Oxygen and water a good and effective pond keeping

"Your Pond: Crystal Clear Water Guaranteed, 2nd Edition"

To qualify for this 180 page book I would ask for a link back from your web site to one of mine. If you are interested in creating an internet link back to me then do please e-mail me at link back

Please provide the name of your web site (required to ensure it is suitable). I will then send you the HTML details to paste the link wording on your site.

If your site is garden related I would also offer a reciprocal link from my directory site that can be found at ...

About Water Gardens Gazette

Water Gardens Gazette is a free periodical featuring important aspects of water gardening in all its forms. It covers tips, How To ... articles, answers to frequently encountered pond and water feature problems of all kinds.

It is published around every two weeks with special editions being produced when deemed worthwhile.

We would ask you to pass this Gazette as a complete document to friends you may have who you think would like to improve their pond keeping hobby.

Comments are always very welcome. They encourage us to do better.

This edition includes ....................

1. Free pond calculator as promised (all calculators are in Microsoft Excel .xls format)

2. Choose between 1 or 2 pumps and save money

3. Oxygen and pond water

4. This edition's quick tips

5. New articles:

6. This is also address where all editions can be found and where you

can ask questions we will try to answer

Subscribe and unsubscribe information

1. FREE POND CALCULATOR ...............

As promised when you subscribed you will be able to get a free calculator by going to the following web address.

Free pond calculator one of a series of 12 pond calculators to collect.

This edition's free calculator will allow you to save money and in many cases by running 2 pumps instead of 1.

INSTRUCTIONS TO DOWNLOAD:

All you need to do is go to the web page above and click the link. The calculator will open up in Excel automatically. Save the file to your selected folder.

You can learn about what each calculator does by visiting:

Learn about all the water garden ponds calculators here. Of course you can get all 12 calculators free in one go by buying my book "Your Pond: Crystal Clear Water Guaranteed."

Read more about it here: Receive all 12 FREE water garden ponds calculators when you buy my book

2. Two pond pumps are almost always better than a single pump. This might sound strange but it is true as I will explain.

Before I do I would like to discuss oxygen in terms of good and effective pond keeping. One of the very best koi keepers in the world once said to me something I will never forget. Of course he was exaggerating a bit. Nigel said: "There should only be three things in a pond: water, fish and air ( ie oxygen)." You may know that trout and salmon can only breed in running water such as streams or rivers. You will also know that these particular fish make hazardous journeys up to the very top parts of river systems where generally the water is shallow and full of gravel and the where water flows fast and riffley over the gravel.

The water is also cooler.

The essential reason for these long perilous journeys is that such headwaters are:

• cool

• clear

• fast running

• shallow

• gravelly

These conditions are absolutely essential to maintain the very high oxygen levels the fish and their eggs need to survive and produce offspring. Air is absorbed by natural water-courses at the interface

(ie where air and water meet - ie the surface). This air is then mixed by convection throughout the lake water mass. The oxygen in the air (about 21%) transferred into the water is used by fish, plants and bacteria. On a calm summer's day in a lake the amount of oxygen in the lake would be lowered. The reasons are twofold:

The interface between the air and the water is at a minimum. The higher the temperature of water the less oxygen (or air) it can absorb and hold. On the other hand during a gale in winter the oxygen levels in a lake would be at their highest. The reason for this is the direct opposite to those above namely ....

The interface for air transfer into the water is at a maximum - waves rise, crash, break along the bank and continuously present a new air/water interface across which air can be absorbed by the water.

And because the water is colder it can hold more oxygen. So what has this got to do with pond keeping? Notice I said oxygen in water is used by plants fish AND bacteria.

Biofilters are absolutely essential in almost all ornamental garden garden ponds to purify the waste products excreted from the fish. In this way the fish are prevented from poisoning themselves to death. A biofilter can only work if it gets oxygen to feed its own bacteria 24 hours per day 7 days per week.

