Test the water
We live in the country and are on a well. Our pond is fed by rainwater that gets collected in a large, black plastic water tank (designed to be installed on top of your house) which we fill up with rainwater at the beginning of each season (every April). We’ve been doing this for over 20 years now, and it’s worked out great for us. It’s nothing fancy, but it creates a good feeling about our backyard and gives us good water conditions every time we refill it from rainwater. The only downside is that when you’re using an above-ground tank to store water, you need to regularly test its purity. Most people don’t even know what the ideal values should be for water in this type of system, so here’s some information about those values so you can keep your pond happy for years to come.*
- What does our pH value mean?
The pH of your pond or lake is critical to its health and stability. This is because every ion has a certain level of acidity or alkalinity that impacts how effectively it interacts with other ions in the ecosystem. For example, calcium carbonate (Ca CO 3 ) dissolves much easier than calcium phosphate (Ca HPO 4 ). This means that more Ca CO 3 will dissolve into your water than Ca HPO 4 . As such, if you have high pH levels it can lead to the accumulation of more calcium carbonate than calcium phosphate thus creating a problem where too much Ca CO 3 becomes deposited in the environment around your pond instead of being used as nutrients by algae and bacteria; this process starts off slowly but as time goes on causes extensive damage to fish life. High pH levels also shorten shelf life for fish food as suitable organics have less time before they break down into ammonia which then leads to potential problems related to algae growth or bacterial disease outbreaks.*
- Why do we add acidifier?
We add acidifier when we test our water quality since high levels often indicate
Clear the pond
How you clean your pond is entirely up to you, but we’ve found that following the steps above gets our pond in a decent state within a workweek. If you have any other cleaning tips or tricks, leave a comment below!
Top up the pond’s depth
It’s important to top up your pond’s water level from time to time, but it can be difficult and confusing to figure out how much water to add. If you want to avoid a mess on your hands, keep in mind the following:
Get Rain Water or Pond Water
If you have an empty container (such as an unused bucket or bottle), use that to collect rain water for your pond. If not, you’ll need to go directly into your pond for the water. Slowly dip a cup into the water and measure how many milliliters are in it. For every 1 liter of rain or pond water (1,000 ml), add 2 more liters of tap water so that you can account for any evaporation over time. Add this mixture slowly over several days so that the fish have time to adjust and sludge at the bottom doesn’t get stirred up as well. There should be enough oxygen in the new water to keep things healthy until it is fully mixed with what’s already there; if not, add some pond aeration so that your fish don’t suffocate!
Clean the filter
First, remove the filter from the pond. Stand on a chair or a ladder (preferably both) and lift it out of the water. Place it gently in a bucket that’s half-filled with pond water.
Rinse away any large chunks of dirt and algae stuck to its surfaces before replacing it back in the pond. Check the foam pads, replace them if they are worn out, rinse them if they’re dirty. Clean out any sponges and check all of the pipes and bio-media for obvious signs of damage or signs of decomposition (leaves stuck where they shouldn’t be). All should be replaced as needed; do not attempt to clean them!
Clean the pumps
Pumps are the lifeblood of a pond. Without them, you have no circulation, no control over unwanted pests or undesired plants and animals, just a stagnant pool of water with maybe some goldfish floating around and hoping for the best.
Labeled as a seemingly mechanical part of your pond, most people ignore their pumps completely unless they break down. However, they need regular maintenance to keep them in good shape and running efficiently. Pumps have many moving parts that clog easily with debris, so keeping it clean is not difficult but it is necessary if you want your pond to run smoothly.
Labeled as a seemingly mechanical part of your pond, most people ignore their pumps completely unless they break down. However, they need regular maintenance to keep them in good shape and running efficiently. Pumps have many moving parts that clog easily with debris, so keeping it clean is not difficult but it is necessary if you want your pond to run smoothly.
Clean the lining
A large pond located in your backyard is both a lovely addition to your property and a place where lots of creatures can live. If you have a pond, it’s important to make sure the lining stays clean so that there are no breeding grounds for mosquitos, which can transmit West Nile virus. Here are some ways you can keep the lining clean.
