Garden Pond Water

The Life Source Of Our Fish

Indeed it is, our fish depend on the water in the pond being of good quality for their healthy existence, so we need to keep it in tip top condition and as we know tap water has chemicals in it that are not really good for our fish. This brings me onto a question I have been asked after a reader read this post about Water Treatment.

The question was, Is there an alternative to using tap water when filling a pond. My answer was to buy lots of bottled mineral water, but to make sure it was still and not carbonated. The reader was not impressed. OK now I have had my little joke, here is the real answer…

There is an alternative and it is the rain, the ideal way of capturing it is in a large container often known as a Water Butt, which has a an outlet at the base that a hose can be attached. They are used by gardeners to water there plants instead of using tap water. A lot of people set these up with a down pipe from the house guttering collecting the water from the roof, this is the quickest way to fill them, but for filling a pond I would not do it this way as there is all sorts of things that could contaminate the water from the roof covering to the material of the guttering or down pipe.

It is better to leave the container open for the rain to fill it naturally, this is slower than the previous method put a better quality of water in the long run. So to get the water required for a pond fill is could take a while to collect, for this reason it is worth investing in a water butt at the planning stage of the pond so it can be filling while you are designing and constructing the pond.

If you use this method it is still a must to check the water quality before adding your fish. The Butt will always be useful even after the pond is completed and filled, as it can be used to keep the pond topped up and water any garden plants.

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