Last Updated on October 31, 2021 by Phil
Having a pond in your backyard or surrounding your garden is a lovely addition to your home. It adds another dimension to your home’s exterior and you get to enjoy time with the fish. To make sure that the fish are swimming in a clean environment you need to ensure that the pond is well-maintained. Here’s how to keep pond water clear naturally.
How to Keep Pond Water Clear Naturally
Make Sure Your Pond Isn’t Overcrowded by Fish
Fish are what makes your pond come alive. Their bright, vibrant colors swimming across the water makes it very welcoming and homey.
But too much fish can make your pond’s water get murky. Having too many fish in a pond that isn’t big enough makes it hard for them to freely swim around. It also reduces the nutrients they get because there isn’t enough food for all of the fish.
Finally, fish like all living beings, produce waste. Thus, overpopulation can easily result in having too much fish waste in a small body of water. This results in water that gets murky.
When this happens, the fish can quickly get sick.
If you have too much fish in your pond, try moving them to another location. This will help keep balance in their environment.
Feed Your Fish Just Enough Food
Another source of dirty water can be fish food that is left uneaten. While it’s nice to give your fish more than they need to eat, this often results if leftovers.
The problem is, food that isn’t eat decays. This makes the water dirty and causes it to become unhealthy.
So, if you happen to overfeed your fish, make sure to get leftover food out of the water so they don’t decay.
One easy way to tell if your fish are full is to feed them once a day. When they stop taking the food in a minute or so, it’s a sign that they’re full.
Keep the Plant to Fish Ratio Balanced
In addition to regulating your fish population, it’s always a good idea to increase the plant life in your pond. Most pond owners we seen tend to have too many fish and too few plants.
While the opposite is okay, this isn’t an ideal situation.
One of the reasons plants are great for bodies of water is because they’re great at filtering the water. This helps with water clarity.
In addition, plants also increase the amount of oxygen in the pond making it easier for the fish to breathe.
Plants also compete with algae and weeds for nutrients which reduces the ability of these nuisances to grow.
Use the Right Sized Pump
Just like an aquarium, pond pumps are essential in providing your fish with the proper amount of oxygen. This is helps with filter do its job which keeps the water in your pond clear.
When choosing a pump for your pond, it’s important that it has enough capacity to do the job. This means that it should be able to cover the entire volume of water your pond has every hour. This makes sure that the water recirculates every 60 minutes.
Pumps that are too small will cause the water clarity to deteriorate. A pump with excess capacity makes you spend extra money in buying the pump and operating it.
Have Proper Pond Filtration
In addition to the pump, it’s also important to get the right type and size filter. Filtration is very important because it makes sure the water is cleaned of impurities at proper intervals.
When this doesn’t happen, residues are left in the water. And, they slowly accumulate as time passes. For this reason, it’s important to get a filtration system that’s one or two levels higher than the one your pond needs.
Add Good Bacteria to Your Pond
Just like our gut, your outdoor pond also likes having good bacteria. When we hear the word bacteria, we automatically think that it is a bad thing.
But, that isn’t always the case.
Almost all the environment we live in have bacteria. This includes our digestive system. More importantly, there’s good and bad bacteria. It’s when the balance of bad bacteria outpaces the god bacteria is when negative things happen.
In your pond, the naturally occurring good bacteria helps reduce algae growth. This helps the water stay clear. And, more importantly, safe for the fish to swim in.
Clean Your Pond
Even if you do everything right, debris, waste, leftover food and other particles will somehow find its way to your water.
Because your pond is a living environment, this is inevitable. So, there’s no need to try and prevent it from happening.
What you can do is to regularly clean out your pond to get the debris and sludge out. Most of these will go down to the bottom of the pond. So, it can be hard to clean things out.
One efficient way of doing this is by using a pool vacuum. This gives you enough reach to get to the bottom of the pond. And, it has the suction power to pull out muck and other particles that sometimes get stuck on the surface or with the plants.
Change Your Pond’s Water as Needed
Once in a while, giving your pond a change of water is a great idea. This is like draining your pool and refiling it with clean, clear water.
Because of all the things happening in the water, after a while your filter and vacuum won’t be able to keep up. This results in water that isn’t clear despite constant cleaning.
When this happens, changing the water is a great idea. It clears out the toxic substances that have been there over time and replaces it with clean water.
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