Your pond water should always be clean-smelling and have good clarity.  On occasion, the water might be green due to suspended algae, or slightly brown due to tannins, or even a bit cloudy after one of our famous dust stroms.
Algae is typically expected in the winter and spring when the plants are not growing aggressively. Once the plants grow, they consume more nutrients from the water, thereby starving algae of food to survive. Ponds in sunny locations experience higher algae growth, but this can be alleviated by shading the pond surface with waterlilies or floating plants like water lettuce.
Keep in mind, algae isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Your pond fish will eat algae off the rocks in your pond so it’s good to have a little of the green stuff. Too much algae can become unsightly, but can be controlled with various water treatments.
If you’re going to keep fish, it’s imperative that your pond have proper filtration. A mechanical skimmer is your first line of defense for removing unwanted debris such as leaves and twigs from the surface of the water. If left to decay in the pond, organic material can cause a host of water issues that could make your fish sick. The skimmer also houses the pump, which circulates the water and helps to aerate the pond.  A biological filter is positioned opposite the skimmer to create the beginning of a waterfall. This filter uses bacteria to break down pond waste, converting it into less harmful compounds that can act as aquatic plant fertilizers.

Aquatic plants are a very important step in achieving a truly balanced ecosystem pond. Regardless of why you got into the water gardening hobby, adding aquatic plants to the pond is an important part of the water garden. They provide beauty and naturalization with a huge array of plant choices.
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Most importantly, they help balance the pond’s ecosystem, as well as provide valuable biological filtration that removes nitrogen, ammonia, nitrates and other minerals from pond water. These excess nutrients are often the cause of unsightly water conditions. The end result helps to minimize pond maintenance, leaving more time to enjoy your pond. Without aquatic plants, your pond would not be able to function as a complete ecosystem.

​Aquatic plants can be classified into a few main categories: water lilies, marginal plants, floaters and submerged (also known as oxygenators). Plants can also be put into two basic types known as “tropical” and “hardy.” Hardy plants will over-winter in colder climates and tropical plants are more suited to warmer climates, although tropical plants are often used as annuals in colder climate zones.
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Water Lilies
Water lilies are among the most popular of aquatic plants and are often the centerpiece of the water garden. A water garden never seems complete without a few beautiful water lilies. Not only are water lilies breathtaking, but they provide valuable shade (a respite from our summer heat), which helps to keep the pond cool while providing refuge for pond fish. Ideally, only thirty to fifty percent of the water surface should be covered with aquatic plants.

Marginals
The marginal plant group is the largest aquatic plant group by far, containing both hardy and tropical plants. Marginal plants serve many functions such as adding beauty and providing valuable filtration. They are called “marginals” because they typically grow around the edges or “margins” of a pond or lake. Marginal plants thrive in wet soil or standing water that covers the crown or base of the plant by as little as two inches and up to as much as six inches. Some examples of marginals include Yerba manza and Creeping Jenny.

Floaters
Floating plants do just as their name indicates: they float on the water’s surface. Their roots dangle beneath the plant absorbing all their nutrients from the water. Most floating plants do a great job of filtering ponds by removing nutrients directly from the water, as opposed to the rock substrate where most other aquatic plants are situated or planted.

​Just like their soil counterparts, a good mix of aquatic plants lends the best visual impact for your water garden. Marginals help to blend the pond into the surrounding landscape, while water lilies provide pops of color at the water’s surface. Take some time to familiarize yourself with all the wonderful options out there and you’ll soon find what most appeals to you. For your convenience, we have a page on our website dedicated to the aquatic plants that we know work well in our Sonoran Desert.

​This fast-growing plant, which can grow rooted or floating, is named for its ability to provide baby guppies with plenty of hiding places when born. It’s also great at removing toxins from water. As is the case with most fast-growing plants, it is exceptional at taking up nutrients in the form of heavy metals, toxins, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates from water. It consumes almost every free nutrient in the water leaving little behind for algae growth. As great as that sounds, don’t run out and plant your water garden up with Guppy Grass until you understand its growth habits.
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In our experience, it grows faster than algae, which can cause some inconvenient problems if not constantly removed from your stream.  It spreads throughout small ponds like a wildfire and once it is completely rooted throughout your stream, it has the ability to displace most of the water in your shallow babbling brook in just a couple of weeks, which means if you don’t “mow” it to the stones every week, you are in for some displacement leaks.
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Guppy grass is native to the Americas, from Canada to southern Mexico. It is an extremely popular plant in the aquarium hobby. So, basically, it’s everywhere. It’s commonly found in golf course ponds and backyard ponds that do not have circulation systems, largely due to its amazing ability to sponge impurities from the water. It only takes an inch of plant to start a new plant. So, a one-inch piece of plant can hitchhike its way to your pond on a bird that visited a golf course pond just before it stopped off at your pond.  We have seen this several times now.
If you have a golf course pond nearby (as so many of us do here in the Valley of the Sun), keep a watchful eye on your pond for any new and unknown plants showing up. The most likely place for you to see the Guppy Grass first is in your stream bed.  If you should see it, carefully remove ALL of it immediately.  It doesn’t take long for it to get a foothold and once established, it is virtually impossible to remove without a complete cleanout, and dry-out, of your organic water garden.  In short, it is rarely worth the effort.
That’s not to say that there is never a time Guppy Grass is a good idea. However, if you have a longish gravel stream bed, Guppy Grass presents a higher maintenance issue than filamentous algae.

Please check with your Pond Gnome Pond Pro to see if Guppy Grass is right for your pond!
Pros

• Provides great habitat for guppies and invertebrates to hide from predators.
• Removes toxins and nutrients from the water in large quantities

Cons

• Grows like wildfire!
• Impossible to remove from an established eco system pond once established

The Pond Gnome does not recommend introducing Guppy Grass to your Pond Gnome water garden.