Unless you have a serious water filter on your pond, that’s a bad idea. if there is a lot of vegetation in the pond, the fish can eat that if they get hungry. But the more they eat, the more they poop. So, over feeding your fish can make them sick. If the filtration system is not big enough to handle the waste, your making your fish swim in poop. Try filtering your water through a garden, it will fertilize your plants and your plants will give off fresh water. This is called Hydroponics.

Try not to feed them over three times a day. The best way to know it you are feeding them too much is check your skimmer. If there is a lot of food floating in your skimmer, you may be feeding them too much. Plus it depends on temperature, if its too hot or too cold, they may not want to eat. Between 65-70 degrees F, they should only be feed once a day. Temperatures around 70-80 F, they can eat more but still be carful of overfeeding. They will tell you they are not hungry, they simply will not eat. You can also put a feeding ring in the pond so it keeps most of the food in one spot and not so much in the skimmer.

Having the right food is also important. You get what you pay for, and it shows in water quality and how your fish look. Aquascape Fish Food is perfectly balanced for a healthy pond.

It sounds bad, but if you attach a bog to your pond, you will see a great difference. you can still have a bioball filter on your pond, just add a bog. or as what Aquascape calls it, a “Wetland filter“. all these parts can be found at Enchanted Pond Creations if your serious about making your pond crystal clear. Here, you see a basic diagram of a bog. If you haven’t already, click on the bog word up top to get a in-depth view of how to put one together. this will catch all the little stuff that makes your pond look yucky, so if you want a really clear pond, get it done. and its all natural, you don’t need to add chemicals to your pond to make it clear.

We have all seen some type of algae in our ponds and thought oh no, what happened. Well, the answer is an Eco system happened. Algae is a plant, a living thing that strives off of particles in the pond, so when you see algae in your pond, it means you have healthy life sustainable water. Depending on the algae, depends on what you could do. When you have string algae like what is shown in this picture, you may want to pull it out when it starts to get out of control because it could damage pump and clog systems and make it hard for your pondlife to get around. You can install a IonGen System that will heavily reduce string algae. For algae that is growing on your rocks, waterfalls, fountains, streams, you can use a algaecide. This way is inexpensive if get it from time to time but keep in mind that algae is a natural accurance. Unless it is blooming and creating an unsightly pea soup in your pond, like what you see here in this pick bellow.

It is not going to hurt anything. Algae that sit on your rocks or at the bottom of your pond is a good thing. It helps keep your pond clean by taking in fish waist and letting off filtered water. It’s a plant, and plants are needed to create a happy ecosystem.

                One thing to keep in mind, if you drained your pond for a cleanout, then you need to get that biological system going again. This is the natural system is the pond that keeps an ecosystem going. To do this you need to add a Beneficial Bacteria to jump start this process. This creates a healthy living environment for your pond family.   

Till next time, this is Alan Brooks,

     Signing off….

Spring is almost here. That means its going to start warming up a little and the atmosphere around the pond is going to start coming alive again. Your fish are going to start moving around a little more and they are going to be hungry. This is a good time to clean out the pond. In most cases, once your water reaches 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the alga in your pond will bloom. This is that awful green stuff that shows your pond is healthy enough to maintain life, but makes it hard to see your fish. But before we get to the spring clean, we need to get your pond ready for it. a couple of things to do is drop some EcoBlast and  Algaecide in the pond to get a head start.

EcoBlast is great for cleaning up your fountains, rocks, and waterfalls. giving your pond a healthy start. This way, when your pond reaches 50 degrees, the bloom is not that bad.

The Algaecide is good controls both string algae and single-celled floating algae that is so hard to get rid of.

Another good way to help with alga blooms is install a Bog on your pond. this will also help keep your pond healthy.

If anyone has their own successful way of keeping their pond happy and clear, please share here and we can all get on the same boat.

Thanks for sharing…..

Alan Brooks

How Many of you have a problem predictors? I had cranes and seagulls looking at my fish but once I put a cover over the pond it seems like they don’t come around anymore. I’m sure there are other predictors out there attacking your ponds not just birds. I’ve seen bears, racoons, cats, dogs, eagles, and anything else that likes fish. don’t let it discourage you, there are many ways you can fight these pond burglars without hurting the wildlife and your critter family.

This is a Heron This is good for birds and smaller animals that are afraid of large birds. It also keeps Herons away. The real bird is about the same size and color as this deterrent. If the real bird gets into your pond, he will have a very expensive meal, along with one of your fish baby’s.

There are other deterrents for different problems. I seen a video that showed a raccoon tackle the heron decoy, it was pretty funny. if I can find it ill post it. With that in mind, here are some other deterrents.

Here is a Scare Crow These work great for almost everything else that doesn’t like to get hit with a stream of water. I have even heard of people hooking up alarms to this item also, so when it goes off, its make a scary sound that assists in shewing them away. There are some critters out there in the animal Kingdome that may get used to this and work around it but for most cases, the Scare Crow does pretty good.

Here is a fun one, The Floating Alligator Decoy This works great for scaring birds, cats, guests, and works great for an conversational ice breaker. These are great for those who have a large pond. At least a large enough pond this alligator will not take away from viewing your fish.

Lastly, you have the Pond Net. This has two jobs, it can keeps the leaves and smaller falling debris out of the pond, and it can keep the small animals like raccoons out of the pond. I seen a video where a raccoon is walking across someone’s pond and was not able to reach the fish, so I think this net works pretty good.

If anyone else has some good ideas on how to keep them invaders out of the pond lets hear it. post your comment and picctur links bellow and ill post them here.

Thanks,

Alan Brooks

It seems like there are so many koi fish out there. But how many kinds of koi are there? I found a site by Pond Informer that gives us a good idea what’s out there. I’ve seen a lot of mixed breeds too. It almost sounds like the people that are naming off these koi fish are doctors. If you have took medical abbreviations in school you would know what I mean. Post your pics here of the different types of koi you have. Let’s see how many we can get. Here is something interesting, check out this little Koi History to get a better idea where koi came from. One koi I would like to get a hold of is a blue koi. But they are hard to find and very expensive. For those who really want to get to know what these koi are called, watch this video from Japan. Leave your comments or post bellow, thanks for dropping by….

Your Pond Friend,

Alan Brooks

The best way to take care of a frozen pond is to do a little research before it happens. this is where you will find out that it is ok when this happens. there are just things you need to know before it happens. for instance, as long as you keep a hole in the ice when it freezes over, your Koi will be fine. This can be accomplished with a bubbler or a pond deicer. you can order these items at Enchanted-Pond-Creations, Amazon, or find them at a pond store. either way, as long as you maintain a hole in your ice, your fish will survive. also, Koi can live without you feeding them in a pond that is frozen over, so don’t feed them. They can eat algae off the bottom if needed. Also, depending on how your pond is set up, you may have to turn your pump off so you don’t burn up you’re from lack of water movement or the pond pump pumping the water out of your pond because the top is frozen over. I have seen it empty the pond and the fish run out of water, it’s not pretty. So, keep these things in mind and it will all work out.