Stepping outside to see your fish pond or water feature low on water can be a bit frightening sometimes.  It's the one thing, aside from losing our fish, that pond hobbyists and water feature owners dread- A leak in their koi pond or water feature!  
While leaks do happen, many times the water loss can be attributed to other factors and the dreaded leak is no more.  Let's dive into this a little more.  

Our fish and koi ponds, as well as any water feature, attract all kinds of wildlife.  In addition as pond owners we love to add wildlife to help bring our ponds to life and provide a beautiful ecosystem we have the pleasure of enjoying throughout the year.  One addition to our ponds that's not talked about too much are turtles.  We just happen to be frog people, but can you, or should you, put turtles in your fish/koi pond or waterfall feature?  I'm happy to report, you can! 

​But don't stop reading there.  If you want turtles, there are some steps you need to take before letting them slide into your pond or water feature.  

It's spring all the trees are blooming, tulips and daffodils have popped, and your pond or waterfall is running but your aquatic plants haven't started to grow or maybe just started to come to life.  You may be asking yourself, are my water lilies and other pond plants going to come back to life or do I need to replace them.  Ok, you assume they're not dead, but when will I see signs of life.  When are my beautiful water lilies and other pond and aquatic plants going to start to grow? 

Spring is an absolutely beautiful time of year.  The trees are leafing out and producing some stunning flower displays.   While this is quite the site, during this time trees create copious amounts of pollen and of course drop all these beautiful flowers to the ground. 

When this happens the pollen collects in our pond water and if the trees are near your pond, where are all those flower petals going to go?  You guessed it, right into your pond!  Will all of this pollen and debris really affect your pond or water feature?  

BioFalls are very simple yet effective fish pond filtration systems that don't require much care.  However, spring is the perfect time to check on those filter pads to see if they may need replacing.  The filter pads are cleaned a few times a year but are quite frequently forgotten about.   What really determines if you can reuse these pads or if you should just replace them?  

PERMITS... its almost a 4 letter word in NJ except it has 7.  Ok, really, we've all dealt with them at one time or another when we are looking to do that exciting project on our home.  If you haven't yet, consider yourself fortunate.  Permits can be frustrating and sometimes turn an exciting project from exciting to not so so exciting quickly.  You're thinking about installing a koi/fish pond or water feature, but will you have to deal with getting a permit from the town to have this beautiful addition to your landscape installed? 

“When can I start feeding my koi or pond fish again?”  is a question we are asked almost daily this time of year. We understand why, too!   Your pond has either been cleaned or turned on for the spring, the fish are becoming more and more active almost begging for food.  You can’t wait to interact with your friends who have been hibernating all year.

It's spring time, you know your pond needs to be dumped and cleaned because it's a mess!  You've decided to do it yourself or maybe you even found the perfect pond professional to get this dirty job done for you.  Then that thought, that one thought of : "What am I going to do with these fish while the pond is drained and I'm cleaning it?"  Or it could even be: " I just hired this pond professional to clean my pond, but I love my fish and what are they going to do with my fish while they have my pond drained?"

In New Jersey and many northern climates winter poses some challenges for our fish ponds and water features.  Our ponds and fish are subject to extreme cold temperatures at time, snow, and debris flying around and landing in our ponds and water features.  Spring arrives and all we want to do is get those features running to enjoy them throughout the spring, summer and fall.  It's a daunting and disgusting task, is a pond/water feature cleaning really necessary?