How Can You Section Off Part of a Pond?

[Julles]

Planning my pond extension here:

I want to have part of the pond for lilies.  But I need to keep the koi away from the lilies.  Currently, I am planning to sew a mesh enclosure out of patio screening (it's pretty tough plastic, the particular stuff I have), and support that with a PVC frame.

But what if I just sectioned off the end of the pond?  And HOW would you go about doing that?

Can you use concrete landscaping blocks to make a wall?  With 1/4" gaps between, for water flow?  Is concrete safe for fish?  Chemically?  Texturally?  Would they try to squeeze between the 1/4" gaps and get stuck, or rough up their bodies?

Any ideas that would take up less space than those concrete blocks?  I only will have about 700 gallons, and would hate to loose even the space taken by the 8" thickness of those blocks.  I'm not sure a wall of regular bricks would be stable enough. 

I also thought about putting that patio screening on a frame of PVC pipe, and using that to block the far end of the pond.  But I can't figure out how to hold it firmly against the pond walls, so the fish won't try to slip around the frame to the lily side.

And, of course, I don't want to damage the liner.

Ideas?

[Ky Kim]

My koi nibble a little here and there with my tropicals (except one tropical that must have been extra yummy) but really don't bother my hardies.  Have you tried your koi with your lilies.  You might get lucky and they will leave them alone.

Kim

[frloplady]

My original pond build had an area that I was going to construct a rock wall with spaces between for water circulation.

That is long gone. 

If I was to do something similar again I would build a block wall with no gaps etc but with the top of the wall slightly below the main water level by maybe an inch?. If the ponds sides were not straight up and down use great foam to close the gaps between the block and the side of the pond.  I would then have some water coming back from the filtration system, feeding that section of the pond which would then overflow back into the main pond.  The other option is to make the part of the system slightly higher by a few inches and have it a very wide trickle falls back into the  main pond.  That may not be as feasible as an afterthought.  Hind sight is always 20/20

[Esther]

My koi don't bother my hardies at all.

[Julles]

thanks for the replies.  I'm still plotting, using all the info I learn here and elsewhere, and will figure out something.

I used to have my fish and plants together, but now that they're bigger, they do seem to mangle the plants.  Besides, it would be kinda nice to have a seperate area for my fantails.  Just LOVE those fat wiggly fish!

[happyoutsidegirl]

The only time mine nibble on mine is early spring. Then they seem to just leave them pretty much alone. My biggest is about 15" or 16" long now. I also have a very fat fantail shubunkin with then and no problems. It sounds like more work to me to filter and clean both section????