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expanding indoor koi land

lorivertin

The pond digger is the best. We were hoping to have the weekend to set up a new indoor tank for the incoming tosai but ended working around Kevin Pham’s schedule. Lucky Kevin is going to Japan for a koi show (the All Japan show, kind of like the Super Bowl-Westminster Kennel Club  event of the koi world). So Tony spent a few cold nights in the garage putting together a system that Cheng Lee helped him design. I think the new koi will like their home very much. Tracking the FedEx shipment…they should be here in 13 hours.

Indoor koi land is expanding…
One of our koi (the pretty little doitsu) stuck his mouth in the drain hole and unfortunately died. This time we are not letting any koi near the drain hole.
Test run of the 150 gallon tub for the new tosai.

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UPDATE Sunday, January 25, 2015

The pond digger spent much of his weekend improving on the 300 gallon tubs and finishing up the 150 gallon tub for the new arrivals. He did a great job. Generally my eyes glaze over when the guys start talking about setting up filtration systems. I know it’s quite important but not an engineering project I like to tackle. Thankfully my husband does like these projects 🙂  Here are some final photos of indoor koi land…

indoor koi land, two 300 gal tubs and one 150 gal tub
FIlter system for the 150 gal tub…the right container pulls the water out and some settling of wastes will occur, the pump pushes water into the left container and the water is pushed up through filter material and sent back into the tub through a trickle type of bar
the little tosai get a shower bar…we also have an air stone and a water heater to keep it at least 52 degrees in our unheated garage…
The 300 gallon tubs have some pieces of insulation foam under the nets to discourage the koi from attempting to jump. I have already rescued one flopping on concrete the other day…
The pond digger changed out the tubing to a larger size over the weekend since he felt he wasn’t turning over water fast enough. It is a winter tank and the koi are not eating. (Maybe 3 or 4 nuggets every third day…it’s kind of cold for them to chow down.) However, we put in 550 gph pumps in today and feel the water quality will be better for it.
My favorite feature of the system…hook a hose to these faucets, turn and let some water and waste run out down the driveway. The pond digger is in to making routine koi keeping tasks easier 😉
The koi seem happy in their winter home. I’m thinking that while we plan to have most of the koi winter outdoors, we’ll still set up the indoor tubs for one or two.
Everyone needs to have some koi indoors during the winter….

 

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