Page 3 - 20 Pond Myths Exposed

Pond Myth #4: rest. The fish will spend the entire winter
Your pond must be at least three-
feet deep in order to keep koi.
There are thousands of two-foot deep ponds
around the country, full of happy and healthy
koi. A common myth is that ponds must be
built at least 3-feet deep, especially if they
contain koi and or located in a colder climate.
The water in a two-foot deep pond will gener-
ally only freeze eight inches down, even in the
coldest of climates, because of the insulating
qualities of the earth that surrounds the pond.
A pond that is too deep could be considered a
swimming pool by your local government and
therfroe fall under strict guidelines and codes.
Also, more digging means more work, more
water to fill the pond, and more additives to
treat algae and fish illness.
Pond Myth #5:
Koi can’t be kept in a pond that
also contains plants.
We’re not really sure who came up with this
one. Maybe because the fish tend to eat plants
and cause more waste? I don’t know.
Plant and fish go together. Fish eat, and
maybe the plant sometimes, produce waste.
The fish waste is then broken down into
nutrients that the fish then use again. The
perfect cycle and you get beautiful fish and
stunning plant blooms.
Having the proper amount of aquatic plants
drastically helps in keeping algae to a mini-
mum.
Pond Myth #6:
You have to bring your fish inside
for the winter
Fish do fine during the coldes of winters as
long as you give them two feet of water to
swim in, oxygenate the water, and keep a hole
in the ice with a bubbler, allowing the natru- task in the fall if your pond is close to trees. A
ally produced gasses to escape from under the
ice. Otherwise, you let Mother nature do the
hibernating at the bottom of the pond and then
they will slowly wake up as a water warms in Pond
the spring.
Pond Myth #7: Myths
Your pond water must be tested on Exposed
daily basis.
This myth comes from the aquarioum industry
and it has a lot to do with the fact that an
aquarium is a much smaller body of waer and
the small size make it more difficult to
balance. Mother Nature never tests her water,
and her ecosyste does just fine. A Well
conceived, naturally balanced water garden
normally requires very little testing.
Pond Myth #8:
A pond in my backyard means I
will have a lot of mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes will generally only lay their eggs
still, stagnant water. If the mosquitoes happen
to lay eggs in your ond and the mosquito
larvae hatch, the fish in your ond will consider
them a treat and will pick them off the water’s
surface with great enthusiasm. Your skimmer
will sweep up wahtever the fish miss. Another
option is to use a natrual larvae killer, such as
Mosquito Dunks.
Pond Myth #9:
You cannot have a pond in an area
where there are a lot of trees.
In nature, ponds and trees go together like ham
and eggs on a breakfast table. yes, you will
have more leaaves in your ond in the fall, but
by the same token, the shade provided by the
trees will help minimize a summer algae
bloom. Furthermore, if you have a skimmer
sucking the top quarter inch of your pond, it
will pull most of the leaveds and related debris
into the awaiting skimmer net. This takes a
few minutes to empty, and it can be a daily
simple pond net will also cut down on the
leaves during the fall. So don’t worry, its fine!