Beldames’ Saloon

You might be tempted to let Mother Nature, tend to your backyard
pond, and who could blame you? After all, she does a pretty good
job of taking care of really big ponds, so why would your
backyard ecosystem pose much of a challenge to her?

Unfortunately, the fact is your backyard pond is only going to
get some cursory attention from Mom; the rest of the work is
going to be left up to you.

In the “real world” chlorinated water doesn’t find its way into
ponds very often. “Big” pond water passes through a great many
natural filtration and oxygenation systems, and the various fish
and flora work together to keep the pond clean and fresh. Our
backyard ponds don’t have quite that much help, so here’s where
you need to step in:

If you are going to keep fish then you absolutely must remove all
traces of chlorine from your pond before your favorite Koi set up
housekeeping. Pond fish cannot live in chlorinated water so don’t
even try. There are many products available to remove chlorine
quickly, or you can opt for the old-fashioned, natural way if you
have the time to spend.

If you opt for ‘a la natural’ then expect to wait about 8 to 10
days for the chlorine to dissipate. You will need to make sure
that your pump and filter are running and that you have set up an
aerating method such as a waterfall or “splasher” to bring oxygen
into the water. Make sure that the pond is exposed to plenty of
sunlight (the natural enemy of chlorine), and use a chlorine
testing kit to check the water daily.

Me? I just drop some de-chlorinating product into the pond and
check back the next day.

Even if chlorine is totally removed, you still have nitrite and
ammonia to worry about. These two toxic buddies are byproducts of
fish waste and can wreak havoc with your Koi’s health. After a
while Mother Nature will kick in some help by allowing beneficial
bacteria colonies to develop that enjoy eating nitrite and
ammonia for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They won’t be present in
new ponds, however, unless you buy some bacteria starter kits to
kick start the process.

Your garden pond could become overtaxed, ecologically, if you add
too many fish too quickly. Start out adding no more than two per
week so that the newly introduced bacteria do not get overwhelmed
by the waste that will be produced.

Just when you think you’ve got it all under control that ugly
thing called “pH” raises its head. Testing for pH levels is also
very important since neither plants nor fish will survive very
long if the pond’s pH is out of whack. Your pH test kit should
show a reading of between 6.8 and 7.4. You can add the proper
chemicals to raise or lower if as neccessary.

Speaking of test kits, get one that will allow you to test the
pond’s salt levels as well. Unless you’re raising baby Sea bass,
too much salt is not a good thing.

After your pond is fully established, Mother Nature will lend a
bigger hand and you can settle into a routine of testing every
three of four weeks unless something serious, such as flooding,
has occurred in between.

Brett Fogle is the owner of MacArthur Water Gardens and several
other pond-related websites including
MacArthurWatergardens.com
and Pond-Filters-Online.com. He
also publishes a free monthly
newsletter called PondStuff! with a reader circulation of over
9,000. To sign up for the free newsletter and receive our FREE
‘New Pond Owners Guide’ visit MacArthur Water Gardens today!

Comments Off

Pond Pumps Vs Pool Pumps

Often people install pool pumps to run their water feature
because of the initial cost savings of purchasing such a
pump. This is ill-advised for a variety of reasons; most
importantly, the use of a pool pump can lead to massive
increases in your electricity bill.

Also, many unscrupulous landscapers and some retailers
provide quotations that include the supply of a pool pump
rather than a pond pump in order to reduce the final cost of
the quotation in an effort to win the work. They do not
inform the recipient of the quotation of the running costs
of a pool pump.

Simple arithmetic proves that the initial cost savings of
purchasing a pool pump to run your water feature can cause a
blow out of staggering proportions in your annual budget.
This is especially true when keeping fish or plants, which
requires that your pump is running 24 hours a day to
oxygenate the water.

Running Costs

To calculate your operating costs per year multiply watts
your pump uses per hour, by the number of hours you run it
per year (if you run it 24/7 then use 8,760 hours per year),
then divide by 1,000 to convert it to kilowatts, then
multiply by your cost per kWh (kilowatt-hour) ($0.1447 in
QLD - see www.energexinstitute.com).

watts x 8,760 / 1,000 x $kWh = $ operating costs per year

Example 1:

A Blagdon Amphibious P8000 Fountain Pump (169 watt)

169 (watt) x 8760 (hours per year) / 1000 x $0.1447 =
$214.22 per year

Example 2:

An Average 1.0 HP Pool Pump (750 watt)

750 (watt) x 8760 (hours per year) / 1000 x $0.1447 =
$950.68 per year

Total Cost Savings = $736.46 per year ($184.12 every
quarter!)

Below we have compared the smallest pool pump generally
available against the largest pond pump generally
available:

Example 3:

An Aquashift 15000 Pump (210 watt)

210 (watt) x 8760 (hours per year) / 1000 x $0.1447 =
$266.19 per year

Example 4:

A 0.75 HP Pool Pump (550 watt)

550 (watt) x 8760 (hours per year) / 1000 x $0.1447 =
$697.16 per year

Total cost savings = $430.97 per year ($107.74 per
quarter!)

Above we have only considered operational costs; however
there are a number of other considerations when comparing a
pond pump to a pool pump:

Guarantee/Warranty

All Pond Pumps supplied by Water Features Online are quality
pumps and are backed up by Continuously Rated Guarantees of
varying lengths (2-5 years). Continuously Rated means that
the pump is guaranteed to run 24 HOURS A DAY for the period
of the guarantee.
Conversely, while Pool Pumps may be of good quality, the
guarantees are NOT continuously rated and they are usually
guaranteed to run for approximately 6 hours a day (read the
fine print!) for the period of the guarantee. If a pool pump
is run for 24 hours a day then this effectively reduces a 2
year guarantee to a 6 month guarantee.

Noise

This is a factor often overlooked. Pond Pumps are generally
submersible and therefore silent. Pool Pumps are generally
dry mounted somewhere near the water feature and can be very
noisy. This is counterproductive when introducing the sound
of water into a garden.

Maintenance

Both Pool and Pond Pumps require some basic maintenance,
they need to be kept clean and free of debris. However, Pond
Pumps have fewer moving parts than Pool Pumps, therefore the
likelihood of breakdowns are greater in a Pool Pump. Often
the seals on Pool Pumps degrade and need replacing regularly
whereas a Pond Pump generally does not have a seal.

About the Author

Danielle Dickinson is an avid water feature enthusiast. She is a regular contributor to Gardening Magazines. Visit her website http://www.waterfeaturesonline.com.au for more information on building and maintaining any type of Water Feature as well as a huge range of water gardening products.

Comments Off