is necessary to have a solid construction. Quite a few of our members are building ponds with concrete blocks, and then having them rendered and coated with fibreglass, so this type of pond construction is the main topic of this article.
These ponds have large filters and are not designed to have any plants.
Pond construction today is most certainly easier that it used to be with the advancement of building materials now readily available to us all ..
We are asked many times every week - which is the best and easiest way to construct a 'True Koi Pond' ? well the answer is... 'There is no easy way' it all takes a lot a hard work and money to build a 'State of the Art Koi Pond'..
In these drawings below you will see a relatively simply, but effective and attractive Koi pond - the material suggested here are what we ourselves use when contracted to build a Koi pond for a client ..
We choose to build our pond walls using either concrete blocks or bricks, which are usually available from good builders merchants.... the floor or base of the pond is concrete ...
The principal's shown below could of course be adapted to suit the customer - if the customer wishes to use a good quality liner then the principals remain basically the same for the actual pond - although I would still advise that the filtration plant area be built using concrete blocks with the upper rows - if shown above ground level finished in any brickwork to match the surrounding buildings and in keeping with the general design ...The first thing to do is to mark out where you are going to put the pond and the filtration plant ...
This can be done quite easily before you start digging a ruddy great big hole that ends up in the wrong place ... plan your pond carefully don't rush in to it blind folded ... and please do not forget that the most important part of any pond is the actual filtration ... do not try to 'Cut Corners' on the filtration - by all means if the budget is tight - cut back on the aesthetics of the pond itself - landscaping can always be carried out to finish the job at a later time... but if you cut corners on the filtration units then it is almost an impossible task
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