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Showing posts with the label backyard ponds

Too Soon To Start Thinking About Spring Start Up?

  ABSOLUTELY NOT! When it comes to opening your pond and water features for the Spring, it's never too soon to have an action plan in place.  How you care for your pond during Spring start up sets the tone for the entire year.  Would you rather have everything running efficiently and looking beautiful or be fighting algae and poor functioning pump systems? Laughing Waters Pond Maintenance has dedicated nearly twenty years to servicing commercial and residential water features around Chicagoland. With the proper equipment and industry knowledge, our professionals keep your aquatic environment thriving and awe-inspiring year after year.  Save precious time and money by having the experts maintain your backyard, public space or business courtyard water ecosystem. Clean Out Filtration and Re-Install Pump or Skimmer Pump System and Critical Component Repairs  Fish and Plant Health Water Changes Chemical Balances Landscape and Foliage Upkeep  Landscape and Foliag...

Thwart Winter Risk - Keep Your Pond Healthy!

  To Quickly Create An Opening In Ice For Your Pond, Pour Warm Water On The Surface. Avoid Breaking Through The Ice Using Force Because You Can Harm Pond Life. For pond owners with fish or other inhabitants, winter poses new challenges.  While you can move your creatures to a tank inside to wait out the weather, it's just as easy to leave them in their natural space and keep them healthy.  Ice itself is not an issue for Koi as long as your pond is deep enough to not become frozen completely.  Koi fish and many other inhabitants go dormant in the winter, which means they huddle to the very bottom where the water is warmer and use far less oxygen. The most critical reason why you need to make sure your pond surface doesn't freeze over completely is because it keeps oxygen out and traps toxic gases that can kill your fish. As long as there is a hole, or several, in your pond surface, your fish can ride out the cold weather just fine.  You can definitely add a pond ...

The Koi Approach

  One Of The Easiest Fish To Maintain In A Backyard Pond Are Koi.  With Decent Water Volume, Good Filtration, Proper Diet, Algae Control And Oxygenation Can Keep Them Healthy And Lasting 25 To 35 Years Or More.  Koi fish are perhaps the easiest fish to maintain for backyard or DIY ponds.  Regular maintenance and proper care right from the very beginning will help keep these social creatures happy and healthy.  Koi are pretty hardy fish and, with proper care, can live decades.  They are also intelligent and social creatures that will get along and interact with you.  Your pond needs regular maintenance and so do the fish. Water Volume - Make sure you have a relatively large volume of water for koi to swim in.  The more water there is, the easier it is to dilute pollutants and keep the water cleaner and more stabilized for the fish. Proper Diet - Koi happen to be omnivores so they will eat algae, plants, flies, bugs and anything else that might po...

Should I Winterize My Pond?

  For pond owners that live in regions where winter months are cold, snowy and icy, winterization is a process you conduct on many systems in and around your home.  Essentially, winterizing anything simply keeps it from incurring damage that can cost quite a bit in repairs or possibly a complete replacement. When it comes to ponds, some owners shut it down and some continue to run it with added maintenance.  As winter sets in, what should you do? Honestly, this is entirely up to your comfort level and how much maintenance you are willing to do to run the pond in freezing temps.   Some pond owners choose a complete shut-down in winter so they don't have to worry about ice dams or the cost they will take on to run a larger pump.  All leaves and debris are removed, plants trimmed and prepped and each piece of equipment, maintained, cleaned and/or stored for the coming season.  Jets, bubblers, etc. need to be checked, disconnected and excess water drained ...