Brookside Garden Pond Myths

1 Predators will eat all your fish!
There is a constant fear in the water gardening community that raccoons
and other four-legged predators will go swimming in your pond, and while
they're in there, they'll help themselves to some of your prize koi, shubunkin,
or goldfish. When you go out to your pond in the morning and discover
you're missing a fish or two, it's very temping to blame it on such critters,
especially if you didn't see it happen. There has to be a reasonable
explanation, and predators are as good as any, right?

However, take the following facts into consideration before you jump to any
conclusions. Raccoons generally won't swim. That's not to say they never
swim, or couldn't stand on the side of your pond and take a paw swipe or
two at your fish. Fortunately, most fish will swim to a deeper, more protected
part of the pond when a predator is threatening them.

The one predator with legitimate credentials is the blue heron. These tall,
long-legged, big-beaked birds can easily wade into your pond, help
themselves to any fish they think look tasty, and fly away with their bellies full.
They are a protected species, so they are off-limits if you're thinking about
taking revenge on them. However, a scarecrow, a motion-sensing sprinkler
that can be set up alongside your pond, ready to fire a steady stream of
water at a heron, has had some degree of success in warding off these
curious critters. It's a good idea o move the sprinkler often though, to keep
them guessing.

Giving your fish a place to hide dramatically helps their odds of survival.
Plenty of lily pads give them some protection and will work to minimize
attracting a heron in the first place. Other protection measures include a
cave-like structure that can be built in during the pond's excavation, or if you
already have a pond, they can be added with a little pond remodeling.

Rocks are essential in creating these hiding places in your pond. Crevices,
or miniature caves, can be created withing the rock walls of your pond.

The possibility of pond predators seeking out your pond is, indeed, a valid
concern in terms of safety of your pond's inhabitants, but the possibility
shouldn't be a reason to avoid building a pond.

2 The presence of rocks and gravel
make it difficult to clean your pond.
You are susceptible to buying into this myth if, and
only if, you've never experience pondering with rocks
and gravel in your pond. If you have a
smooth-bottom pond, and each season you're
amazed at the amount of muck and grime that
collects on the bottom, you automatically rule out
rocks as a solution. You keep visualizing that same
amount of muck on top of the rocks and gravel and
say "NO!" to even considering them. It's
understandable. It seems logical...until you learn the
rest of the story.

Rocks and gravel offer a natural place for aerobic
bacteria to colonize and set up housekeeping. This
bacteria breaks down the fish waste and debris that
would otherwise accumulate in the pond and turn
into sludge. Regardless of your pond's location
(i.e.close to trees and loads of leaves), or how many
fish you have in it, you'll find that having rocks and
gravel in your pond not only makes it look better, but
it makes it healthier as well.

So contrary to the myth, having rocks and gravel on
the bottom of your pond actually allows Mother
Nature to clean up after herself, saving you
headaches and hours of working trying to keep the
bottom of your pond muck-free.

3 UV lights such as those in the
UltraKlear UVC are the best way to keep
your pond water clear.
UV clarifiers are one of the ways to keep your pond
water clear, but certainly not the only way, and
arguably not the natural way. The fact of the matter is
that if you have a pond that's naturally balanced, in
which the aquatic circle of life is rotating the way
Mother Nature intended, you don't need UVC at all. In
this naturalistic setting, the fish eat the plants, then
produce waste that gets broken down (along with
other pond debris) by aerobic bacteria that's
colonized on the rocks and gravel below, and then
it's taken back up as nutrition by the plants,
continuing the cycle. A naturally balanced pond is a
low maintenance pond because Mother Nature is
doing the maintenance work for you. Pretty good
deal, don't you think?

There are several drawbacks to the UV solution
though. First, no matter how intense, UV clarifiers
don't affect string algae at all, and so this problem is
not addressed. Secondly, after the regular algae is
killed, it generally falls to the bottom of the pond,
biodegrades, and provides another wave of nutrition
for another (often larger) algae bloom. If you're not
careful, it's easy to encourage larger cycles of algae
blooms by using a UVC. If our pond is unbalanced,
the choices are minimal. The third, and most
obvious drawback is that a UVC isn't cheap, and the
bulbs usually require replacement every season.

4 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 are located in colder
climates. You see, the water in a two-foot deep pond
will generally 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
therefore fall under strict guidelines and codes.
Also, more digging means more work, more water to
fill the pond, and more additives to treat algae an fish
illnesses.

5 Koi can't be kept in a pond that also
contains plants.
In a naturally balanced ecosystem, koi and plants
complement and need one another. In nature, fish
feed on plants. As a result, the fish produce wast,
which is broken down by aerobic bacteria on the
bottom of your pond, which, in turn is used as
fertilizer by the plants to grow and produce more
natural fish food. It's know as the circle of life, and to
imply that koi and plants shouldn't co-exist is to
ignore nature.

On the contrary, fish naturally love to eat plants, and
most of the time they'll (the fish) survive nicely without
you feeding them at all due to the plants and algae.
On the other hand, you have to have a sufficient
volume of plants to accommodate the koi too. In the
naturally balanced pond, proportionality is always a
key ingredient to success.

6 You have to bring your fish inside for
the winter.
Fish do fine during the coldest 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 naturally produced gases to escape
from under the ice. Otherwise, you let Mother Nature
do the rest. The fish will spend the entire winter
hibernating at the bottom of the pond and then they
will slowly wake up as the water warms in the spring.

7 Your pond water must be tested on a
daily basis.
This myth comes from the aquarium industry and it
has a lot to do with the fact that an aquarium is a
much smaller body of water and the small size
makes it more difficult to balance. Mother Nature
never tests her water, and her ecosystem does just
fine. A well conceived, naturally balanced water
garden normally requires no testing either.