Just like you and me biofilter bacteria die if they do not have air (oxygen) to breathe. This oxygen is contained in the water being pumped through the biofilter. Stop the pump, then you stop the water flow and after about 5 or 6 hours all the bacteria in the biofilter are DEAD.

The bacteria survive a while because there is normally a bit of water left in the filter. Bacteria use this as their emergency oxygen supply. This is why we say after about 5/6 hours the bacteria die and not immediately the pump is stopped.

Once the bacteria die and you continue feeding the fish toxic chemical build up in the pond water occurs.

Do this when you have a highly stocked pond, the water is warm, possibly full of algae and you have a recipe for potential fish mortalities.

The conclusion:

Water must be pumped through a biofilter 24 hours per day, every day without fail except for very short maintenance periods.

You cannot go to bed, shut off the pump until the next morning and expect your fish to like it. Let's take my own personal situation ....

My pond is outside my bedroom window and I have a very nice waterfall. At night the waterfall "noise" would keep us awake and we need our sleep.

I switch this waterfall off every night and the fish do not suffer. They do not suffer because I have a much smaller pump feeding the biofilter continuously. This second pump is not big enough to feed the waterfall.

Coming back to two pumps are better than one story. The above description of my own personal situation essentially explains this.

The major ongoing cost in a pond is electricity to run the pump(s). To buy two pumps, if selected correctly, is often no more expensive than buying a single larger pump. However being able to switch off the waterfall pump (normally the bigger of the two pumps) can save an enormous amount of money over the lifetime of the pond.

The fish do not mind the waterfall being switched off most of the time and if you are at work you cannot enjoy the sights and sounds of the waterfall - so why waste electricity.

Furthermore if one pump does break down you can keep your biofilter alive by using the second (spare) pump.

This edition's free calculator will allow you to calculate how much you will be able to save by using two pumps in your pond. In the example use in the FREE calculator $309 is saved over 3 years. Free pond calculator go to this page to download the pond calculator

Quick Tips

1. A waterfall adds oxygen to a pond by creating a large surface area across which air can be absorbed into the circulating water.

2. A simple fountain also adds large amounts of oxygen to pond water. A fountain is cheaper than a waterfall.

3. Before buying any pump check what the running cost will be. Look on pump box and if you can find watts consumed multiply this by 8.76 and you will get units (kWhrs) of electricity consumed every year by your pump. Go to your electricity bill find cost per unit and you can work out running cost of the pump.

If you can only see amps on box you can work out watts as follows:amps x voltage of mains supply = watts.

New articles published on our web site ...............

A Peter J May article covering sludge in ponds and filters has been published since the last edition

In case you are not aware of the articles we publish by leading experts in the water gardening field take a look at one of our main sites which covers all kinds of topics related to water gardening where you will see the list.

Peter May, one of the leading UK water gardens landscapers, is just starting his own website and maybe you would like to see what he has to say there. This is his web address where you will find the details: of the Perfect Pond Detective He would appreciate your visit.

Peter is a real expert in the practice of water gardening. He even dug all his own holes for many years. He offers consulting services and does talks at very modest rates throughout the UK.

VERY SPECIAL LIMITED OFFER KEITH SIDDLE GIFT CARD SETS

After last edition's offer we still have a few left so here is offer again. Strictly first come, first served this time. I will be contacting lucky winners within next few days. I am offering to post sets of Keith Siddle gift cards to Gazette subscribers ONLY. They are truly magnificent. If you would like to look at samples go to this web site:

Web address where all editions can be found and where you can ask questions we will try to answer ...

We will try to answer personally but if this proves to be not possible because of large volumes of e mail we receive we will certainly answer in future Gazettes.

Please note you may have to copy and paste this if the words wrap to the next line. If you do then leave out the words mailto:

Copyright: The Water Gardens Gazette and its contents are

Copyright: Tony Roocroft, 2003.