"Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message
...
I think experience and design are more important to maintenance than
cost. Especially if the ponder is doing the installation labor. Jim
built our ponds in several stages. He learned a lot from the group
and from the web and from the mistakes he made when he began.

Oh believe me, we learned a lot also. The original pond info we got back in
1996 never mentioned berms caving in like ours did, necessitating a major
fixing of the berms on both ponds. You remember me mentioning that about 2
years back. We had to pull the liners, reshape the sides and make reinforced
concrete berms with rebar going deep into the earth. First we had to make
the forms. Expensive and time consuming. Meanwhile the koi were in smaller
protected kiddy pools that needed constant care and partial water changes.
Many of us made mistakes because no one points out all the problems and
things that can go wrong.

For instance, if he had built the pond along the lines of his first
ideas, we would have lava rock filters with blue ac filter
prefilters. He would have to clean them all the time. As it is, the
slow-flow berm ponds catch the muck and need draining once a year. It
is cheaper to have a slow-flow pond with no prefilter than to change
out ac filters!

And for that you need the space and know-how how to built it. After all
these years I never saw or heard of a "slow-flow through berm pond." I
shudder to think what it would cost to hire someone to add these to both
ponds and in such a way they can be netted.

Time needed for maintenance is different from time spent on the pond.
Jim is forever looking to see how this or that is growing and he is
always coming up with something or other to change. I call that
puttering rather than maintenance.

A lot more information was available when you did your pond than when we put
these in in 1996 and 97. I never dreamed there would be so much maintenance
involved. Then, once the koi started to breed the maintenance increased.
There is no other way to remove fry than do a draindown and net them out. A
dirty smelly all day job as I mentioned before. In fact it usually takes us
an entire weekend or longer. It also means keeping "holding pools" ready for
use and cycling extra filters beforehand. That last time I slipped on the
slimy liner I thought my shoulder was broken. I could hardly use my arm for
days.

If we were wealthy we'd have a local pond service/builder come in and
replace the filters with no-maintenance filters and pumps plus one of those
slow-flow-through-plant-filters you mentioned (one pond already has one but
it runs through a tank). We'd hire them to do the drain downs and partial
water changes. But now with my husband about to retire in a few months,
that just isn't feasible.
--

RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
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