A perfect  way of establishing your pond

If you have a new pond or recently cleaned and refurbished, your aim is to establish all the necessary ingredients for the complete cycle of life in your pond so that it all adds up to being a self sufficient little world.

If the pool is filled with fresh tap water and left to 'age' i.e. as the purifying chemicals evaporate or drop out and the water can sustain microscopic life, then a lot of the necessary ingredients will eventually arrive of their own accord.

To ensure that this happens as soon as possible, in the right proportions and for there to be good cross section of all the right microscopic ingredients, leave the fresh water in your pool to stand for 3 days. Then take 3 or 4 gallons of water from a pond you know that is evenly balanced, crystal clear and free from blanket weed. Pour this into your pool then with the same effect as a yoghurt starter, you will find the environment will leap into action. This is good for pools with biological filters too.

Once the pool is full of water, after 3 to 10 days it will nearly always turn green. In normal circumstances just leave it with the plants in place for the biological balance to establish itself.

Generally after a month in the growing season the water begins to clear. A reddish tinge is sometimes seen on the edge of the pool before it does so.

A newly completed patio pool complete with waterfall. The waterfall of limestone and all the cemented stonework is bound to cause a high pH in the water as well.)

If cement lime has oozed out or run into the pond from areas where

It was impossible to treat with silglaze when you built the pool, or did the repairs to the stonework, this will send the pH sky high (see pH; Problems with Water Quality) up to unmanageable proportions then you have no alternative but to drain the pond and refill. Keep doing this until the water stays with a pH that can sustain life adequately. Plants, as well as fish, are upset by excessively limey water, but the thread algae Blanket weed or Spirogyra loves a high pH, and you wouldn't want to encourage that would you?