Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Backyard Ponds - Tips For Fish Ponds

By Michael Wezsky

The most popular type of backyard ponds is without error a fish pond, in fact its the first thing that comes to mind when people think of an outdoor pond. A word of caution here: it won't be an outdoor aquarium. So if your backyard design include the creation of a fish pond this article have some points to consider.

What people think when choosing to build a fish pond? You will find many answers for this question. There are people who can't imagine a pond without beautiful fish in it to add color. Others are looking not only for an outdoor hobby but for pets to take care, including the challenges they add.

What the most important thing to understand about an outdoor fish pond? A fish pond main goal is to keep your fish alive, happy and protected. You must create an environment that is more than a container of water and fish, so careful plans, attention and care is the secret ingredient to make sure your outdoor pond is a success.

Clean water is an absolute constant need, therefor you must include a filter and pump into your plans. But the filter won't be able to take care of all leaves and debris that can end up in your pond, when planing make sure you pond is located on a safe distance from problematic trees and depending on the conditions of your garden, create a routine task to manually clean you pond.

Movements of the ground below and around the pond can cause the liner to crack creating leaks and possible contamination from the surrounding soil. Another source of contamination is rain water washing from your garden into the pond, during the planing stage of your pond carefully review your terrain slope to avoid this problem.

Outdoor conditions are another concern, both your fish and plants are exposed to the weather and the environment. Extreme cold or heat could threaten your fish so take measures to prevent it when planing your pond. An additional threat are predators such as birds and cats, a solution for both problems is to create a pond deep enough where fish can hide from animals and the weather.

A last factor to keep in mind is the size and depth of your pond. The living space needed will depend on the kind of fish you are keeping, gold fish can be kept in a small pond, but koi will need much space and depth to grow big, as they usually do.

Remember the success of your outdoor pond is closed related to how happy your fish are.

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