Maintenance Needs of a Pond

How Much Maintenance Does a Pond Need?

Ecosystem ponds, like everything else, need maintenance. If you're interested in the least maintenance possible, then be sure you install both biological and mechanical filtration on your pond. The biological filtration will tend to your water quality, while the mechanical filtration will do the skimming for you. Remember, if you don't HAVE a skimmer, then you ARE the skimmer. Emptying skimmer basket or net will take only a couple of minutes a week.

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During the summer, pond maintenance in Phoenix mostly consists of keeping the aquatic plants from eating the pond! You will need to garden a bit during the summer -- and what better place to garden than standing in a pond! If your pond is well-built, getting in and out  of it should not be a problem.
Aquatic plants need to be trimmed and thinned regularly or they will overtake the pond. Depending on the size of the pond and the amount of plant life, this could take as little as 10 minutes a week. If you let things get out of hand, well, that's another story (see photo for cautionary tale -- yes, there's a pond there).

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During the "winter" months in Phoenix, some folks will get an algae bloom because the other aquatic plants are dormant in the cold water. We don't freeze here like they do in other parts of the country, but the water gets cold enough to shut down the growth of aquatic plants for a few months. Algae is just a weed, and it's usually the first weed in the garden (water garden, that is). You can simply hand-weed it out (which makes a fabulous addition to a compost operation), or you can use a natural enzyme to starve it out. We DO NOT recommend using anything that ends with the suffix "cide." But that's a whole different subject.
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Pond maintenance is not a herculean task. However, if you happen to want a "no maintenance" pond, we can do that, too!

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OTHER POSTS YOU MIGHT ENJOY:
ALGAE IN THE PHOENIX POND
INSIDER TIPS FOR GETTING A POND ESTIMATE
WHICH WATER FEATURE IS IDEAL FOR YOU?