Pre-build koi into temp vats and empty pond

So it all starts from here. Today is the day to re-home all the koi into two vats. The temporary home for the koi will be my Bestway 10ft circular paddling pool and also a 500 gallon one from James at Park Farm Fisheries. The Bestway paddling pools are a only about £90, they are 10ft circular by about 80cm high and so much cheaper than "specific" koi vats. I would definitely recommend them.
Last night in the dark I found what i believed was my 10ft steel framed circular paddling pool and all the support framework. Amusingly (for me not the guys) when Jim, James and Steve went to setup the bestway they found that i had actually found a 4ft kids paddling pool. Thankfully 5mins later i found the right one and everything could start.

Once both vats were in place Steve setup the pipework to fill them both from the existing pond. In parallel, Jim and James set about the filtration with a retro bottom drain, 80 litre air pump and 8k pump to and eazypod.

An hour later with all that in place it was time to move which I thought would be a beast of a job. This is a picture of all the koi in the old pond (partially drained) before the move started

Thirty minutes later all the koi were in their temporary home for the next four to five weeks. That would have taken me hours! The following is a picture of the koi vats post koi move.

The finally came the job to empty the old liner pond and to punch some holes in it so if it did rain the water could drain through. No going back now!

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