Many of you already own and enjoy beautiful low maintenance ponds and waterfalls and may take for granted how easy your water feature is to maintain on a weekly basis. Just this last month we have had several coouples in the store that were "looking for a filter" for their pond. This in itself is disheartening for me becasue when I hear this question I immediately know that somewhere along the path to installing their water feature they were misled. You see to me installing a pond with out any filtration is kind of like buying a car without an engine. It simply doesn't make sense to me.

 

Without going into great detail I want to spend a few minutes discussing some of the most common methods of filtering ponds.

 

Using an organic approach to filtering your pond consists of achieving a natural balance of bacteria and plants. These systems often consist of Rock, Gravel, a Skimmer & Biofalls, & lots of Plants. This is the preferred method of H2O Designs and thousands of other DIY and professional installers across the country.

PRO's - Lower ongoing maintenance, Naturally appealing, Usually consists of a waterfall.

CON's - More effort and cost upfront.

 

UV lights or filters are often used to clear "Green Water" in a pond that was installed with no filtration consideration. Since these systems are often an after thought in the pond design they often are insightly and hard to maintain. The UV light works by "killing" the single cell algae the passes through the UV light itself.

PRO's - Very effective in clearing a "Green Pond"

CON's - Usually need the bulb replaced every year which can be costly, does nothing to help with the stringy "mossy" algae that often occurs in ponds and streams.

 

These filters are sold as an alternative solution for achieving a natural balance in ponds that do not have any rock or gravel (Bare Liner Ponds). Depending on the size of the pond these filters sometimes are effective in balancing a pond ecostystem and scheiving clear water. However, more times than not these filters are simply too small  to properly filter a pond.

PRO's - Genrally an inexpensive solution to balancing small ponds (Less than 500 Gallons)

CON's - These filters are generally high maintenance requiring weekly cleaning and are generally ineffective for larger ponds.

 

At this point I think it is important to point out that options for pond filtration cannot be summarized into one short artical and there are literally hundreds of filter options and opinions to match out there. The task of choosing proper filtration for your pond can be a daunting task. That is why I cannot express enough that the best advice I can give to those of you that are thinking of building a pond or have built a pond that is causing you maintenance nightmares is to seek the advice of professinals.

 

We offer FREE consultation services out of our Pond Store. If you have a pond bring us pictures and we will be happy to help you make an educated decision on the filtration system or combination of systems that will best fit your needs and budget.

 

To close I would like to forward a warning to those of you that are considering building a pond. If you are buyingpond supplies from an organization that does not mention filtration to you, WALK AWAY..They are simply selling you products to "Get you started" so that you will come back for "After thought Filtration".

 

We have trained pond experts to assist you. It is up to you to utilize our services.

 

Sincerely