Over-wintering pond fish

Written by Brett Fogle


Continued from page 1
Some water gardeners with shallow ponds attempt to keep their koi and goldfish in kiddie pools or aquariums set up in a cool basement or garage. This is not recommended because ofrepparttar extra stress involved in netting, transporting, and re-acclimatingrepparttar 116247 fish torepparttar 116248 new environment. However, if you dont have a choice, and need to bring your fish inside forrepparttar 116249 winter, be sure to have an aquarium air pump or small fountain to provide oxygenation. The fish should be fed infrequently, if at all, depending onrepparttar 116250 water temperature. pH, ammonia and nitrite, which should be monitored weekly and especially ifrepparttar 116251 fish are fed. Small water changes (20%) each month will keeprepparttar 116252 water in good shape until spring. Koi are "jumpers"-so be sure to coverrepparttar 116253 pool with bird netting!

*********************************************************** Brett Fogle is the owner of MacArthur Water Gardens and several pond-related websites. He also publishes a free monthly newsletter called PondStuff! with a reader circulation of over 6,000 pond owners. To sign up for the free newsletter and receive a complimentary 'New Pond Owners Guide' for joining, visit MacArthur Water Gardens


Building Liner Ponds

Written by Brett Fogle


Continued from page 1
Remember that any kind of wood must be pressure treated if you want it to last more than a year! Although I mentioned rectangular shape, if you have some carpentry skills, you can also do triangles, pentagons, ponds within ponds, etc. Ponds built with treated lumber planks do not need any side support if they are less than 8 feet or 10 feet long; if you are building larger than that, you will want to drive a stake intorepparttar ground whererepparttar 116246 planks are to be nailed together, sorepparttar 116247 water pressure won't makerepparttar 116248 planks bow outward. So, if you know how to use twelve nails to nail four planks together, then you can build a pond. If you are feeling lazy, haverepparttar 116249 lumber yard cutrepparttar 116250 planks to size you need. Borrow your neighbor's staple gun, find those scissors buried inrepparttar 116251 kitchen drawer, and you are in business! Pond liners can also be used to make an inrepparttar 116252 ground pond. The advantage is that you can make any shape pond you want, andrepparttar 116253 ground itself supportsrepparttar 116254 sides ofrepparttar 116255 liner. It is a good idea to use a flexible garden hose to lay outrepparttar 116256 pool shape you want. Once everyone agrees that it is a pleasant shape, and it is large enough, you can dig a trench along siderepparttar 116257 hose, and start digging. Remember,repparttar 116258 pool does not have to be more than 12 to 16 inches deep, so don't get carried away. If you want a waterfall, some ofrepparttar 116259 excavated soil can be mounded up nearrepparttar 116260 pond for later waterfall construction. In some cases, it may be useful to use some ofrepparttar 116261 soil for a berm aroundrepparttar 116262 pond, so that is another way to dispose of excavated soil. Oncerepparttar 116263 pond is excavated, checkrepparttar 116264 level, decide which side you want excess rainfall to flow from, and then you are ready to linerepparttar 116265 hole with roofing felt, running it acrossrepparttar 116266 pond, uprepparttar 116267 sides ontorepparttar 116268 edges ofrepparttar 116269 pond. Droprepparttar 116270 liner in, weigh it down lightly with some rocks aroundrepparttar 116271 edges, and start filling. Again, do not trim any excess liner untilrepparttar 116272 pond is completely filled. Some pond books say you should create a shallow shelf inrepparttar 116273 pond before putting inrepparttar 116274 liner, but they don't have our river sand and rainfall to deal with. I think it is better to buildrepparttar 116275 pond to a depth of 14-16 inches, and just use bricks to prop up those bog plants that don't want to sit too deep in water. This gives greater flexibility in rearrangingrepparttar 116276 pond plants as you wish, and avoidsrepparttar 116277 calamity of a shelf suddenly slumping intorepparttar 116278 pool. When using pool liners, whether inrepparttar 116279 ground or aboverepparttar 116280 ground, it is important to concealrepparttar 116281 edges from sunlight, since that is what eventually breaks down most liners. Using stones or lumber planks to finish offrepparttar 116282 edge of your pond will make it more appealing, and enablerepparttar 116283 liner to live up to its ten year guarantee. Evenrepparttar 116284 heavier, preformed plastic ponds should have their edges covered by sod or some paving material, sorepparttar 116285 sun can't reach it. Some final pointers: if possible, locate your pond away from trees, in a place that gets at least five hours of direct sun daily. This will allow you to grow a wide variety of pond plants. Be sure to use a dechlorinating product when you first fillrepparttar 116286 ponds...repparttar 116287 new chemicals in our drinking water do not dissipate quickly and they will kill your fish and damage your plants, even ten days after you have filledrepparttar 116288 pond! Be sure you are pleased withrepparttar 116289 size and shape of your pond before you start - so you won't say "I should have made it bigger, or longer, or rounder, etc.", within two hours of filling it! Rule number one in pond building is that no matter how big your pond is, you always want a bigger one. Last, but not least, if you decide to do an in-the-ground pond, why not serve refreshments and get some friends to help . . . friends will have all kinds of useful ideas on how you should do it ... which is fine, as long as they keep digging...

*********************************************************** Brett Fogle is the owner of MacArthur Water Gardens and several pond-related websites. He also publishes a free monthly newsletter called PondStuff! with a reader circulation of over 6,000 pond owners. To sign up for the free newsletter and receive a complimentary 'New Pond Owners Guide' for joining, visit MacArthur Water Gardens


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