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Fishonomics: Where there’s fish muck there’s brass

Inspired in part by MMMs recent post about electricity consumption I decided to re-search UTMT Towers in search of any excessive drains on power in an effort to save some money/waste. In the back of my mind there was something that I’ve been meaning to take a look at for some time….

When we moved house 4 years ago we inherited a koi pond complete with 9 large koi/carp/goldfish. The previous owner had clearly taken the “good” with him and left us a selection of “bad” and “ugly” (a couple of koi, a couple of mongrels, a ghost carp and a big goldfish). As a result of this generosity, on moving in day instead of cracking the champagne I had to hot foot it down to the pet shop to buy some fish food.

Koi Pond

Whoever built the pond put a lot of effort in to it. As well as a pump there is a large four chamber filtration system as well as a UV light to help keep the water clean and algae free (all hidden beyond the far wall in the picture). In order to prevent fishageddon a couple of summers ago I also ended up adding an air pump to supplement the system, improve movement of the water and oxygen levels in an attempt to keep the fish healthy.

After talking about it for about 3 years I finally sat down last night and worked out exactly what the running costs of this system is. The results were quite a shock…

£423 / year !

Here’s a breakdown of the costs:

  • Main pump: 0.3kW = £266 / year1
  • UV Light: 40watts = £36 / year
  • Air pump: 35watts = £31 / year
  • Food: £40 / year
  • Misc (Anti algae chemicals, treatments etc) : £50 / year

I’m highly embarrassed that I haven’t worked this out before, particularly as I am a long way from being a koi lover. I view the pond as a chore of maintenance rather than a hobby of pleasure.

Non Monetary Cost

Of course the price of living with fish shouldn’t just be measured in pounds and pence. First of all fish need feeding, so once a day in winter and twice a day in summer I trek to the bottom of the garden to feed my little fishy friends.

During the summer the four chamber filtration system needs cleaning out at least once a week which involves a good half hour of getting wet and stinky.

Then every six months or so the UV bulb needs replacing which, because of the way the unit has been fitted, is a complete phaff and never fails to raise a few swear words.

Then there is the occasional  disaster. Fish gulping at the surface, black spots appearing on gills, pumps making worrying noises, who’s going to feed them when you go away? Out of desperation I found myself joining a koi forum in search of answers to some of these concerns.

And what for?

In all honesty we get very little pleasure form these fish, certainly not enough to warrant all of this attention and significant financial resource. Given the high sides of the pond (presumably required to keep the herons hungry) even when sitting on the patio next to it you can’t exactly sit and watch the fish as you sip on your gin and tonic without leaning over the raised sides.

Fish n Chips Anyone?

Fish n Chips Anyone?

So it has been decided that the fish will be sold (along with the various pumps, filters, lights etc) and their home is to be converted into the pimpest raised vegetable bed in the East of England.

Given that the pond is around 4 feet deep, I plan to break up the concrete base to aid drainage then half fill with a mix of hardcore (sourced form freecycle), gravel then topsoil. I have no intention of growing championship length carrots) so there’s certainly no need to fill the entire thing with soil.

To help with watering I’ll invest some of the sale proceeds into drip/soak hoses that I will run through the bed which will be connected to a couple of existing water buts situated nearby. This will significantly reduce time spent manually watering the bed in the summer months and help increase yields.

Being a veggie household and always striving to eat healthily, the plan is to grow a good supply of fresh vegetables, particularly ones that yield well that we can’t source cheap locally. Off the top of my head we’ll focus on:

  • Leeks
  • Courgettes
  • Beets
  • Salad (Lettuce, rocket, radish etc)
  • Chard, Kale & Spinach
  • Garlic
  • Cabbage
  • Beans

We currently grow vast amounts of tomatoes, chillies, cucumbers and aubergines using these excellent self watering pots under glass, so a good raised bed should significantly increase the range and quantity of vegetables we grow.

So the end result should be annual savings of around £400 per year as well as a supply of fresh vegetables throughout a good part of the year. Perhaps more importantly any maintenance time will be spent on a hobby rather than a chore.

I only wish we’d done it sooner….

Notes:
1We’re on an Economy 7 electricity tariff which means we pay less for electricity at night. As a result the 10.14 p/kWh is a blended rate.

{ 24 comments… add one }
  • weenie April 2, 2015, 1:46 pm

    A good decision you’ve made there UTMT – I used to keep an aquarium but whilst I used to enjoy looking at the fish, maintenance and upkeep was a chore and expensive, although not as expensive as your pond!

    Good luck with your little ‘allotment’! Looking forward to seeing photos of unfeasibly large vegetables that you’ve grown yourself on this new plot!

