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  • Use garden pond bottom waste on the compost heap. This organic matter is full of mainly anaerobic bacteria which will catalyze the composting process. Backflushings from the pond filter can be sprayed onto the lawn or garden as a source of nitrogen fertilizer. Use black or opaque pipes in your pond instead of transparent low cost plastic tubing. Since light cannot penetrate the black piping the algae growth inside the pipe will be very considerably reduced. This means less maintenance and also less expenditure on replacing transparent pipe when it becomes clogged with algae. submersible pumps

  • Pond pumps and running costs. Before buying any pump check what the running cost will be. Look on pump box and if you can find watts consumed multiply this by 8.76 and you will get units (kWhrs) of electricity consumed every year by your pump. Find cost per unit and you can work out running cost of the pump. If you can only see amps on box you can work out watts as follows: amps x voltage of mains supply = watts. Once again multiply by 8.76 to get annual cost. use this figure to compare costs of 2 different pumps since running cost is generally far more important than the purchase cost. waterfall pumps

  • In winter make holes in the ice using a pan full of hot water to remove toxic gases. Do not break the ice - this is not good for the fish as you can probably imagine. These days there are low cost electrical heating devices that consume small amounts of power and maintain a "breathing hole" in the pond. pond pump curves

  • Save when you buy koi food or fish food. Check your koi fish food label. Do NOT waste money. Understand the specification on koi food and fish food packets and you will save considerable amounts of money and grow bigger koi fish more quickly. Do not believe everything you are told about koi food it might not be true. Check for yourself easily. Koi Food If a 5 kg bag of koi food contains 15% ash, 10% moisture and 3% fibre then 28% of the bags contents (amounting to a whopping 1.4 kg) is a total waste of money. http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/koifood.htm pond pump selection

  • Pond pumps operate most efficiently with no pipe attached. This is obviously impractical so make sure the delivery pipe from the pond pump is not kinked or is being restricted by a build up of algae inside the pipe. This happens quickly in transparent tubing exposed to sunlight. Make sure that the pipe diamter is as wide as possibel and that the pipe length is as short as possible ... ie try to get as close as possible to "no pipe at all" so you get maximum efficiency pond filter pumps

  • A pond's ability to hold koi should not merely be regarded as a function of its physical ability to hold koi, (ie, like storing groceries in a cupboard). A koi pond's stocking rate is determined by the filter's ability to process and breakdown the waste that koi produce. To be more precise, we need to be sure we do not overstock our filter, rather than our pond. This does not merely focus on the biological activity of a filter, but also it's ability to remove solids at the required turnover rate. A pond's water quality management system would also need to provide sufficient aeration for a given stocking rate. http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/benoverstock.htm pond pump selection

  • Algae influence the water quality of the pond mainly by affecting the balance among dissolved oxygen, pH, carbon dioxide and nutrients. Algae produce oxygen, remove nutrients and take up respired carbon dioxide from both the fish and the algae itself. In heavily stocked ponds, the water becomes super-saturated with carbon dioxide. During daylight hours, algae can quickly strip the carbon dioxide out of the water, and pH levels can rise above nine in a matter of hours. Fish not acclimated to such sharp shifts may initially show signs of stress. uv light specification

  • Pond vegetable (veggie) filters ... Plants For Natural (Vegetable) Pond Filters. The Norfolk reed (Phragmites australis) is by far the best since it not only removes pollutants but is capable of adding oxygen to the water ... ie it is an oxygenator plant too. Oxygenators are generally those plants whose leaves are always submerged so that oxygen from the photosynthesis process has a chance to dissolve before being lost to the atmosphere. Other useful plants are generally in the fast growing class so that maximum biomass is created in the quickest possible time. Consider the following ... Sweet Galingale (Cyperus longus), Soft Rush (Juncus effusus), True Bulrush (Scirpus lacustris), Flowering Rush (Butomus umbrellatus) http://www.pond-solutions.co.uk/pjmvegfilter.htm koi filters

  • The maximum flow through a normal gravity (box type) biofilter is governed by the size of the outlet pipe from the box. Try to pump too much into the filter and you risk pumping your pond completely dry because what cannot come out of the pipe will overflow from the lid. This has happened many times. Where such a possibility exists let any overflow find its way back into the pond (eg by placing the biofilter on a slope above the pond and placing a plastic sheet between the filter and pond where possible. This will allow the water albeit maybe a bit dirty to flow back into pond ... this will save the lives of your fish. using pond filters for clean ponds

  • Ponds in winter ... Something very strange happens to water at 4C (39F). Instead of warmer less dense water being at the surface, as in the summer, the density changes and the water that is closest to freezing becomes the least dense and floats to the top. The result is that the bottom stays at a fairly steady temperature under a blanket of cold or frozen water. If the pool freezes, there is nothing to worry about for a few days. There is plenty of oxygen in cold water even if the fish needed it. But if there is any rotting matter in the bottom of the pool, toxic gases produced in the muck could build up. In order to maintain gaseous exchange between the water and the air, float a ball or a piece of wood in the pool. all about ponds and waterfalls

 

Never switch off your pond pump for more than about 60 minutes

Make sure the delivery pipe from the pond pump is not kinked

Must the UV be placed before the biofilter?

A waterfall adds oxygen to a pond by creating a large surface area

Submersible pond pumps can operate against a closed valve

It is a good idea to pump out about 10% of your pond water

Lighting in and around ponds creates a brand new dimension

Sick and tired of looking at debris on the bottom of your pond?

Do not feed more food than what you fish can eat

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