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Four Easy Steps for a Clean and Healthy Backyard Pond

Four Easy Steps For A Clean And Healthy Pond

Your pond is a lovely ecosystem for a host of many living beings and you should make sure that the habitat is healthy for both your fish and the plants. And, a healthy pond with fresh and clean water is much prettier to watch than a murky water garden.

Mostly pond owners know how vital that good quality of water plays in the pond habitat. But sometimes they don’t know how to get or keep water quality good.

We are here to break it down to four basic steps you can take for your backyard pond to be healthy and clean.

1. The Correct Pump for Your Pond Size

Pumps are the beating heart of every water feature body, they continuously circulate water and provide aeration to create a stable ecosystem.

Proper pump sizing is important for the health and functioning of your water feature and you should make sure you’ve selected the right pump.

To give best water quality, you should circulate the complete pond’s water volume at least once every hour. If your pond has over 1,000 gallons of water, you need to have a pump that can push a minimum of 1,000 gallons per hour. Other variables that come into play while picking the right pump are the height of your waterfall and the length of pipe that goes from your pump to the waterfall.

2. A Balance of Filtration

A nice biological filtration system, along with a mechanical filter (such as a pond skimmer) to take out the solids before the water goes into the biological filtration unit, is the best way to filter the water. An efficient circulation and filtration system will ensure that the water is oxygenated properly and pond debris (such as leaves, floating algae, etc) will be taken away from the pond’s surface and collected into an easily cleanable skimmer basket.

Ideally, the skimmer should be placed on the opposite side of the pond. The skimmers should provide room to house your pump, as well as a basket that holds leaves and debris for easy clean-up.

3. Keep a Healthy Fish Population

Pond owners sure love their aqua life and it’s easy to over-fill the pond – especially if your fish have babies! Make sure to have less than 10″ of fish for every 100 gallons of water in the pond. You should avoid excessive fish waste, which causes an bad imbalance to the pond water. If you find one day that you have extra fish, consider finding a new place for some of them. Pond retailers and contractors might take your fish. You can also contact local clubs.

Calculate How Much Water Is In Your Pond: Length x Width x Average Depth x 7.48 = U.S. Gallons*

*Length, width, and depth are measured in feet

Some of the happiness of pond ownership is interacting with your fish friends. Many backyard pond owners even train their koi to eat straight from their hands! However, if you feed fish more than they can eat, the uneaten food ends up decaying at the bottom of the pond. This can be problematic for the quality of the pond water. Make sure not to feed you fish more than once per day, and no more than they can consume in 2-3 minutes. Take out all excess, leftover food so it doesn’t end up junking up your pond.

4. Put a mix of Plants

Plants will absorb excess nutrients in the water body and assist to filter the water. Plus, plants like waterlilies and water lettuce help to shade the pond and make the water cooler during the hot summer season. During the peak pond time, you should make sure that 40% to 60% of the surface area of your backyard pond is covered or shaded by plants. On the other hand, TOO MANY plants may cause oxygen shortage at night due to photosynthetic process – the plants take in oxygen and give out carbon dioxide.

Also, we’re sure you’ll enjoy the sight provided by a wide range of aquatic plants, which fall into four basic categories – Waterlilies, Marginal plants, Floating plants and oxygenators.