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A Koi Pond Rebuilt - "The Phaneuf Pond"
by Gail & Kirk Herman, Koi Villa

What follows is a description of how Koi Villa saved a stone bottom pond from years of aggravation for its koi and owners.

I first met Joan Phaneuf in June 2002 -

right after she had her new 11,000 gallon pond installed. Her installer had told her about us when her fish died and she wanted to buy some new ones. He also warned her "not to listen to us," because we didn't know what we were talking about regarding stone bottom ponds. He said we had great fish and that is where she should go. I didn't want to create any professional hard feelings with her installer as he did refer her to us. In fact, her installer used to purchase from us before he began installing stone bottom ponds. I told Joan that we had two very different opinions of Koi ponds and it was my responsibility to explain to her the difference trying to keep it to actual vs. opinions of filtration systems. I also guarded my words out of respect to her pond installer, while explaining to her the difference between the two of them trying not to put down her new concept.

She understood completely. She was very upset and cried as she told me the story of how her Koi had died. She went on to say that she had them for years and some she raised from babies. She just couldn't understand how she had no problems in a 1,200 gallon liner pond for years and that it had been over populated; all she had used was a 2,000 gallon Cyprio Bio-Force Filter with a built in ultraviolet light. I asked her if the water quality was checked before she added the fish. She said that she checked the pH and it was fine and that she bagged and floated the fish for 20 minutes before releasing them. She said the pond was absolutely beautiful and how proud the installer was and how he kept saying that he was going to enter it into contests. Now, she just built an 11,000 gallon pond and her fish were dying. When she complained to the installer, all he kept saying was that he didn't kill them she did! In her own way, she defended her installer, but I don't think that she was a true believer in stone bottom ponds, but she got hooked on its beauty!"

I listened to her and felt her pain. I asked her when her installer came back to see what was going on if he did any water quality? She replied "Never." I explained to her the difference between a "Water feature vs. Koi Pond" and we didn't guarantee any fish to stone bottom ponds. She said that she didn't care and was still going to purchase them. She took her time and selected 6 beautiful Koi from us ranging in size from 6-10." She was so happy and said that she couldn't wait to get them home to show her husband. I told her to please remember us when and if she needed help and not to be too proud to return. She thanked me for my time and left.

One Year Later:

A year later she returned with her husband and came up to me saying that I had told her not to be too proud to return for help when she was ready. She said do you remember saying that to me? I said yes I did; how are things going? She began to cry; her husband, Jim, said that she had been that way for the past month and didn't know what to do anymore. One day Joan remembered Koi Villa and said that she wanted to go to our store. And, here they were.

When the Phaneuf's arrived, Kirk was in the store speaking with a man that recently had the same major problems, but his pond had been revamped. He and his wife had removed all the stone from the bottom of the pond. He installed a retro-fit bottom drain, a Challenger Bead Filter, Vortex and 120 watt ultraviolet Light. His water quality was perfect! All of his fish were all eating again and happily swimming around! Another customer was also there who had had the same problem. This second customer had come in smiling from ear to ear, and teasingly said rather loudly that the UV Kirk had installed wasn't good-it was superb! His pond was better than he could have ever imagined and that Kirk had underestimated its ability to clarify water. He could finally buy some nice Koi and knew that they wouldn't be dying like all the others.

All of these hobbyists said the same thing. They went to the local pet shop and asked for help, but they couldn't find anyone with any knowledge. They also said that they felt useless that they couldn't do anything to help their fish. None of them had added any new fish since their pond had been built, so their loss was even more heart-breaking as they all lost their babies.

Jim Phaneuf was listening for awhile then, got involved in the conversation saying "that's what is happening in his pond now." One customer began telling Jim how Kirk came out and assessed the problems, found a solution, fixed it and it was working great!

Kirk began talking to Jim. Joan was listening, but she was crying. She went outside on the bridge to watch our Koi. I went out to talk to her while Kirk kept talking with her husband about their problems with their stone bottom pond.

The two customers' pond and the Phaneuf pond all had stone bottoms and their fish kept dying. Interestingly, they all said how their fish stopped eating, stayed by themselves, some at the bottom of the pond, others up gulping for air before they finally died. The fish were loaded with parasites, including Ick, Fungus and Lice; their fishes bodies were also all scraped and had lots of old scars from scratching themselves on the stones.

Jim & Joan lost 17 large Koi!

Jim & Joan lost 17 large Koi and over 30 baby Koi between June 30th-July 21st, 2003, including the fish that she had purchased from us the previous year. Kirk sold Jim an aeration system and told him that he needed to install it immediately. He also agreed to go out for a pond consultation the following day. Kirk couldn't believe what he saw! Here are our notes from that visit.

8/21/03-Pond Consultation

Condition of Pond:

• Oxygen level was very low (.2) Aeration system was already installed.
• Approximate Gallons: 6500
• Water was totally green.
• Suspended solids were floating and heavy.
• Could only see the fish that were gasping for oxygen.