    • Under The Money Tree April 2, 2015, 2:01 pm

      Thanks Weenie. Of course having made that carrot statement I now find myself researching the drain pipe method of growing carrots. Maybe I should set a couple of long pipes into one corner…. 😉

  • M from There's Value April 2, 2015, 4:20 pm

    Can I recommend you get some vermiculite into your new raised bed mix – a la square foot gardening methodology? And check out amey-cespa or whoever does your local green recycling, as they usually let you collect as much compost for free as you can manage, or they will deliver it in a skip/truck for a set fee. I totally can’t wait to see how much stuff you can grow in that space!

    Cheers

    • Under The Money Tree April 2, 2015, 5:27 pm

      M,
      Thanks for the tips. I use vermiculite for my chillies/tomatoes. I definitely need to research square foot gardening a bit further. Free compost sounds good…i’ll definitely follow up on that lead!

      • M from There's Value April 4, 2015, 1:47 pm

        no problem. there are plenty of resources on youtube which I have found helpful too, including John’s video blog from growingyourgreens.com which is usually pretty helpful.

  • Huw April 2, 2015, 4:25 pm

    Hi UTMT,

    MMM’s recent post got me thinking too. Great news that off the back of the post, you were able to look into the costs of the pond and do something about it. I think most people would be content with having their blinkers on.

    Over £400 a year is an amount worth questioning. I would never have guessed that keeping fish would be that expensive. I think you’ve made a great choice with turning into a raised bed too. Well played all around!

    Cheers
    Huw

    PS. When I saw the picture of fish and chips, I accidentally spat a bit of water out of my mouth through laughing. Nothing major, but I’m glad no-one was watching me.

    • Under The Money Tree April 2, 2015, 5:28 pm

      Huw,
      Hope there was no damage to your pc/laptop 😉

  • ermine April 2, 2015, 6:33 pm

    The rough rule of thumb is that every 1W of static power load costs your £1 a year. It’s rough when you get to inherit a hobby from the previous homeowner. It looks nice, but not £400 p.a. nice if it isn’t your bag!

    On the veg, go for the stuff that’s dear to buy if you are space/time limited. I’ve never really understood why people bother to grow field-scale things like spuds or onions when they could grow things like peppers or things like your tomatoes, chillies and aubergines.

    Wonder if there’s any mileage in not quite raising it so much and using it as a cold frame – the bricks will store heat well. I’ve seen that sort of thing in older commercial market gardens.

    • Under The Money Tree April 2, 2015, 7:25 pm

      Ermine,
      I new you’d be along with some sound advice!

      It is a shame because if you’re a koi man/woman then by all accounts it’s a very nice pond, well designed and the pump/filtration system is impressively complex/effective.

      Fully agree on the veg advice. My brother in law insists on growing potatoes when he can buy them down the road for £5 for a 25kg sack! The other side of the far wall is a slightly lower section where all the pumps/filters sit. I already have that pencilled in to be a cold frame, all I needs is some old window panes and it’s ready to go!

      • ermine April 3, 2015, 10:23 am

        Cold frames seem to be amazingly effective in the British climate – I’m tracking the temperatures in our cold frames relative to the polytunnels – the soil temperatures are close but the air temperature fell to 10C in the cold frames and 4C (admittedly higher up) in the polytunnels. Growers tell me that sort of thing matters, and certainly that work has borne dividends in a much higher germination rate and lower losses.

        Apparently plaster stores heat much better than bricks – the fruit growers in the old market gardens around Paris plastered their walls against which they grew fruit trees to conserve heat. I believe I saw that applied internall to a brick cold frame at the Henry Doubleday Research Association but I saw it before reading about the Paris growers so I can’t be sure.

        • M from There's Value April 4, 2015, 1:50 pm

          I think the flavour you get from your own spuds and onions is far superior to buying it from the supermarket. And the best of all, if you grow King Edwards yourself but harvest them early so they’re more like baby new potatoes, the flavour is literally unbelievable. I was stunned at how delicious they were. You just can’t buy them like that in the shops, because they leave the King Edwards to get massive before harvesting them.

  • Mr. FSF April 2, 2015, 6:49 pm

    Hello UTMT,
    whoa, 423 pounds for something you don’t like is indeed way too much. Great idea to turn it into a vegetable garden, kind of a win win win (less money, cheaper food and better health). You could however also consider a aquaponics system, which Frosty Fish, MMM and other have been doing.
    Good luck with the works.
    Cheers, Mr. FSF

    • Under The Money Tree April 2, 2015, 7:27 pm

      Mr FSF,
      Aquaponics is something I’d like to give a go at some point but it’s just not the right time for me I’m afraid. When the Money Tree is providing all our income and work is no longer a part of my week then I’ll definitely give it a go. I simply don’t have the time for a project like that right now.

  • Mr Zombie April 2, 2015, 9:28 pm

    “I view the pond as a chore of maintenance rather than a hobby of pleasure” – yep, that had to go.

    £423 is staggering. That would be nearly £11k in your Freedom Fund (with a 4% WR), just for some fishes that you were starting to resent!

