Planning a budget for your fishpond The excitement of creating your first fishpond can actually take over the reality of how much you actually have in your budget for constructing and adding the equipment required to keep your pond running. There are many aspects that you need to consider so careful planning over a period of time will allow you to design and plan your fish pond correctly. It is best to plan wisely and build your pond to what you can afford rather than make big plans then get halfway through realising that you can no longer afford to complete the project. Never impulse plan or impulse buy items that you need for the construction as this can lead to mistakes in the completed pond and cutting corners with the equipment required such as filters will definitely lead to future problems. Planning involves going through certain stages, initially you will need to survey the desired position and how much space you have for your fish pond, this will affect your budget as larger ponds may cost more to construct but they also tend to be easier to maintain as they hold a larger water volume, smaller ponds can lead to future water quality problems so you may have to spend more on better equipment to keep the quality high. You should also consider which species of fish you want to keep, smaller ponds containing goldfish will cost less to stock, larger ponds designed for Koi carp will cost more to stock, all of this needs to be taken into consideration. If you are planning a larger fish pond you will also need to consider if you plan to dig out the fish pond area yourself or hire a small digger for the task, all these extras need to be included in your budget. Once you have decided on the site and size for you fishpond you now enter the second stage of planning which is how are you going to line the pond i.e are you going to use a commercial liner or as in my case I decided on a concrete base with rendered walls. I decided on the latter as my pond was a 10’ x 8’ and 6 ‘ deep, smaller ponds are more suitable for pond liners so do your research. When pricing your pond liner if this is the way you wish to go don’t go for the cheapest option. You get what you pay for and some liners may seem more expensive but they come with a guarantee, normally about 15-20 years so the extra investment pays off, cheaper liners will have a shorter shelf life. You can also take the option of purchasing a preformed pond liner that suits many gardens, everything usually depends on the look you are after, how much you wish to spend and the aesthetics of how you wish the pond to look when completed. For example my own fishpond was designed to be dug down for 4 feet and then raised by two feet as decorative bricks for the outside had to be planned into the budget as well plus the cost of some nice coping stones on top of the bricks to give a nest finish which was pleasing to the eye. My main decisions on the construction and required finish was based on the fact that I knew I would be keeping Koi carp, if you are keeping goldfish then it may not be worth you going to that extra expense. Always take into account any little extras as regards the construction, with pond liners you will need some form of underlay to protect the liner as you will with preformed pond liners, in my case I had to add to the budget the price of cement for the render which also had to have fibreglass mixed into it to strengthen the mix plus pond paint was required to waterproof the render and believe me this was not a cheap part of the budget. Third stage of the planning the budget has to be the equipment to keep your fishpond running efficiently and the first step is to find a suitable filtration system that is rated for the water volume contained in your pond. I always work on the principle that a system that can turn over the total water volume twice per hour will work well, with
smaller ponds the filter and pump are often combined which makes the prices relatively small compared to larger ponds. With larger ponds you often find that you will require a separate water pump that will feed into your filtration system, these may not come cheap and of they do if may often mean that the systems are not up to the job, always remember always purchase the best equipment that you can afford, this will avoid water quality issues in the future. Shop around several websites or local aquatic stores before finalising which equipment you are going to purchase, ask questions from the suppliers, any reliable suppliers will be more than happy to offer you advice and you may find that if you create a good relationship with the suppliers you could even save some pennies as all businesses want to sell their products and make money, they will also make sure that you get the correct equipment for your fishpond. Fourth stage of planning your budget has to be stocking the fish pond, nowadays quality fish usually demand higher prices, when it comes to stocking cheaper alternatives often means inferior fish that may be short lived. Whether we are talking goldfish or Koi carp it is still worth shopping around, check reviews on websites and listen to spoken recommendations, quite often word of mouth builds a good reputation for reliable fish suppliers rather than just scanning websites. There is nothing more heartbreaking than spending money on fish just to find them struggling with health problems to save a few pennies, it does pay sometimes to spend a bit extra knowing that your fish will be happy and long lived. Hopefully this article has been of some use, the key is careful planning - it will pay off long term when you have constructed and stocked a healthy fish pond that will give hours of pleasure!! About the author Jan Hvizdak owns https://www.aqua-fish.net which is a database of fish, plants and biotopes started in 2005.