Recent Questions
     Water Quality & Filtration

Q. Dear Pond Doctor,

Does a backyard pond mean I will have a lot of mosquitoes?

A. Mosquitoes only lay their eggs in stagnant pools of water.  The water in a well designed pond is constantly moving so mosquitoes are rarely a problem.  If the blood-thirsty devils do happen to lay eggs in your pond, and they somehow manage to hatch, your fish will help themselves to a delectable treat and pick them off in short order. Any leftovers will be swept away into your skimmer filter.

Q. Hello Pond Doctor,

I want to build a bigger pond this summer, but I am worried that it will just mean more work to maintain it. What's your opinion?

A. The truth is that the larger the water feature, the easier they become to maintain.  Any aquarium hobbyist will tell you that larger fish tanks are easier to maintain because the ecosystem you create becomes more stable as the volume of water increases.  Water will heat and cool more slowly, and nutrient levels will stay in balance. Also, bigger ponds have large areas of open water, which does not require mowing, weeding or watering.

Q. Hey Doc!

I have a 14' x 19' pond with a waterfall and stream, with a BIOFalls and Skimmer filter.  A friend told me that I would be better off using a UV filter to control algae. Is this true?

A. While UV (ultra-violet) clarifiers do help keep pond water clear, there are several drawbacks worth considering.  First, no matter how intense, UV clarifiers only break down suspended algae and do not break down string algae which can become quite unsightly. Second, after the suspended algae are killed, the dead debris falls to the bottom of the pond, biodegrades and provides fertilizer for the next, often larger, algae bloom.  Third, UV systems are quite expensive and require replacement bulbs every spring.

The fact of the matter is that if you have a pond which is naturally balanced, the fish eat the plants, and then produce waste that gets digested by aerobic bacteria colonizing on the rocks and gravel on the bottom, which gets taken up as nutrition by aquatic plants continuing the cycle of life.  A naturally balanced pond with proper aeration and mechanical filtration is a low-maintenance pond because Mother Nature is doing the cleaning work for you.  After all, Mothers are very good at getting small creatures to pick up after themselves.

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