Pond Myths

Pond myths is a collection of "facts that are believed" but not true. If you have one, please send it in. They are in no particular order.

1) A pre formed pond shrinks when it goes in the ground.

How can it really shrink? Its just that most pre formed ponds are stored standing up, so they are often taller than you, its just an optical illusion.

2) Read on a forum "I will "load" my first pond filter for "this" and I will "load" my second pond filter for "that"

What utter and complete rubbish.

Both filters are getting the same water from the same pump from the same pond.

Question: How will the bacteria "know what they are supposed to do"?

Answer: They don't

The poster in his ignorance thinks that by putting different types of filter media in each filter he will get different types of good bacteria. The only difference he will get is the quantity. and a mention on here.

3) Pond owners must carry out 10 -20% water change every week.

This is a waste of time, PROVIDED your filters are up and running along with a UV there is no point in changing any water. As far as I can tell (Please feel free to say other wise) the idea comes from keeping a goldfish bowl. Most don't have any filtration so the water turns "not nice" for the fish and also it turns green. So every few days you change the water, which carried on to fish tanks and only a percentage of the water, and most fish tanks have filtration, BUT no UV, which a pond does have. If you find you are having to change the water often, your filters are not coping, find out why. They may be clogged.

4) Ponds must be heated during winter to keep the fish alive.

No. Again this is another myth, yes the metabolism does slow down, yes it makes the fish more susceptible to illness / stress etc, but there is no absolute that says you MUST heat your pond. Most people can not afford to heat a pond in this current situation. Some would say, if they cant afford to heat it, they shouldn't have a pond. To that I would say they probably could afford to heat it when the pond was built years ago, but its not their fault they have been made redundant.