About Pond and Fountain World
20 year expertise as an indoor & outdoor water feature store & contractor. Statuary & architectural fountains, natural water features, lake fountains, swimming pool waterfalls, landscape lighting & renovation.
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- Mon Mon 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
- Tue Tue 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
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Updates & tips from Pond and Fountain World
Lake & Natural Pond Maintenance & Fountains
http://waterfeaturepros.com/lake-fountains-aquamaster-kasco-marine/
http://waterfeaturepros.com/lake-fountains-aquamaster-kasco-marine/
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Mar 05, 2016
Low Maintenance Koi Ponds
Successful Garden & Koi Pond Management. Water Feature Pros (502) 245-8575
#1. Don’t have too many fish and don’t feed more than your filter can handle. Approximately 1” of fish for every 20 gallons, but this answer varies.
A) Fish require more space as they get larger. So a 10” fish is not really equal to a (2) 5” fish. Koi represent 3-4x the “fish-load” as they double in size. So (10) 12” fish are definitely more than double the load on a pond than (20) 6” fish.
B) Feeding has a big impact. Every day feeding compared to every other day will certainly equal more waste and filtration needs. Also, (1) cup of food is obviously ½ the filter demand of (2) cups per day. Cheap food has more fillers leaving more undigested waste for the filter to deal with. High quality food is more digestible and leaves less waste.
C) Spring or Winter food is low protein and more digestible for when the fish are slow moving. It can be fed anytime of the year and be fine for your fish. Summer food primarily has more protein for improved growth when the fish are in 68-70 degree plus water. This is the only food that you should try not to feed when the water is below 68 degrees.
D) Don’t feed below 50-48 degrees. Zero, the fish are fine. If they eat it’s only because their brain is smaller than a birds and they don’t know any better. They’re conditioned. From 48 – 60 degrees only feed 2-3 times a day. 60-70 degrees every other day. No daily or multiple times per day feeding until 70 degree water temps. is a basic guideline.
E) Fish are weakest in the spring after months of dormancy. Their overall body process including immune systems are slow to come back and the fluctuating temperatures can have them in a very compromised “middle ground”. They would rather be consistently dormant in 35 degree water then up and down in the 50s in the Spring. Bacteria and parasites have one of their best opportunities of the year to afflict an immune compromised fish at this time.
F) Salting the water up to 3-4% is a simple way to treat for parasites in the Spring and help your fish produce mucus/slime coat part of their immune system, and extract oxygen out of the water more easily thru their gills. We typically do this when the water starts rising in the upper 40s, roughly mid-March to early April in Louisville Ky. A simple thermometer in your pond will tell you. We increase it at 1% every 24 hrs. 1 lb. of salt will change 100 gallons to 1% salinity. So 10lbs will change 1000 gallons to 1%. 30lbs will change 1000 gallons to 3%. So we would add 10 lbs. every day to a 1000 gal pond in late March early April, for 3-4 days, shoot for 3.5-4%. Keep the water at this level for 10-14 days. Do water changes to get the water down to 1.5% range. Let it be after that or maintain it at 1.5% during the season. The fish will like it. (Pure sodium chloride salt, no anti-caking agents from water many water softener salts. Non-Iodized, food grade salt). Enthusiasts may insist on sea salt. It’s great if you have it and want to spend a little more, but either way salt is a good thing in the spring for fish. It’s also good in the fall before you put them “to bed”.
#2. Strong circulation & good aeration. 100-500 gallon ponds should probably be circulated at least 2x every hr. and with larger fish loads even 3-4x per hr. is good. Remember that a pump that is called a 500 gal. per. hr. pump does not typically produce 500 gal. per. hr. After it pumps a distance and lifts water a distance it produces less flow than its “rating”, often quite a bit. Sometimes the owner’s manual will show how it performs as the distance & lift increase.
500-2500 gallon ponds should still be circulated 2-3x per hr. 2500-5000 gallons, 1-2x per hr. 5000-7500 gallons .75-1x per hr.
Low aeration is stressful to fish and does not allow “beneficial bacteria” to live very well. Average aeration is better, and excellent aeration allows fish to thrive. Health & growth will be optimal in highly aerated water. Beneficial bacteria will also perform much better in a highly aerated environment. Waterfalls are definitely good at aerating water, but don’t assume your water is highly aerated just because you have a waterfall. Test the oxygen level of your water especially when the water is above 68 degrees. It’s harder for air to saturate warm water than cold water. We recommend using air pumps to make sure ponds have strong aeration. They are also an excellent back-up if your water pump fails, and good for keeping an opening in your water surface in the winter. They consume very little energy.