Labels:
Perspective: 1st person (we/our) and 3rd person (he/she/it/they)
What this section does: Gives advice about what you should be doing in this game
Talking points of this section:
- you shouldn’t let your kids play CoD, or even watch you playing CoD
- shouldn’t use CoD as a training tool
Clean rocks and other decor
I often hear people complain about the murky water in their ponds. If you have a small pond, it could be because of the rocks in it. These chunks of stone can contain a lot of dirt, dust and even some harmful plant life that can make your water cloudy when they get wet.
There are multiple reasons why these rocks are making your pond cloudy; one is because they are old and have collected all sorts of dirt over time. In nature, old clean rocks don’t accumulate bacteria and harmful particles as new clean rocks do; but as you know, things happen in our home more than anywhere else and let’s not forget that we do don’t always use good methods for cleaning stuff.
Do all the same rules apply to cleaning our gardens?
Yes, quite a few!
Sometimes it takes a bit longer to clean up an object or object you own because you would only find one way to clean them (as with rocks), but hopefully this guide will pick up where my previous cleaning guides left off so that everyone can benefit from this knowledge!
A well maintained pond is a healthy environment for fish
We live in rural Canada, where the seasons are long, and our home is on a small pond with a few oddly shaped rocks around its perimeter. But that doesn’t mean we neglect to maintain it. The pond needs to be cleaned regularly to avoid unwanted algae growth; luckily, we have someone in the neighborhood who does this for us. This year, we’ve decided to take advantage of our time off—a time when both my husband and I have been able to devote an equal number of hours back into work—to give it another go.
We’ve made some changes: We’re extending the periods between cleaning when temperatures are low (so that the bodies of water don’t freeze) and cleaning once every week during summer months. We’re also going ahead and putting in some fish since they will live longer without food if they’re not constantly hungry (although they’ll die two years earlier than normal if you feed them too aggressively). We’re also looking into possibly adding fish ladders or other ways for fish to get out of the water if we feel their health is suffering from being trapped there. Once again, this wouldn’t just be beneficial for us but for any other animals in the area who ever have pets or children playing near them eating the fishes’ food or knocking themselves into it with fishing poles (who let their kids play near streams anyway?).Test the water
We live in the country and are on a well. Our pond is fed by rainwater that gets collected in a large, black plastic water tank (designed to be installed on top of your house) which we fill up with rainwater at the beginning of each season (every April). We’ve been doing this for over 20 years now, and it’s worked out great for us. It’s nothing fancy, but it creates a good feeling about our backyard and gives us good water conditions every time we refill it from rainwater. The only downside is that when you’re using an above-ground tank to store water, you need to regularly test its purity. Most people don’t even know what the ideal values should be for water in this type of system, so here’s some information about those values so you can keep your pond happy for years to come.*
What does our pH value mean?
The pH of your pond or lake is critical to its health and stability. This is because every ion has a certain level of acidity or alkalinity that impacts how effectively it interacts with other ions in the ecosystem. For example, calcium carbonate (Ca CO 3 ) dissolves much easier than calcium phosphate (Ca HPO 4 ). This means that more Ca CO 3 will dissolve into your water than Ca HPO 4 . As such, if you have high pH levels it can lead to the accumulation of more calcium carbonate than calcium phosphate thus creating a problem where too much Ca CO 3 becomes deposited in the environment around your pond instead of being used as nutrients by algae and bacteria; this process starts off slowly but as time goes on causes extensive damage to fish life. High pH levels also shorten shelf life for fish food as suitable organics have less time before they break down into ammonia which then leads to potential problems related to algae growth or bacterial disease outbreaks.*
Why do we add acidifier?
We add acidifier when we test our water quality since high levels often indicate
Clear the pond
How you clean your pond is entirely up to you, but we’ve found that following the steps above gets our pond in a decent state within a workweek. If you have any other cleaning tips or tricks, leave a comment below!
