What is a koi pond without koi? A pond! Now that is boring...
Many clients who want a waterfall and koi pond do not want koi fish to take care of. Actually, a pond will require less attention with fish than without. If a koi pond has a waterfall to aerate the water, koi fish will produce waste that is broken down by nitrifying bacteria into nitrate nitrogen, and water plants will use the nitrogen and thrive. In turn, the koi fish eat the algae and small water insects that live on the rocks and plant roots. And those bugs eat other smaller bugs that eat microscopic bugs that eat bad bacteria bugs. This is called the nitrogen cycle. A properly balanced koi pond like this will pretty much take care of itself.
Koi fish food can get lodged in the plants, rocks and vegetation around the perimeter of the koi pond. If the koi fish cannot find the food, it simply decays, adding unnecessary nitrates to the water and resulting in more food for algae to grow. To eliminate this problem I fashioned what I term as a Koi Fish Food Corral made from a 4 to 5 foot piece of 1-1/2 inch flexible PVC pipe and fastened together with a single 1-1/2 inch coupling, creating a circular corral.
This corral keeps the koi food in one place, and prevents it from floating off into rock crevices, plants or the skimmer. Plus it allows for the proper portioning of koi food. It is easy to tell if you’ve given the koi fish too much. If food is still there after a couple of minutes and the koi fish seem to have had enough, they have, and you should remove the leftovers. Lay it in the sun to dry and feed it to them later. It is easy to collect the extra food that the koi fish don’t eat by using a small net. It is better to feed them too little than too much. In a case like this, more is not better.
Sometimes my clients originally expressed a concern that koi fish would be a burden or a hassle. They would worry about having to feed them daily, or what they would do when going on vacation. I would explain that the koi fish are extremely important with regard to their contribution to the nitrogen cycle. The nitrogen cycle is what makes a koi pond low in maintenance and nearly self-sufficient.