Condition of fish:

• Gasping for air, stressed, full of fungus, ick, fish lice and parasites. (Netted and examined).

Condition of equipment:

• Filter was a tub with 2 pads and 5 bags of Lava Rock.
• Originally one cast iron pump and one stainless steel pump were installed but both had totally corroded and had leaked oil into the pond and removed recently. The last one had just popped a seal and leaked oil into the pond.
• NOTE: Measurements were taken with the stones in. Approximate gallons were 6500 not 11,000.
• The bottom pond was 22' x 20' and even after adding 6"-8" on the edges of it all the way around it added 1980 gallons bringing the total gallons to 8500 not 11,000 gallons.
• Correct Gallons: A water meter was used for accurate measurement when the water was put back in.

Advice and recommendation::

• Remove all the stone and clean the ponds.
• Kirk made a bottom drain by using a 4" x 4' long PVC Pipe with ½" holes with a cap on it for a clean out and a 4"-2" reducer on the other end so we could run the 2" flex line to the vortex.
• Challenger 60 bead filter, Vortex, Aqua #160 watt UV, skimmer and exterior pump. (It was also suggested that they build a shed for this equipment as it was very expensive and should be protected).
• In order to keep the cost of this work down, the owners would remove and clean the pond as much as possible under our directions and guidance.
• To have the water sent out for testing. (The owners contacted someone on the water board in town and were told that they use a company in Marlboro, MA.)

NOTE: Kirk highly recommended sending the water and liner sample to Vicky Burnley of Georgia University for analysis. It was necessary to check the toxic levels as the stones were never washed and had a high amount of brown grains in them which we knew brought on Long String Algae and signaled a high iron content. Our other concern was for the presence of any pesticides.

Sending the samples out for testing:

• To satisfy my curiosity I went to a local roofing company and asked for a sample and statistics of the liner that they sell to people putting in ponds. I was given a 4" x 4" piece. The spec's stated the Zinc level was 2%. I included this piece with the client's liner without telling them or Vicky.
• The water samples were taken but the problem was that it had already been drained at least once through so many water changes so it would be impossible to receive an accurate reading of what it actually was when the pond was initially installed.

From that point it was determined that major renovations were needed and as soon as possible. In fact, the sooner the better! The owners were more than willing to do their part in the labor to help keep the cost down and move quicker. They knew that the condition of the fish was critical and that the project needed to begin immediately.

In light of this emergency situation, we had to squeeze the job in - at the end of the day, early mornings, plus Saturday and Sundays.

First, we removed the old filter and skimmer and installed the bead filter to get it activated. We emptied the water in the top pond and scrubbed the sides clean. At that point, there wasn't enough time to remove the stones as the fish needed to be moved into clean water and be medicated.

Each fish was carefully examined...

Each fish was carefully examined and the parasites that were embedded were pulled off before putting them in the top pond. We treated the fish with Parasite Guard, Ick and Fungus Eliminator. Afterwards we placed them in a salt level of 7% per 100 gallons of water to reduce their stress for 5 days. Salt does kill parasites and also helps to heal. No more fish died and slowly they began to eat again. During this period we also added Melafix. On the 6th day, we began doing water changes to bring the salt level to zero slowly.

In order to clean the lower pond, we removed all the small stones and placed them around the outside of the pond and raised the liner up 6"-8" in height. We then added liner in the areas that were lower to bring the overall height up to 3' depth.

Because of the added expense, the pond owners could not afford to remove the entire liner at that time. However, we did discuss that it may prove to be necessary once the liner had been analyzed. We took the large stones and moved them to the outer walls all the way around the inside of the pond to hold the liner.

The homeowners worked for five additional days trying to clear all the mud and particles from behind the stones. They did this by power washing and vacuuming the mud out as much as it could be done and the remainder of it had to be done by hand. They also trimmed up to 4 layers of liner around the large rocks to try to eliminate future areas for harmful bacteria to grow.

One of the major problems we had to deal with was the fact that the liner was folded and rolled everywhere. Not only was that causing harmful bacterial colonies flourish, we also found the plant pockets that had up to four layers of liners with boulders on top or next to them. We couldn't remove these liners, because we didn't know if it would cause leaks and/or cause more harmful bacteria to flourish.

Raising the bottom pond to reach the 3' depth that the owners originally wanted created more problems, by causing the water to leak in the stream bed. This forced us to drain the bottom pond down a foot and remove the stones in the stream bed and repair the liner there too.

The project was completed in mid-October 2003; the fish were safe and getting stronger. Both Jim & Joan were amazed at how simple their new filter, vortex, skimmer and UV worked. They loved their UV from the first day. And more than anything they love having a healthy balanced pond.

Good things sometimes come out of bad beginnings. Jim spoke directly with Vicky prior to sending in their samples and also after they received her report. During one of the conversations Jim learned about a weekend Koi Health Management workshop being held in January. Jim decided it would be a wonderful gift for Joan and gave it to her for Christmas.