There are many methods to create your own unique backyard ponds or water gardens and we have some advice to help make it a great and easy experience. Before creating your water fountain determine what your goals are. Are you trying to attract regional wildlife, like frogs, turtles and birds? Would you prefer to have a drinking water garden with a beautiful zen experience to it, featuring lilies, lotus and other aquatic plants? How about incorporating water into the design of your home? Remember you probably DO have area for a water feature. They could be anything from a half-barrel to a huge and deep pond in your yard. Regardless of what your intentions are we are able to assist you to achieve them. The first rung on the ladder in creating your project is to pick a location. You will want a location where you can create some color for your pond and it is also fine to find a place where one can protect the water from having way too many leaves or other debris from entering. Shade could be created in lots of ways. Water plant life on the edge or in the pond will shade the drinking water, many ornamental trees are ideal provided that they do not drop way too many leaves. Backyard ponds can easily end up being overrun by this kind of debris. The next step is to start the design process. This consists of choosing the actual shape of the water fountain, any waterfalls or various other drinking water features, filtration, and where and if you will be planting about the water. It really is highly advisable to incorporate into the design a number of different depths and slopes around the pond edges. This provides extra places for fish and animals to go around and for putting various kinds of water plants. You can create your water feature out of concrete, prefabricated tubs, or use pond liners. Pick the option that is best for your project and budget. Concrete is commonly more expensive when compared to a tub or a pond liner, nonetheless it may go longer if professionally installed. If you will be keeping Koi, Goldfish, Tadpoles or other styles of fish you might want to remember to think about protecting them from predators. Raccoons and Heron are voracious seafood eaters. Among the best methods to protect your fish and animals is to provide a way to allow them to move away from the predators. The simplest way to get this done is to provide at least 3 feet of depth in the pond. Heron and raccoons possess a hard time catching fish and animals as of this depth or deeper. Filtration can be very simple or very intricate. It again depends on your project. Water Gardens with a couple small fish or no fish at all do not need large filters. You may also make your very own filter out of a 5 gallon bucket, some hoses and a pump. It is extremely easy to do! In case you are keeping koi, then you will need something with an increase of flow and even more mechanical filtration to eliminate waste. Koi are filthy fish and create a lot of waste. UV sterilizers are a great idea on any water feature. They kill nuisance algae that turns the drinking water green and in addition kill parasites that can attack your fish. Preferably you will place a UV sterilizer on the return line following the filter. Adding vegetation to your backyard pond can be rewarding and gorgeous. Water gardens need much of the same caution as any home plant or other garden would. You will have to research your vegetation, determine how high and wide they grow, how exactly to prune them and what types of additional feedings they may require. You also need to know where around the water fountain your plant life would grow the best. Some just float on the surface, so you just need to protect them from being sucked up into filter systems or destroyed by waterfalls. Other plant life grow at different depths, which is why we recommend building your water fountain with many depths. You can include to the appearance and experience of your pond by picking local stones, or going to a local landscaping shop and purchasing stone that fits the experience of assembling your project. Many landscaping stores are actually starting to focus on items for backyard ponds. Backyard ponds help to make great set-ups for koi. There are a few things you really need to consider. Koi get large and produce a lot of waste, so make sure you provide adequate filtration. It is better to have a system that's too large than one that is too small. It is costly and may be very difficult to upgrade a system later. It is usually best to still do it the first time. Plants can offer another unique problem when keeping koi. Simply speaking, koi love to eat vegetation, swim through vegetation and basically just tough them up. Your koi might just destroy the vegetation and cause a huge mess in the pond. If you do use plant life, and there are many that are appropriate, just make sure you choose hard and tough plants or place them in areas where the koi cannot get to them. Feeding your koi is simple so long as you are aware of their requires. The feeding practices of koi are straight linked to the water temperature ranges and periods. In the Spring time you should begin feeding the koi with a premium color improving growth food. During the summer season you can continue with a color enhancer, and offer multiple types of meals. There are some great spirulina pellets, krill and various other treats for your fish. As the water cools down once again in the wintertime you should remember two things. One, cut in the past on feeding. If your drinking water gets right down to 50 degrees or lower you do not need to feed the fish at all. If you will be feeding then go to a simple to digest Wheat Germ meals. Backyard ponds can be a large amount of fun! We wish you enjoy designing and building yours!