NEW POND NO NO’S

Ready to embark on a new adventure into the pond world, but afraid that you’ll end up with an ugly, green, mosquito swamp? Never fear! We are here to help.

Here are the three most common mistakes that DIY pond newbies make, that you want to avoid.

1. THE BIGGEST ONE, SIZE MATTERS!

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When it comes to a pond, the size of the filter matters. Perhaps more than anything else. If you under filter, you may spend the rest of your life working on your pond to try to keep it clean.

Eric is a SnapChat addict, spending his days gazing lovingly into his own eyes as he shares 20 years of experience and daily pond pro tips with his followers.

He shares new ponds he is installing, ponds he installed years ago, and ponds he is repairing, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Sometimes people will grasp the “General Idea” of how the filtration he sets up works, but not the full concept. In other words, they get just enough knowledge to be dangerous.

Eric recently shared a couple of Helix Suction Grid ponds that he had installed years ago.

The fish are outstanding, their colors bright and beautiful, built like brick…houses, with water so clear, it was like they were floating in the air.

People FREAKED, rightfully so, as you don’t often see ponds that old, looking that amazing.

Immediately, we had DIY builders trying to recreate this build, BUT, they were trying to cut corners by reducing filtration. While this corner cutting will work for a short while, in the long run, the results would be far less amazing.

The last place you want to cut corners is on filtration. Don’t do it!! Let us guide you along in your installation Train You.

2. TAKE OUT THE GRAVEL

Now, please don’t misunderstand here. You can absolutely build a koi pond with no rocks or gravel. But, you must make sure that the filtration you use, reflects the pond that you have.

For instance, let’s say you have an ecosystem pond, that you’ve had for years, and it has always looked fine, and worked well for you. Then you go to the local koi club meeting, and they lose their minds when they find out you have gravel in the pond.

They tell you that you’re an idiot, it’s fish abuse, you should be locked in a dungeon for 17 years, basically you hate your fish, and they know, because you have gravel in your pond.

You rush home, running red lights, breaking speed limits, nearly running over pedestrians and bicyclists. You remove all that terrible rock and gravel, do a big water change, let the water settle back out, breath a sigh of relief that your fish are still alive, and pat yourself on the back for a job well done. You fish saving hero, you!

Two weeks later, you walk into the backyard, and are shocked and saddened to see a huge pond of pea soup where your crystal clear pond used to be. What happened?

The deal here is simple. The ecosystem filters are designed to work with rocks, gravel, and plants.

When you remove them, you cripple the filtration, resulting in green, ugly water.

In order to fix this, you need to add external filtration, such as a pressure filter, UV clarifier, and settlement tanks with bottom drains.

Make sure the filtration you use matches the pond style you choose, whether it is a dedicated koi pond with a bottom drain, and no gravel, or an ecosystem pond with plants, rocks, and gravel.

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3. METEORIC PROPORTIONS

Don’t start digging your pond, until you’ve confirmed the filtration required for the size pond you think you want. If you dig a hole like a meteor from the Jurassic era hit the earth, that puppy is going to be expensive to filter.

I had a client call the other day whose husband had been on a tractor in their south 40, for 3 days digging out a pond.

When I told her that just the liner for her little project was going to be over 10,000.00, she almost lost her cookies! She started yelling at her husband to stop digging, “Right Now!”

They had budgeted 5000.00 for the whole project, including tractor rental, and were already nearly halfway through that before buying a single piece of pond equipment.

When she asked me what she should do next, I had to tell her, either she needed to sell her husband’s kidney to pay for the equipment she needed, or fill that puppy back in, until it was a reasonable size, that their remaining budget could cover. (I was just kidding about the kidney.)

Anyways, make sure the pond you dig, fits the budget you have for filtration. Back to the beginning, if you cut corners on filtration, you will be paying for it for the rest of your life.

If you’re not sure of the where you want to land on pond size, or how big of a pond your budget will cover, or whether you want a bottom drain pond, or a gravel pond, give us a shout. We can help clarify things for you.

And when you get your pond kit from us, we hold your hand throughout the entire installation, from the first shovel of dirt to the placement of that last rock. We will talk you through the whole thing via text, emails, FaceTime, snapchat video, phone calls and smoke signals!

You can do it! We can help! Give us a call

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