Indoor Koi Pond: good idea? maybe not so much.

I was very excited when I initially started my indoor koi pond project. I figured my basement was a perfect place, as it was not yet finished, and the space was available.

Well, this year we decided to finish the basement, and I had to take the pond apart. I intended on rebuilding a new pond, and purchased a fish tank to hold them temporarily. After further thought, multiple discussions with MommyMD, we realized that a pond in a house with children may be bad idea. First off, to have a proper koi pond, you want to be able to look down and enjoy seeing the fish swim around. You dont really see koi in a fish tank (at leat I don’t). If you have young kids, you know they climb on EVERYTHING. They will get INTO everything. Even if your child is awesome and obedient, your neighbor or friend’s kid may be an idiot. Regarding liability, we kept thinking about what if… what if ViviBear or JulietteBear fell in, or any child fell in and drowned?  Yah, that would be bad.

The other problem that I almost did not catch was black mold. I figured the pond would produce a lot of moisture, but I thought my basement was sufficiently dry enough that this would not be an issue ever. Well I never looked behind the insulation until a month ago. Around the first week of Jan 2014, as the basement is being insulated, we had a really bad freeze. Temps around -5 to 0 deg F. The basement was very warm but I could feel a draft, so I pulled the insulation back and saw some ice formation. You can see more about that here.

Black Mold
Black Mold and Bowing of Particle Board 

 

So we got the mold treated

Mold Treated

Initially I was torn about how to place a Koi Pond in my new basement. I was even going to install security glass paneling around it like at a zoo, but that would have been ridiculously costly I would think. Sad to say that child endangering is not what sealed my decision [Vivi and Jette Bear, I really do love you and don’t want you to drown, but I really wanted a Koi Pond], but the excessive moisture and mold issue is.

Though I still think Koi should be looked at from above, I will settle for an inwall fish tank

Future inwall Aquarium

 

More pictures to come of the happy fishies once the project is done.

To see more projects by the contractor finishing my basement, check out Werenercontracting.com

Hiring: Insect management. You: Green, small and amphibious. apply via comment

 

which shall be hired? why not all of the above?
Sundew

With my ventures in cultivating tropical plants and building a koi pond indoors, I’ve noticed that I also somehow generate hundreds of gnats. I assume it may be from over-watering, decaying vegetation. Maybe if I keep the area cleaner, this wouldnt be an issue. Now they are running amuck on the 1st floor as well as the second floor. In the past I thought it would be a genius idea to start keeping carnivorous plants as well (mainly sundews). Logic dicates that the gnats would be controlled with these predatory photosynthesizers. It actually worked fairly well, but I was too cheap to keep them in a proper container. They actually grew too well and caught a lot of gnats. Then the gnat level died down and I am not sure what happened, but I could not keep my precious bug eaters alive. I think part of the problem was my basement was 1. too cold, 2. too dry.

nasty fungus gnat

With the winter upon us, I deal with the insect annoyance I have today. I have my Prized Mango and Coffee plant on the 1st floor, and noticed that gnats have been haunting the soil. This is putting MommyMD on edge, so I finally set up this portable bug zapper she had purchased. It actually seems to be working, because every so often you will hear a zap. This (for whatever reason) scares the crap out of Combo (the Pomeranian). The gnats dont seem to be terribly attracted to the light, so I’d say it somewhat works. What has worked in the past (aside from the Sundews) was using insect sticky tape, so we went to HomeDepot and got some. In the basement I am getting ready to plug in another bug zapper as well. I’d rather use a Sundew, but if I order one online, I am afraid the cold weather will kill it in-transit.

kermit

So this brings me to another idea, the motivation of this post. What about putting a frog in the pond? Obviously a thought is that the frog will jump out and disappear. I say this is a non issue. 1. The frog will want to stay by the water. If it leave, it will come back sooner or later (I mean he’s stuck in my basement). 2. Kermit will want to go to where the food is, and the gnats are around the pond. I mean how could this be a bad idea?

  • froggie could hop away and never be found again (and die and rot somewhere)
  • froggie could slather it’s salmonella body all over the basement, and ViviBear could contract salmonella and develop  meningitis/sepsis
  • froggie could make its way upstairs and do as above.
  • someone could step on froggie
  • froggie will multiple and then I will have a frog infestation
  • the frog will defecate over my basement (what does frog poo look like?

I suppose those are valid concerns, but maybe the frog will just stay in the pond? Are the above really rational/reasonable concerns?

What do you guys think? I guess I am talking to myself here. I don’t think I really have that many people that venture to this blog. Amazingly when I consulted MommyMD she did not object to the idea. Maybe that is the sign for a go.

Here is the potential future habitat for my green friend

Koi Pond
Pond running for 3 months

For more about my Pond project you can see it here

 

-to be continued-