Pond water quality is of course one of the most important issues you may face as a pond owner. And, keeping the quality of your pond water at a premium level can only be done with the right pond pump and pond filter system.

Water clarity

Through your pond’s life, the pond water’s visual appearance may vary. Although most new pond owner’s idea of a good pond would be one with crystal clear water clarity, this is far from an ideal situation. If your pond water looks murky this does not mean the inhabitants will necessarily feel any detrimental effects from this. Conversely, this environment may well be ideal for your pond inhabitants.

Things that affect the pond’s natural balance

Whilst you may be reading this to find out more about water clarity more important issues you should really be focusing on are the oxygen levels, ammonia levels, nitrite and nitrate levels, water pH and of course water temperature. All these levels will vary through the ponds life and they can be checked by using a test kit from your online aquatic retailer.

Garden ponds provide an essential habitat to a wide variety of different aquatic and non-aquatic species. Although you may have built your garden pond as an aesthetic feature to enhance to look of your garden or just to keep a few fish, a pond gives your garden wildlife diversity that can only help to maintain Britain’s abundance of plant and animal life.

It is no wonder that the number of natural ponds in Britain is falling. Whether to growth of urbanisation or agriculture the number of ponds is on the decline. This is why owning a garden pond is so important. Before the growth of cities and mass farming of the land, ponds would occur naturally at many different locations around our local countryside. They provided an essential habitat for all types of living things, some that needed the pond to drink and some whose whole life revolved around the pond. Wildlife always knew where this pond was and how to reach it.

When you are designing or building a new pond it is worthwhile remembering these facts and incorporating into the pond design different plants and sections where different types of wildlife can live.

In the last article we discussed how to net your fish if you need to move them to another pond. When you have safely caught and bagged all your fish you need to try to keep to a minimum the time they are in the bags. Stress caused by the move will be heightened the longer they are in an environment that they are not familiar with. This will increase their levels of waste excretion and hence pollute the relatively small amount of water that is current being used as their life support system.

The next difficult step you will have to take is to transfer your fish into their new pond. The new pond should have of course been set up in advance and should have been left to mature so it can develop its own eco-system containing sufficient levels autotrophic bacteria. If you have planned well in advance you should have used some bacteria from your filter in your new pond’s filter.

You should float the fish on the surface of the pond in their bags so the water temperature equalises, then add water from the pond into the bags gradually to further aid the acclimatisation process. When all this is done you can add your fish a few at a time.

It is not always possible to move your fish in one go, and you may have to settle for a half way house during the process so all the steps can be completed without causing too much stress on the fish.

At some point in our lives we all have to move home. This may be because we have simply outgrown our current house or just because we fancy a change. And, the fish in your garden pond are just the same. They sometimes need to be moved because you are moving home, you might want to upgrade your current pond to something new, or the fish you have may have outgrown the current pond size.

Just like humans, if fish are moved they can suffer stress. The results of which are easily seen in ourselves but are more difficult to spot in fish. The best thing to do when you have to move your fish is to plan meticulously. If you have everything in place the move should then be less stressful for your fish and yourself.

Because a fish’s metabolism slows down during cooler weather the best time to move your fish is at the cooler times of the year. They will be slower and hence easier to catch and they will be unlikely to over pollute the water that you transport them in. It is however not feasible to expect that movement can always be done during the cooler months of the year.

We will discuss in the next article the best ways to move your fish.

If you are a keen gardener and like your outside space then you may have already considered a pond in your garden. If you have just moved to a new house there might already be a pond in your garden so you will have to learn the ropes quickly. You may have never considered installing a pond in your garden and are only toying with the idea. Or you may be the proud owner of a beautiful garden pond. Whichever category you fall into, there are many things a garden pond can do for your garden and the overall appearance of you home.

Benefits of garden ponds

• A garden pond will add to the aesthetic nature of your garden making it a more beautiful place to be.
• Having a pond in your garden will attract wildlife.
• Britain’s natural ponds are disappearing at an alarming rate so by having a pond you are providing an essential habitat for different organisms.
• Keeping fish is a relaxing hobby that can help you unwind after a hard day’s work.

It can be seen form these benefits that ponds are a perfect way to spend your spare time and are a great addition to your home.

Every pond owner will realise the inherent risk of fish loss in a pond. Whether to predation, illness and just old age, there comes a time in every pond owner’s life when they have to restock the pond.
There are of course things we can all do to prevent the loss of fish due to factors such as predation and illness so replacing fish becomes only an occasional issue.

The main predation protagonist is the dreaded heron. This fish catching machine will know all the ponds in their territory and once they have got a taste for your fish they will not leave until all are eaten. In fact your pond provides the perfect fishing spot for a heron as most likely the fish will be multi-coloured so easy to see and they are captive in only a small body of water.

This means it is imperative you scare the bird off before all your stocks are eaten. You can place netting over the pond as a deterrent or even use a plastic heron as a decoy which works on the basis that herons are solitary feeders so will not feed when another heron is present. Perhaps the best option is to use is one of the new motion sensor deterrents that spray a jet of water at the bird if it lands to feed. This does not impair the look of the pond and offers an excellent solution to loss of fish.

It is coming to that time of year again when we should mention pond safety. Pond safety should be of course at the top of every pond owner’s priority list regarding pond maintenance and tasks. This is especially the case if you have young children in your family or if there is the potential that young children could come into contact with your pond.

Pond safety is a contentious issue because if you are going to add a fence of other barrier to your pond to limit access, the aesthetic nature of your pond could be questioned. You should however never compromise on safety where ponds are concerned and if you think your pond could be a danger you should always follow your intuition and remedy any safety issues.

With the weather cooling, there is the likelihood that your pond may freeze over. We have discussed previously the necessity of thawing an area of your pond to allow for oxygen absorption and also to release gas that may build under the ice surface. There is another reason however that you should try to stop your pond freezing over – the possibility that children or even some adults may think your pond ice is thick enough to stand on.

Ponds can be dangerous places for young children, so have a look at your garden pond and keep your children safe.