There are many methods to create your own unique back garden ponds or water gardens and we've some advice to help make it a great and easy experience. Before creating your water feature determine what your targets are. Are you attempting to attract local wildlife, like frogs, turtles and birds? Would you prefer to have a water garden with a lovely zen experience to it, offering lilies, lotus and additional aquatic plants? How about incorporating water in to the design of your home? Remember you probably DO have space for a water fountain. They may be anything from a half-barrel to a huge and deep pond in your yard. No matter what your intentions are we can assist you to achieve them. The first step in creating assembling your project is to pick a spot. You will want a location where you can create some color for your pond and it is also nice to find a place where one can protect the water from having too many leaves or other particles from entering. Shade can be created in lots of ways. Water plant life on the advantage or in the pond will shade the drinking water, many ornamental trees are ideal as long as they don't drop way too many leaves. Backyard ponds can quickly become overrun by this type of debris. The next step is to start the design process. This includes choosing the actual form of the water feature, any waterfalls or additional drinking water features, filtration, and where and in the event that you will become planting around the water. It is highly advisable to include into the design a number of different depths and slopes around the pond edges. This will provide extra places for seafood and animals to go around and for placing different types of water plants. You can create your water fountain out of concrete, prefabricated tubs, or use pond liners. Choose the option that is best for your project and budget. Concrete is commonly more expensive than 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 take time to think about protecting them from predators. Raccoons and Heron are voracious fish eaters. One of the best methods to protect your seafood and animals is to supply a way for them to get away from the predators. The easiest way to get this done is to supply 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 quite simple or very intricate. It once again depends on assembling your project. Drinking water Gardens with only a couple small seafood or no fish at all don't need large filters. You may also make your personal filter out of a 5 gallon bucket, some hoses and a pump. It is very easy to do! In case you are keeping koi, you then will need something with more flow and even more mechanical filtration to remove waste. Koi are dirty fish and create a lot of waste. UV sterilizers are a great idea on any water fountain. They eliminate nuisance algae that turns the drinking water green and in addition kill parasites that may attack your fish. Ideally you will place a UV sterilizer on the return line following the filter. Adding plants to your backyard pond can be rewarding and beautiful. Water gardens need a lot of the same caution as any house plant or other backyard would. You will have to research your plants, regulate how high and wide they grow, how to prune them and what types of additional feedings they could require. You also need to know where around the water feature your vegetation would grow the best. Some merely float on the top, so you just need to protect them from being sucked up into filters or destroyed by waterfalls. Other plants grow at different depths, which is why we recommend building your water fountain with many depths. You can include to the look and feel of your pond by picking local stones, or going to a local landscaping shop and purchasing rock that fits the feel of assembling your project. Many landscaping shops are actually starting to specialize in items for backyard ponds. Backyard ponds make great set-ups for koi. There are some things you really need to consider. Koi get large and produce a lot of waste, so make sure you provide sufficient filtration. It is better to possess a system that is too large than one that is too little. It is costly and can be very hard to upgrade a system later. It will always be best to still do it the first time. Plants can provide another unique challenge when keeping koi. Simply speaking, koi love to eat plants, swim through plant life and simply tough them up. Your koi might just destroy the plants and cause a large mess in the pond. If you do use vegetation, and now there are many that are suitable, just be sure you pick hard and tough plants or place them in areas where in fact the koi cannot get to them. Feeding your koi is simple as long as you are aware of their demands. The feeding habits of koi are directly linked to the water temperature ranges and months. In the Spring time you should start feeding the koi with reduced color enhancing growth food. Through the summertime you can continue with a color enhancer, and provide multiple types of food. There are some great spirulina pellets, krill and additional treats for your fish. As the drinking water cools down once again in the wintertime you should remember a couple of things. One, cut way back 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 head 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!