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Pond Knowledge 101
pondmarket.com, 08/15/11
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Pond Knowledge 101......Fun (Pond) Fact
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What do you know? Pond Knowledge 101
Can't get a handle on green water and/or string, hair or bubble algae?
A subtle and often overlooked culprit is phosphorus. This nutrient can enter the pond in many ways, including your tap water, and wreak havoc.
Here is how it promotes the growth of everything that is yuckie:
Algae is a plant + Phosphorus is a nutrient (it is an important ingredient in all fertilizers for land plants) = fantastic growth for algae.
What to do: Test for phosphates. If the level is high, reduce by adding Water Hyacinth and/or a Phosphate Binder .
How deep is it?
Not your pond, but the layer of sludge in the bottom?
Sludge is, for the most part, fish poop. It is also the major cause of the need to completely drain the pond to clean it out.
Think of it as a compost pile in the bottom of your pond feeding algae and reducing available oxygen levels (de-composition uses oxygen which is then not available to fish).
Sludge can be kept to a minimum, reducing the need to completely drain a pond to every few years (we have display ponds with large Koi that have never needed draining yet to get rid of sludge).
What to do: First and foremost feed a quality Pond Fish Food . Cheap Pond Fish Food contains lots of filler which is not digested by the Pond Fish. Quality Pond Fish Food lets the Pond Fish digest a much larger part of it, resulting is less poop. The part that is left and does end up on the Pond bottom needs to be digested by Beneficial Bacteria . For these bacteria to do their job, they need oxygen and a decent pH balance of the water (between 6.9 - 8.0) . Sound complicated? It really is not. It is a matter of balance:
Good Pond Fish Food + Balanced pH + Beneficial Bacteria = Less Sludge
Do your Pond Fish seem to love your Waterfall and/or Fountain? They are always swimming around close to it?
Actually, that is generally a sign of trouble. Pond Fish tend to congregate around water features because the rest of the Pond is short on oxygen.
It is a pretty common occurance in warm weather. The warmer the Pond Water, the less its capacity for available oxygen. A Pump failure can spell disaster. Lack of oxygen is the number 1 reason for Pond Fish death in the Summer!
What to do: The best remedy is an Air Pump . They are reasonably priced, add lots of oxygen and are beneficial in summer and winter (when they can be used in conjunction with or instead of a de-icer). The added oxygen also aids the Beneficial Bacteria to digest sludge and generally contributes greatly to the balance of the Pond. It is also a good idea to keep a spare pump for the water feature. A reasonably priced Pond Pump that can be hooked up in case the regular one fails can save
Next Newsletter: Pond Knowledge 102
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Fun (Pond) Fact (TM)
Goldfish Babies are generally brown and turn that beautiful red gold color as they grow.
Koi Babies, on the other hand, show vivid colors as soon as they hatch (they are just sometimes hard to see if part of their coloration is black)
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