#3. Many ponds with fish have less filtration than they should for low maintenance and consistently good results. Ponds with big filters almost always perform very well and are comparatively low maintenance. A lot could be said about this subject and there are many different ways to create effective filtration. Here’s a few basics. For more advice ask one of our specialists to consult on your particular situation and lifestyle.
A) A skimmer is typically a very helpful filter component because it gets your pump out of the pond and puts a lot of “pre-filter” in front of it so you don’t have to clean it so often. This also typically helps a pond live longer.
B) Many filters are rated “optimistically”, especially for ponds with medium to heavy fish loads and feeding habits. For many of basic “consumer-grade” filters we adjust their rating to half and feel that is more realistic.
C) Waterfall filters are prone to having water pumped through them too fast to perform properly. The type of filter material used in these filters can make a big difference. Consider asking us about options to improve your water fall filter if you have one.
D) When you clean filter material use pond water, not hose water. The chlorine in the hose water will kill a lot of the good bacteria on the filter material. Also try to clean the material gently. Vigorously spraying with a lot of water pressure and smacking the material on the ground of against something will really disrupt the microscopic bacteria as well. First or last cleaning of the season, maybe you can use hose water and be more vigorous, but once you’re in the season you want to go easy on the biological filter media. Skimmer pads can be sprayed out with a hose and “banged” to get the crud out. They are not really biological filters. Unless you have 2 or 3 layers. If you do, clean the second and third more gently and with pond water.
E) Plants are very helpful, but some plants are better than others at filtering water. Hyacinth, water lettuce, water chestnut, water celery, cattails, pickerel rush, louisiana iris, anacharis/elodea, arrowhead, lizards tail, sweet flag, sagittaria, are more aggressive at removing nutrients. Water Lilies are beautiful and provide shade which is helpful, but they don’t remove a lot of nutrients. Also, if you fertilize your water plants be sure to get the fertilizer tab all the way in the dirt and close the hole created when you put it in the plant. If you leave the fertilizer open to direct water exposure it will trigger algae blooms.
F) Use beneficial bacteria to balance your water quality and degrade organic waste. This stuff works. Basically liquid types are geared more to clearing water and powder types help with clearing water but have enzymes that actually breakdown waste. Another product that we have found to be very effective is Algae Off. It is crystalized hydrogen peroxide and it oxidizes waste and mossy algae on contact. Liquid bacteria has a limited shelf life and does not keep well in hot temperatures. It should be kept inside, not outside. Also we prefer brands that are mixed fresh. Many brands that are mixed at the factory are many months old by the time they reach the end-user.
G) Water changes are very helpful to maintain good water quality. Ponds are “closed-systems”. There is not much consistent “new water” being introduced in many instances. Evaporation does not remove many of the other hormones and nutrients that build up in the water. The same water gets “spent”. This is why ponds with leaks actually often perform well because they are consistently getting new water. Consider pumping 10-15% of your water out every 7-10 days and replace it with fresh water, and a little dechlorinator.
H) UV lights/sterilizers are great for clearing green water, but they don’t actually help your water quality. They sterilize “planktonic” algae cells, (green water algae), so it cannot reproduce. UV lights do not control string or hair algae, (filamentous algae). It’s important that water not pass through your UV light too fast. If the water is not exposed to the light long enough it won’t sterilize it. Often you need to “by-pass” some of the pumped water so this doesn’t happen. Also envision how water enters and exits your UV light housing. If the inlets and outlets are “aimed-down” the water does not have to fill the housing of the light as much as if they are “aimed-up”. If your UV light is vertically you would want to pump the water from the bottom to the top, not top to bottom.
#4. Watch for run-off water that may be going into your pond. This can definitely put things in the pond that contributes to poor water quality, particularly fertilizers from your yard or planting beds. Also, mulch can stain your water. Often times when you experience cloudy water and clarity issues it’s from a rain that either stirred up the sediment in you pond, or it ran in from a drainage area that goes to the pond.
All this being said ponds are really not that hard to get set-up right so they perform well. If you break a lot of these fundamental rules you may be experiencing results you don’t like. If you do these things you will most likely have a pretty low maintenance pond by comparison. Mine’s a piece of cake. We enjoy it day-in-and-day-out and really don’t do much other than follow a few routine things.
Successful Garden & Koi Pond Management. Water Feature Pros (502) 245-8575 #1.Don’t have too many fish and don’t feed more than your filter can handle. Approximately 1” of fish for every 20 gallons, but this answer varies. A) Fish re... Read More
Mar 05, 2016
Selecting the Right Outdoor Fountain
http://waterfeaturepros.com/fountain-selection-guide/
http://waterfeaturepros.com/fountain-selection-guide/
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Mar 05, 2016
