5 Tips for Taking Care of Your Water Garden Pond

Water gardens are small ecosystem. To remain healthy, they need to be in balance. Balance comes, in part, from complexity: a healthy water garden pond should include water plants, perhaps fish or snails, and healthy bacteria in the water and the soil.

Here are 5 tips to help you create a healthy water garden pond. This is a short list of top priorities:

1. Keep the water dechlorinated. The easiest way to do this is to purchase a dechlorinating product, which is likely available at your local home and garden supply store or nearby nursery. Otherwise, let the pond sit for two to four weeks before testing the PH. Before you release any fish into the pond, the PH of your water garden pond should be as close to 7.0 as much as possible. Remember, anytime you add new water to the pond, you're likely introducing new chlorine into the system.

2. Don't overcrowd your water garden pond with plants or fish. Overcrowding promotes the growth of algae and too much algae can cause diseases in the fish.

3. Make sure sunlight can reach the fish and the plants that are submerged beneath the pond's surface. About 1/3 of the surface of your water garden pond should be clear.

4. When you first build your garden, it is important to wait a couple of weeks before introducing fish and plants. This allows time for everything to come into natural balance. You should observe algae growth.

5. Don't remove algae during the first six weeks of your pond's life. The algae growth is natural and your water garden pond should be allowed to find its own natural balance.