How many koi per gallon of water

Now go do the math on your pond and tell me how your Koi Herd stacks up to this rule of thumb. One Koi per gallons of well filtered and maintained Pond Water. You must be logged in to post a comment. Published by admin at January 22, Categories Blog. Beware of the Dangerous Rules Of Thumb surrounding this question.

Eric Triplett The Pond Digger. Related posts. DIY or Pro — Make the call with confidence! Read more. I have two Laguna Pressure Filters — and a models. The bottom is granite river rock and granite bolders.

I have installed 6X6 columns for a pergola at the perimeter of the pond. Other things I could bring into the equation: I have two aerators, if required I have a Pondovac 3 for occasional maintenance of the bottom. If I were to attempt this, how many of these smaller fish could I include, given the compensating factors I have talked about above?

Doug, Thanks for your question. I would first say YES to using the aeration you have available. The more oxygen the better. Adding a couple nice Koi to the mix should be perfectly fine, but I would recommend frequent backflushes of your pressure filters as you will at that point be maxing out your system so I would expect the filters to fill up rather quickly.

I personally would probably backflush them weekly, of course paying attention to the amount of waste you are removing and adjust accordingly. I would also make sure that you have good circulation along the bottom of your pond to minimize the waste settling into the pond floor and getting stuck in your aggregate. Definitely vacuum the pond…at least twice a year…at your major season changes. Food choice is important as well and you will want to feed a high quality food that leaves minimal waste such as HaiFeng or some of the other well respected Koi Food Brands.

As for your temporary guests, I think with due diligence on your part keeping the ecosystem clean, there would not be a problem. My only other recommendation here is know that your pond is going to be full…so you will not want any of those temporary guests to change their status to permanent citizens.

I am building a round concrete pond 7 feet deep half set in earth half above and walled around. It will have an 18 foot diameter and hold some 12, gallons of water turning over units of water an hour from pumps. I am working on 40 fish but can be corrected by expert as this is my first big leap from a small pond to something better in my roomed gardens.

You definitely do not have too many fish for your volume of water, but aeration levels would be something of a possible concern with only circulating the pond once every two hours. With a great filter system sized properly like an Ultima2 20,gallon filter and a Matala watt UV unit, your water quality should be great for your 40 Koi without issue. I do though circulate my water hourly and have a Hakko 60LPM aeration system to support the ecosystem.

I think I will take a two-year approach to this. Over the winter, I will come up with a plan for pumping and filtration and look at flow in the pond. In the spring I will do a thorough cleaning of the pond with the vacuum and add in the skimmer box. I will continue running aeration through the summer. I will build the back-flushes into my weekend routine. I have clear-line hoses for back-flushing. I have been doing aquarium fish discus, angels, severums for over 30 years.

Once we moved to Florida, I wanted to expand my fish hobby outside. I had a few Koi maybe 3 or 4 and the rest were shabunkins, about 12 fish in all. Like most, I wanted a bigger space, so I dug out a place for a gallon pond in my patio area. I had no problems with my gallon pond other than cleaning the filters. I intend to move these same fish to the larger pond next weekend and add NO other fish.

So I am running 3 filters and 3 pumps on a gallon pond. I am in the military and frequently away from home, so maybe you can understand my desire for LOW maintenance.

Three filters and pumps on one pond is definitely overkill, but my maintenance and back flushes are quicker and less frequent. Does anyone have any cautions about what I am doing? Additionally have an EasyPro quick sink self-weighted pond air diffusor, an Airmax Koi Air water garden aeration air kit and two Aquascape waterfall spillways, so I should have plenty of circulation and aeration.

Any other suggestions? Dwayne, Thanks for the questions and we always like to overfilter! Your pump selection sounds like it is paired fine with the filters, but make sure you are not maxing out the filter flow rates as you definitely do not NEED all the flow you have. Aeration should be fine as well with two waterfalls running and an air system. I do not know the size of your aeration system, but with the circulation you have built in, it will serve more to move the water table and be a safety net than to be adding oxygen to the water.

Unless your current fish decide to multiply, you should have a fairly easy time maintaining beautiful water and very healthy fish! Bravo for investing above and beyond! My pond is home to 3 Koi and 1 Pleco at the moment.

My concern is that I am overcrowding the pond. Naturally, I want to add more Koi but I want to ensure they have enough space and resources.

I do not have any plants yet and I am trying to test water quality as often as possible. I recently did 2 water changes a few days apart to try and lower both. I also used Ammo Lock and Stress Coat afterward. Any additional advice is greatly appreciated. Get a recent book and read up on pond design and then figure gallons per fish and you should be okay.

If you are designing you pond and trying to figure all this out, build as big as your budget allows. Put your money in the pond and mechanicals now, and spend money on your koi next year. This should allow you to enjoy the hobby for years to come instead of fighting through the learning curve like most of us have done. Good luck, John. Join Date May Location Mt. KY - 7 miles outside Louisville Posts 64, I have gallons per koi, some have thousands per koi. Bill D. Posts I wanted gals per koi.

Somehow i have per koi and a few in the QT. Originally Posted by warrenrrrr. One thing I think should be concidered is how much of a safety margine you want for your koi, how long will they survive if life support is cut off say you have a power outage or a water or air pump fails, part of this has to do with where you live is it a cold climate?

Since body conformation varies from one fish to the next,wouldn't total weight in fish be a better formula? An adult female 24" or so would weight considerably more on average than an adult male of the same length. Right now I have 6 koi in 4,gal. May cull one more next summer if discovered to be male. Want all female. Not really interested in having a pond full of fish representing every color of the rainbow. I am new to raising Koi and want to start with an Aquaponics system. Are you telling me that I cannot have a basic "pond" with a few koi unless it is several thousand gallons?

For those that don't know what aquaponics is There are some who have successfully kept koi in an aquaponics system. If they don't have enough room water it won't take you long to find out because their health and growth will suffer.

But also think about a large fish that only has enough water to live in but doesn't have enough room to swim or explore.