Garden Ponds Maintenance | Successful Pond And Fish Keeping
This article is part of my ongoing newsletter series regarding successful pond and fish keeping. I thoroughly believe that by sticking to the basics of pond keeping and by using a common sense approach to garden ponds maintenance you can benefit and get the most from your fish keeping hobby.
Today I will answer some common pond keeping questions relating to koi and fish food selection, fish pond hose selection and the addition of pond chemicals to your pond...
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What Is The Best Koi Food Or Pond Fish Food?
The quality of a fish food is determined by the raw ingredients used. The best koi food has a low ash content, low moisture content and a high protein content. Nishikoi Fish Food is a high quality branded fish food and is amongst the best food for koi fish.
Low quality, cheaper fish food often contains a high ash content, which results in more waste entering your pond, hence a higher workload for your pond filter. Obviously the more waste the less goodness that has been absorbed by the fish.
If you see a claim such as "97% digestible" it means that only 3% is made up of ash and moisture, leaving the remaining 97% as high quality ingredients which will be used up by your Koi, goldfish and other fish in order to help them grow big and strong.
When you see this you can be sure that you are getting the best fish food for koi and will in the long run cut down on waste and get better value for money. Please bear the following in mind when selecting which Koi & Fish Food To Buy ...
- Always buy the best food you can afford. This will give you good water quality and your fish will reap the benefits.
- Avoid Koi Sticks and Pond Sticks as they are in my opinion a waste of money.
- Unless you only have bottom feeding fish then always go for a floating pellet food.
- When looking for food always analyze the contents and stay away from products that don't display this information.
Choose the following: A high protein content food with ash levels of about 5%, moisture levels of between 5-8% and 35% protein or higher. Herring meal or whole fish meal is also the best source of protein.
Some foods contain an ash and moisture content of around 25%. In essence this means that 25% of the bag is a total waste of money.
Click here to buy high quality Koi & Fish Food ...
Is It Safe To Use Lights In My Pond?
Providing that you are using submersible pond lights that have been designed for under water use then they are definitely safe. They utilize only 12 volts making them extremely safe. They are also fairly cheap to buy and come in a myriad of different effects, including: floating globes, underwater spotlights, in ground spotlights, colored lenses etc.
Click here to purchase Pond Lighting Products
Which Is The Best Fish Pond Hose?
Without a shadow of a doubt the best type of fish pond hose (pipe) to use is non transparent ribbed hose. This flexible pond hose does not kink and is extremely versatile when used with EasiFitt connections.
Only a few years ago before pond flexible hose was available you were stuck with the following fish pond hose choices...
- Clear Pond Hose - suffered from kinking which affected water flow rates as well as the build up of green algae on the insides of the pipe. This yet again affected pond water flow rates between pond pumps, pond filters and pond UV equipment.
- Normal Hose Pipe - Not very flexible which made it difficult to connect pond keeping equipment together. Compared with modern fish pond hose the cost was also higher.
- Rigid Hose Pipe - This wasn't flexible and made the process of connecting Pond Pumps, filters and UVC's together hard work. Rigid pipes required expert fitting and caused major headaches from a maintenance point of view.
I would seriously recommend avoiding jubilee clips or metal clips in general because they rust and often become almost impossible to remove.
Always use EasiFitt type connections and Y piece connectors, not T piece connectors as the flow rate will not be restricted as much.
Do spend a bit more on fittings and hose to reduce your pond keeping hassles.
As a general rule of thumb avoid sharp bends and reduce the number of connections wherever possible.
Click here to buy Pond Hose Tubing
What Size Pipe Should I Use?
Whenever connecting pond keeping equipment together go for the widest diameter pipe that fits on the outlets and inlets of the pump, UV, filter and other equipment.
The wider the diameter of the tube, the less the opportunity for flow restrictions to take place. In simple terms a wider tube places less resistance on the flow rate from the pump. This increases efficiency. If a pump is supplied with a 20mm outlet then use 20mm pipe.
If the pipe is to be very long, say 10 meters then it would be useful to install a reducer to increase the pipe size from 20mm to say 25mm.
Always strive to keep the pipe length as short as possible as this also helps to prevent loss of flow.
Don't use 13mm fittings and pipe except on very small pumps.
What Chemicals Should I Put In My Pond?
When it comes to koi ponds and water garden maintenance my personal belief is that adding chemicals to a pond for the sake of it causes more harm than good. If however you do it is imperative that you stick to the correct dosage.
Pond algaecides for example can be very detrimental to the nitrifying bacteria colonies living on biofilter media if overdosed. It is far safer and cheaper in the long term to use a UV Sterilizer ...
Many pond keepers add chemicals because they don't have a Biological Pond Filter installed. In my opinion if you are going to skimp on a biofilter then don't keep a pond. You are fighting a loosing battle from the start.
It is rarely necessary to treat pond water. There are of course exceptions such as adding a seeder to a new pond filter, in order to help speed up the formation of the nitrifying bacteria colony. These are non chemical and are perfectly safe to add.
If you have blanket weed then adding a product such as Viresco is perfectly safe. In the case of Viresco this product is the best solution I have come across for tackling this green nuisance. Viresco is natural, and very effective in getting rid of blanket weed and other organic debris that accumulates in ponds.
Click here to purchase Viresco Pond Products ...
If you are considering installing a pond, water garden or wildlife pool then check out the following article before you do ... It will give you some pointers and ideas ... What Do I Need To Know Before I Build A Backyard Fish Pond ...