A garden pond may offer a number of benefits. It can be cool and relaxing, visually appealing and it can provide the local wildlife a watering point. If you’re considering building a fish pond, keep the following tips in mind before you start. The first consideration in building a fish pond is the location. Choose a site where your pond is not near existing large trees. This will prevent tree roots from destroying your pond, as well as minimize the problem of leaves falling into your pond that will contribute to poor water quality and higher maintenance requirements.
Pond plants such as water lilies need sunlight to grow. When building a fish pond, it’s best to locate it where it will be exposed to sun. But not too much, as it can overheat during mid afternoon or on hot days. A semi shaded place with a good amount of light coming through is perfect.
Temperature extremes should be minimized. If your goal in building a fish pond is to maintain the fish in the pond over the winter, it’s important to make the pond as deep and as large as practical. Just remember that deeper ponds may need to be fenced to prevent accidents.
Take into consideration your electricity needs for pumps, filters, and lights when building a fish pond. It’s also important to check into the available water supply and drainage requirements. Ponds must have an overflow area (a place located below the pond level) to control where the excess water can go. Overflowing may be caused by overfilling the pond with water or from heavy rain.
As you’re building a fish pond, be sure to screen the water overflow paths to prevent the escape of small plants, fish, fish eggs, and snails during water additions and heavy rainfall.
After you are finished building a fish pond, it’s essential to clean and rinse it before using it since fish and other water plants are sensitive to contaminants. “Curing” concrete ponds combined with water changes, scrubbing, filling, and painting with vinegar is also important.
Allow chloramines and chlorine to dissipate especially if you used tap water to fill the pond. You can also utilize a commercial chlorine neutralizer from pet shops to solve this problem.
Ensure that all equipment such as fountains, waterfalls, filters, and lights are working satisfactorily before adding the fish and plants.
It is also best if you allow at least one week after building a fish pond for the plants to settle in before adding the fish. Clean up the pond regularly for dead leaves as this will add unwanted excess nutrients to the water and decay it as well.
As mentioned, keep your garden pond clean of fallen vegetation and dead leaves. The frequency of cleaning will depend on the amount of vegetation falling into the water and on the time of the year. Do the cleaning at the beginning of spring before the temperature of the water starts to rise.
Feed your fish and clean up the filters periodically. Add water in the pond periodically. A normal garden hose will do. However, no more than 10 to 20% should be added at any time because of the chlorine levels in tap water.
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