Top up the pond’s depth
It’s important to top up your pond’s water level from time to time, but it can be difficult and confusing to figure out how much water to add. If you want to avoid a mess on your hands, keep in mind the following:
Get Rain Water or Pond Water
If you have an empty container (such as an unused bucket or bottle), use that to collect rain water for your pond. If not, you’ll need to go directly into your pond for the water. Slowly dip a cup into the water and measure how many milliliters are in it. For every 1 liter of rain or pond water (1,000 ml), add 2 more liters of tap water so that you can account for any evaporation over time. Add this mixture slowly over several days so that the fish have time to adjust and sludge at the bottom doesn’t get stirred up as well. There should be enough oxygen in the new water to keep things healthy until it is fully mixed with what’s already there; if not, add some pond aeration so that your fish don’t suffocate!
Clean the filter
First, remove the filter from the pond. Stand on a chair or a ladder (preferably both) and lift it out of the water. Place it gently in a bucket that’s half-filled with pond water.
Rinse away any large chunks of dirt and algae stuck to its surfaces before replacing it back in the pond. Check the foam pads, replace them if they are worn out, rinse them if they’re dirty. Clean out any sponges and check all of the pipes and bio-media for obvious signs of damage or signs of decomposition (leaves stuck where they shouldn’t be). All should be replaced as needed; do not attempt to clean them!
Clean the pumps
Pumps are the lifeblood of a pond. Without them, you have no circulation, no control over unwanted pests or undesired plants and animals, just a stagnant pool of water with maybe some goldfish floating around and hoping for the best.
Labeled as a seemingly mechanical part of your pond, most people ignore their pumps completely unless they break down. However, they need regular maintenance to keep them in good shape and running efficiently. Pumps have many moving parts that clog easily with debris, so keeping it clean is not difficult but it is necessary if you want your pond to run smoothly.
Labeled as a seemingly mechanical part of your pond, most people ignore their pumps completely unless they break down. However, they need regular maintenance to keep them in good shape and running efficiently. Pumps have many moving parts that clog easily with debris, so keeping it clean is not difficult but it is necessary if you want your pond to run smoothly.
Clean the lining
A large pond located in your backyard is both a lovely addition to your property and a place where lots of creatures can live. If you have a pond, it’s important to make sure the lining stays clean so that there are no breeding grounds for mosquitos, which can transmit West Nile virus. Here are some ways you can keep the lining clean.
Labels:
Perspective: 1st person (we/our) and 3rd person (he/she/it/they)
What this section does: Gives advice about what you should be doing in this game
Talking points of this section:
you shouldn’t let your kids play CoD, or even watch you playing CoD
shouldn’t use CoD as a training tool
Clean rocks and other decor
I often hear people complain about the murky water in their ponds. If you have a small pond, it could be because of the rocks in it. These chunks of stone can contain a lot of dirt, dust and even some harmful plant life that can make your water cloudy when they get wet.
There are multiple reasons why these rocks are making your pond cloudy; one is because they are old and have collected all sorts of dirt over time. In nature, old clean rocks don’t accumulate bacteria and harmful particles as new clean rocks do; but as you know, things happen in our home more than anywhere else and let’s not forget that we do don’t always use good methods for cleaning stuff.
Do all the same rules apply to cleaning our gardens?
Yes, quite a few!
Sometimes it takes a bit longer to clean up an object or object you own because you would only find one way to clean them (as with rocks), but hopefully this guide will pick up where my previous cleaning guides left off so that everyone can benefit from this knowledge!
A well maintained pond is a healthy environment for fish
We live in rural Canada, where the seasons are long, and our home is on a small pond with a few oddly shaped rocks around its perimeter. But that doesn’t mean we neglect to maintain it. The pond needs to be cleaned regularly to avoid unwanted algae growth; luckily, we have someone in the neighborhood who does this for us. This year, we’ve decided to take advantage of our time off—a time when both my husband and I have been able to devote an equal number of hours back into work—to give it another go.
We’ve made some changes: We’re extending the periods between cleaning when temperatures are low (so that the bodies of water don’t freeze) and cleaning once every week during summer months. We’re also going ahead and putting in some fish since they will live longer without food if they’re not constantly hungry (although they’ll die two years earlier than normal if you feed them too aggressively). We’re also looking into possibly adding fish ladders or other ways for fish to get out of the water if we feel their health is suffering from being trapped there. Once again, this wouldn’t just be beneficial for us but for any other animals in the area who ever have pets or children playing near them eating the fishes’ food or knocking themselves into it with fishing poles (who let their kids play near streams anyway?).
