Cowboy builders.

Hi Eric,
You’ve been kind enough to offer me answers on my problems over the years. I live in Hull & have a 3,750 gallon pond which had no surface skimmer & you suggested ways of adding one into an existing pond which is edged in old brick. You’ve also answered numerous other queries for me as my pond was not the best built pond ever. It is with this in mind I’m writing to you so that you can warn all our friends who visit the website on a regular basis.

My pond was built following contact with a ‘professional pond builder’ who had a stand at a koi show in Yorkshire in 1995 offering koi, food, parts etc., & building services. To cut a very long story short I swallowed the sales spiel , the drawings but most of all the enthusiasm that flowed from him & I agreed to a pond being built costing around £5,000 which would take 4-6 weeks. 14 weeks after commencement I really had to lose my temper to get the work completed & ended up by completing my own decking etc., - The pond looked great but after a few weeks the fibre glassing showed different colours & the ‘easy maintained’ filter system was a nightmare.

I’ve lived with it for 7 years but now decided that it really is too much hard work to keep on top of as the 5’ vortex only empties by 2/3rd leaving the least 1/3rd to be pumped out. The valves for 3 bay filter only empty so far down leaving around 8-10” of mess in the bottom – The whole filter system, vortex, valves & filter were encased on concrete 4-5” thick so I could not see why it was not functioning. – Anyway cutting a long story short I’ve hired a hammer drill & broke up the concrete which filled a skip & discovered that the vortex is sited lower than the pond & the exit pipe from the bottom goes up by about a foot which is why it wont empty properly. The exit pipes on the filter are actually pointing upwards so that the water can never empty out. The 4” waste pipe connects into a 1 ½” pipe which is why every time the vortex or filters are flushed it backs up into a ‘chamber’ which was not cemented properly so when the water reached a certain level it overflowed back into the filters!.

I’ve now bought ‘The answer’ & having run it for 2 weeks I’m so impressed – from my 3 bay I go to a trickle and a ‘Filtech’ beehive type filter – the water in there is now so crystal clear and there’s no mess in it whatsoever. – The only problem I have now is that the fish & pond waste sinks down the vortex but instead of a ‘drop down’ exit the guy’s put a side exit pipe in, therefore as the exit valve on outside is 12” higher than the bottom of vortex there’s no real pull & therefore only a ‘channel’ of waste is cleared.

I’ve now arranged with Trevor Pearson of East riding koi to make me a new smaller vortex which will house the answer & I’m going to dig out the old one by smashing it as it’s the only way it will come out & I’m also going to dig out the 3 bay base from the concrete & lift that so that the bays will discharge completely.

Apart from a lot of time it’s going to cost a lot of money for vortex, skip etc., - The reason I’m telling you all this is that I was ‘mesmerised’ with Koi at 1st and as this is my 3rd pond I didn’t take the time to check out my builder, speak to other people whose pond he’s built (I since have and they’ve all got similar problems!) – In hindsight I wish someone had told me what I know now, it would have saved me a lot of time & trouble, plus just from speaking to yourself & various others I’m a lot wiser now & I would have known what was right / wrong & what would or would not work – so a warning, cheap or quick doesn’t mean it’s right so check it out & ask for advice.

Sorry for the length of letter, if anyone’s still awake & wants more info or they have similar problems which they think I can help with through my experiences please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at: Gj@gjordan.co.uk. I’d rather them talk to me and use my time then lose their money!
G.J - Hull.

Dear Graham,

I am sorry to hear of your problems, and unfortunately these things do seem to happen quite frequently, and so thank you for highlighting the problem.
If anyone has had similar problems why not let us know about them. Eric.