8 A pond in your backyard means you
will have a lot of mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes will generally only lay their eggs in still,
stagnant water. If the mosquitoes happen to lay their
eggs in your pond, and the mosquito larvae hatch,
the fish in your pond will consider them a treat and
will pick them off the water's surface with great
enthusiasm. Your skimmer will sweep up whatever
the fish miss. Another option is to use a natural
mosquito larvae killer, such as Mosquito Dunks and
Pre-Strike.

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
leaves in your pond in the fall but, by the same token,
the shade provided by the tree(s) will help minimize
the algae bloom in the summer. Furthermore, if you
have a skimmer sicking the top quarter inch of water
off the top of your pond, it will pull most of the leaves
and related debris into an awaiting net. This takes
about 30 seconds to empty, and it can be a daily task
in the fall if your pond is close to trees. Add it all up
and it's a trade-off that most full-sun water gardeners
would love to have! So don't worry about trees and
ponds. They're fine.

10 You can't have koi in a pond that
also has rocks and gravel.
Koi are actually just a fancy variety of carp, and all
carp are bottom feeders. They love to swim along
the bottom and scavenge everthing that is available
on and in-between the rocks. In nature, it's not
uncommon to find ponds, lakes, or rivers with rocks
on the bottom. It's more like their natural
environment than an exposed rubber liner, so why
even think about doing battle with Mother Nature?

11 It's okay to use chemicals in your
pond.
This one comes from the swimming pool industry. If
chlorine is good for humans in the local swimming
pool, then chemicals must be okay for fish and the
plants in the pond. Products like algaecide (copper,
sulfates), dechlorinator (sodium thiosulfate), and fish
antibiotics are commonly used as quick-fix solutions
to balance related problems. In the end, your best
bet is to attack the root cause of the problem and
make sure that you have a naturally balanced pond
that allows Mother Nature to take care of all the
maintenance issues.

12 Having a pond may decrease the
value of your home!
Everyone knows when it comes to the resale value of
your home, a swimming pool can be deadly.
However, in the opinion of some real estate agents,
ponds can be a great addition to your home that
might even pay dividends. With water features
becoming more and more popular, you can bet that
the demand for them will get even bigger.

13 I have liability or safety concerns!
It's natural to have these thoughts and concerns, but
it is important to remember that a
professionally-installed water garden has steps
leading into the pond. The first shelf is only ankle
high once he gravel is laid down. The next shelf is
up to your knee, while the smallest area in the
bottom is just above your knee, so it is not
constructed like a swimming pool. We do
recommend that you make your neighbors aware of
the water garden and educate your own children and
friends about any body of water.

14 I want my pond located in the lowest
part of my yard!
It makes sense to have your water garden in this
area because it already collects water, however, this
is probably the worst location for your investment
because of the run-off that can creep it's way into the
pond. Ask yourself this, "Do you really want your
pond located on the opposite end of our property?
Do you really want to miss the sights, sounds, and
interactive nature your pond presents everyday?"
When it's positioned near your house, you can take
in the beauty and tranquility of our pond when
entertaining friends or lounging on you deck.

15 You can use a timer on your pond!
Not true! Your pond is a living, breathing ecosystem
that needs constant oxygen, just like the human race.
If you shut your system down at night, then you can
never have sufficient growth of beneficial bacteria to
fight algae books, and your finned friends will have a
hard time breathing.

16 It's necessary to drain and clean
your pond regularly!
The reality is, if you fail to set your system up using
the five part recipe so that it's working in harmony
with Mother Nature, then you'll be asking for a lot of
related problems that may require you to drain and
clean your pond out on a regular basis. On the other
hand, if you decide to work in harmony with Mother
Nature, instead of doing battle with her, then draining
and cleaning your pond should take place only once
a year (at most). Clean-outs should occur in the
spring, before the weather gets warm and the
bacteria has an opportunity to set up.

17 Bottom drains work best if you have
koi.
The claim by many koi keepers is that the water will
lack sufficient oxygen at the lower levels, and this
insufficiency can be detrimental to your koi. The real
fact is that if you avoid making your pond any deeper
than two feet, there is very little difference in the
oxygen levels at the surface and the bottom of the
pond. The problem with bottom drains is that they
have a tendency to promote leaks, possibly leaving
your fish landlocked. Now that's a problem to avoid
at all costs.

18 The more filtration, the better the
pond.
Believe or not, you can over-filter a pond. That's right.
Tight filter pads in your skimmer pick up the
smallest particles of debris, causing you to be
cleaning the filtering mechanism out constantly.
Now remember, we're not talking about drinking
water here. What we are talking about is water clarity
and water that's healthy for your fish. Fish in the wild
certainly don't swim around in bottled water. If you
can see a dime on the bottom of the pond, then the
water clarity is just right for your fish and filtering past
that is overkill and will create headaches, not
eliminate them.

19 You can't be a koi hobbyist and a
water gardener.
Not true! You can raise koi and have a beautiful
water garden. There are koi hobbyists who have
perfectly balanced pond ecosystems with no
chemicals, no sterilization, and a nice assortment of
plants. The koi can grow up to be just as beautiful
and just as healthy as they are in traditional koi
ponds-and you'll love them just as much!

20 High tech is the solution to
controlling Mother Nature.
More than anything else, being observant and
learning from Mother Nature is what it takes to be a
water gardener. Whatever she does naturally is what
you should be doing in your pond. Whatever she
doesn't do is what you should be avoiding in your
pond. If there is a golden rule of pondering it is not to
mess with Mother Nature because you'll lose.