    Garlic and beans seem to grow really easy from my limited experience. But lettuce seemed to attract everything, snails loved chomping on it and seemingly every cat in about a 4 mile radius used it as a toilet.

    It will be one nice veg patch.

    Mr Z

    • Under The Money Tree April 3, 2015, 9:49 am

      Mr Zombie,

      Given it’s a raised bed I’m hoping slugs/snails might be kept to a minimum. If required I might fix some copper strip around the raised bricks to deter any hungry molluscs.

  • Cerridwen April 3, 2015, 9:06 am

    To be honest I’ve never understood the attraction of koi, unless they’re attracting a local heron into your garden which would be fantastic (but short lived once he’d filled his boots :-))

    The vegetable plot sounds a much better idea all round and I really envy you your new “mini-allotment” project. There’s nothing quite so satisfying as growing your own. We did run half an allotment for a couple of years but had to give it up as we weren’t able to give it the time it deserved so now we’re confined to a few growbags. I suppose I’d make ermine shake his head but we do actually grow potatoes in ours. I love the excitement of harvesting them and not knowing how many there will be (goes back to my youth I suppose and my first money-earning opportunity – potato picking at the local farm). Potatoes taken straight out of the soil have a taste all of their own.

    • Under The Money Tree April 3, 2015, 9:54 am

      Cerridwen,

      When I was young we had quite a large natural pond in the garden. At one point there were hundreds of fish in it…then the heron turned up and cleaned it out within a couple of weeks 🙁

      I’d love to have a proper allotment (when I have the time). For now I think a raised bed of this size will keep me more than busy enough!

    • ermine April 3, 2015, 10:00 am

      If you are going to grow spuds doing it in a bag on the patio is a good way of doing it. For our community supported ag project we do grow them because people voted for it for the taste, but they are terribly hard to keep weeded and to harvest. We have a tractor attachment to harvest and it’s still a grunt.

      Dunno if you can grow them in bags but of the varieties we’ve tried Pink Firs were my favourite – everybody loved the taste though the yield is nothing special.

      • Under The Money Tree April 3, 2015, 10:04 am

        ermine,

        I’ve grown spuds in old compost bags before. I started off with them rolled down and as the shoots popped out the top I’d add more compost and unroll the bag. Good fun, tasty but they need a lot of watering to keep the moisture levels just right.

  • Monevator April 3, 2015, 6:07 pm

    I think I’ve blogged before about my aquarium crack habit. I have avoided most of the wealth killers, but those suckers has eaten thousands up over the years.

    Difference is I enjoy it!

    Well, most of the time.

    On that note, the Mr Money Mustache approach to schlepping down to the pond in winter and cleaning the filter is of course it’s making you fitter and saner. Good for the soul and all that.

    Although that probably only works if you like them. If you want to eat them, maybe not so much. 😉

    • Under The Money Tree April 3, 2015, 11:30 pm

      Monevator,
      My old boss used to be an aquarium ‘head’. The thing that has struck me is how ‘precarious’ anything to do with fish is. You’re only a fungal infection away from fishageddon most of the time and there is always a local fish shop guy willing tom sell you some snakefish oil in a small pot for £20 that will cure everything.

      Still as you say if you enjoy it then indulge and reap the pleasure. Personally , I’m looking forward to my brother in law picking them up tomorrow and cant wait to get some seeds in the ground in their place!

  • Monevator April 4, 2015, 11:41 am

    The worst thing is “holiday syndrome”. For some reason aquarium owners only suffer power cuts when they’re in another country…

    If I had the truly vast aquarium of my dreams, I’d also have my own back-up power supply, a web cam and a ton of probes stuck in the water alerting me should anything go wrong, and a handy local fish-head on speed dial!

    Good luck with the carrots. 🙂

  • theFIREstarter May 7, 2015, 1:19 pm

    Fantastic idea UTMT!

    Given we’ve just been putting down our garden and veg patch plans I’m really glad you wrote this. The post and the subsequent comments have given me lots to research and some great tips already.

    Just a quick note if anyone else is considering those self watering pots you mentioned, I found them here at a price of two for only £65 compared to the £80+ for one on Amazon:

    http://www.greenhousesensation.co.uk/quadgrow.html

    Can you confirm they are the same pots, they looked identical but wasn’t 100% sure?

    I was also instantly thinking… I could make a DIY one of those for cheaper but unless I can source some second hand pots on the cheap I’m not sure whether it’s worth the time and effort at £65 for 8 pots worth of goodies. Will see how it goes but definitely like the idea of not having to water the pots! I need to get a water but ASAP as well I think!

    Cheers!

    • Under The Money Tree May 7, 2015, 2:02 pm

      FIREstarter,
      Yes, those appear to be the same self watering pots. In fact I have also made my own since – I used the black pots that they use to store cut flowers in Morrisons. I tend to use the self watering pots for tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines and chillies – they work really well.

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