Swimming Pool -> Koi Pond?

Someone said 5 full sized fish - He said the pool was 25,000 Gallons - you could put a Whale in there.

Second why would you want to turn a swimming pool into a fish pond?

But if you did want to do it - it would not take much at all - there is an old swimming pool that has been abandoned for years in a woods near me - its no different then a natrual pond at this point - probably 3 feet of crap on the bottom all typse of fish and frogs in it.

you wont be able to go back to a pool without having the whole bottom sand blasted and replastered as it will be all skank.
 
donfenk said:
Someone said 5 full sized fish - He said the pool was 25,000 Gallons - you could put a Whale in there.

Second why would you want to turn a swimming pool into a fish pond?

But if you did want to do it - it would not take much at all - there is an old swimming pool that has been abandoned for years in a woods near me - its no different then a natrual pond at this point - probably 3 feet of crap on the bottom all typse of fish and frogs in it.

you wont be able to go back to a pool without having the whole bottom sand blasted and replastered as it will be all skank.
Click to expand...

The reason would be that the only time anyone goes swimming any more is my mother once in a while in the summer, mostly out of a desire to make the big wet hole in the ground in the back yard useful. It still gets its maintenance, because neither parent likes the look of algefied swimming pool. However, if it were made into a pond, it would (hopefully) be decorative, no-one would need to swim out of a sense of obligation, and may provide parents with something that is relaxing, rather than something that is frustrating. And they like koi ponds at Japanese tea gardens.

It needn't be heavily stocked with fish (which would increase maintenance requirements, I think), but it'd be nice if the fish were viewable at least occasionally. I think a whale would be a little overkill ;)

Dad wants to do this economically, and he does have enough building/plumbing knowledge to either do this well, or make a huge mess of it ;P I on the other hand, would be mostly useful as someone to do the preliminary research (which is what I'm doing... :P)

Would the pool need to be resurfaced, or is it good to go as it is?
 
Ah I can help u with it all, ex pool guy:)

I personally would acid wash the pool to get off all the residue on the walls. Then just run it like a normal pool. The plaster surface is fine, no need to resurface unless its fallings off.
 
Your existing pool filter media can be replaced. The reservoir is probably filled with pool sand now but I would need to see the exact system they purchased to be certain. They still sell diatomaceous earth filters. Remove the pool sand or DE and replace with polypads/sponges/bioballs/etc. If your father is handy, like you said, he could make sections out of plastic egg-crate lighting material or other plastic grate material to keep the various medias separated for easier maintenance.

The link you posted on page two of this thread was to the Leslie's pump .pdf document and you indicated it was a 3/4hp pump so that pump moves around 70-80 gpm which would translate to around 4200-4800 gph. Far short of 1X filtration but it's better than nothing.

You will still be able to use the existing filter system plumbing to regularly backwash the filter but you may also want to make a plumbing modification so the backwash does not go down the sewer, but rather into a garden hose which they can "water" the gardens with this super nutritious plant water.

You would need to make some plumbing modifactions so the return lines from the filter housing goes to the waterfall (instead of returning to the pool via the jets) and you want the waterfall on the shallow end of the pool for proper water flow through the pool back to the deep end drain intake to the pump.

DO NOT PUT A SUBSTRATE ON THE BOTTOM. It will a major hindrance to the ecology of the pond and trap/hold much more detritus making the water quality more of an issue. With a smooth pool bottom, they could also use the existing pool cleaning and vacuuming tools to suck up detritus off the bottom to keep the water quality in much better shape. Anybody who has ever had a Koi pond almost always regrets putting all of those rocks on the bottom since they become traps for detritus which causes ecology problems... especially in the overwintering process.

Here is a page of AquaArticles http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/ponds/index.html all about ponds and make sure they read and understand the overwintering process as this causes most new pond owners the biggest problems, depending on the climate where they live. Here is my blog with lots of other DIY pond info. http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/2007/03/pond-information-and-diy-pond.html
 
One other article that I need to add to my blog...

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FA037 - University Of Florida Article On "Backyard Habitat Ponds"

While you are at that site, do a search for "fish" and find over 500 other great articles on all aspects of fishkeeping that are well written, researched and properly sourced and referenced. I use that UFL.edu site for doing lots of research on fishkeeping... as well as http://scholar.google.com
 
This is very, very possible. In south Florida I knew a guy who had taken his pool, put a lot of bream (bluegill, sunfish, basically just lots of panfish) in there, then later on had thrown in around 3 regular gar and 2 Alligator Gar (http://www.mosportsmen.com/fishing/alligatorgar.htm He had a lot of plants, and I would actually fish in there and catch bream, but he wouldn't let me swim in there (obvious reasons, I was 7 at the time).
 
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It certainly sounds like you are on your way to converting the pool to a pond.

I only have a couple of things to add. I agree, no substrate on the bottom. It would cause more problems than its worth and make maintenance more difficult.
Secondly, don't use the plant baskets for your plants, particularly in a pond this large and deep. They are not very sturdy and they get brittle pretty fast. Plus, you need to line them with something to keep soil in unless you use straight pea gravel. Use oil drain pans or inexpensive dish pans for your plants. They will be better for the plant and easier to lift, etc. You can use plastic crates turned over to set them on and raise them up. Add cinder blocks or bricks on top of the crate to add more height if you need it. I have also seen ponders who have made plant stands out of PVC pipe to the height they need.
Good luck with your pool to pond conversion.:)
 
So I told my dad about this post and the possibility of turning a pool into a giant and (fairly) self-sustaining pond. Turns out they are looking at buying a new house and one of the options has a pool in the backyard! So now he's even more excited about the pond and i'm going to print out these posts...
 
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