Helpful Hints

Building up Bacteria in your filter

Worried about the build up of the good bacteria in your unheated pond filter system during the spring.

Then why not do what we do and set up a small vat (around 120 gallons) in February heated with a large aquarium heater or two set to 65degrees and a small pump feeding a large box filter full of biological media which will go into your ponds filter when required, you must put a few small fish into this vat to feed the filter media with ammonia an nitrites but you also have the pleasure of feeding them when nothing else will be going on in main pond. Site this vat preferably out of direct sunlight to avoid algae build up and monitor the water regularly.

Calcium enriched Montmorillonite Clay

There are several brands of this Sold in the UK such as Refine and Kusuri clay as well as others.

Basically it adds minerals to your pond water that are normally missing in tap water benefiting fish life by helping their digestive system, therefore they excrete less solid waste because more of the food is digested.

Normally sold in quantities above two kilograms it may seem quite expensive but it does go a long way and has many other claimed benefits such as improved skin quality and sparkling water.