Update on my pond plans. I could not find any information online that said you could keep koi in anything less than 3 feet of water. When I asked one fish store they said the depth wasn't a big deal as long as the fish had plenty of room to swim. I guess the major point of having 3 feet of depth is that it allows the pond to freeze over and the fish to not compete for the remaining air. Also, another big point was that koi kept in shallow water develop a pot-belly look since they can not swim up and down as much. Other people I've spoken to have kept koi in small ponds and just trade them in when they get too big. I think I will try that with 1 or 2 koi. I'm going to stick mostly with comets or wakins if I can find them.

Old pond: 7' 1/2 X 6' and 18" deep. 270 gallons.
I read that water lilies would not thrive in 18" of water. As you can see that is not what I experienced. Later on the water was almost entirely covered by the pads and I would get 7 blooms at a time.


New pond: 11' 1/2 x 10' 1/2 and 18" deep. 1,355 gallons.
I still need to clean up the sides of the waterfall and replace the dead grass. I hope the algae will cover the pvc pipe.