Above Ground Koi Pond

I have been keeping Koi in  my experimental aquaponics system as an inexpensive fish for testing. I have really begun to enjoy keeping them and have decided to make a new home for them on my patio. On Monday, labor day, I built a 4x4 above ground pond for them. I used 2x8 lumber and built three boxes from it. I then stacked the boxes on top of each other and screwed them together. I bought a liner from Lowe's that was $69.00 but fit the pond great. I used PVC for the liner and it was a little tricky getting it to form into those sharp 90 degree corners but it eventually did. 

Here is a picture of me fitting the liner into a corner. Pretty tricky. I ended up making triangle folds by tucking the extra liner into itself. You can see the 2x8's stacked up and a coat of paint on the exterior 

I used the PondMaster floating filter with UV and fountain. It was $129.00 at Lowe's. It looks like a good unit, I think I will have to build a bio-filter to use in addition to this though.

I added 1x4's around the top to make a rim and to hold the liner in place. Here you can see the rim in place and some paint testing to get the color right. We are going with the dark blue after trying red also. 

The biggest lesson I learned from this is that I can make a fish tank for my upcoming large aquaponics system. I am thinking a 4x8x30" tank that will hold 150 tilapia fish. This makes a tank that is nice and narrow and easier to build a green house over. 

I am hoping to have the Koi in this weekend after the water conditions out for them. The whole project took about 3 hours construction and cost about $300.00 in materials. I would be happy to send a material list and an outline of the steps to anyone who may be interested. 

Adding in a few more fish.

I added three more Koi and an algae eater or Plecostomus to the fish tank on the table system. The three Koi  that I originally had in there were not producing enough ammonia or nitrites to really add a lot of nitrogen to the plant bed. I am hoping the additional fish will raise these levels. I bought Wal-Mart fish and was surprised by the price. The Koi cost about 6 dollars a piece. Since this is an experimental system, I thought using Koi would be a smart alternative to Tilapia which is what I plan to raise in later systems, but Tilapia is actually cheaper if you buy fingerlings and buy 25 or more. My fish container is 4.5 cubic feet which equated to about 33.5 gallons. At 1 half of a pound of fish per gallon and Tilapia final weights being 1 and 1 half pounds, I should be able to put around twenty Tilapia in the fish area.