Caring for a pond takes less effort than maintaining a lawn. The ecosystem you have helped to create by having Jefferson Landscape install an Aquascape™ pond does most of the work for you. So aside from stepping out of the way and allowing nature to take its course, there are a few basic things you need to know.

Purchases to Make and Tools You Need

• Mail in your warranty card for your Aquascape™ pump that came with your pond.
• Purchase a digital thermometer for your pond.
• Pond and waterfall lights won't last forever. Simply remove the bulbs and take them to your local hardware store. Easy to replace!
• Aquatic plants are necessary for taking up sludge and excess nutrients. Jefferson Landscape installs plants for 90 percent of our customers; however, many of you enjoy adding plants after we have gone, as well you should. When adding plants take them out of their containers.
• Algea are a natural part of any ecosystem and should never be thought of as something you want to completely do away with. however, string algea is best taken care of with a product call Algae Fix® . (Coming soon to our Products page.)
• Pond Salt only gets added once per pond filling and is optional. Add 1 cup of Pond Salt for every 100 gallons of pond water for healthier fish. Using more than this application will hurt your plants and is not recommended. Less is more, in this case. A good formula for figuring out pond gallons: Length x Width x Despth x 7.48 = Gallons. (Example: for an 11' x 16' pond the formula would be: 11 x 16 x 2 x 7.48 = 2,633 gallons or 25 cups of Pond Salt.)
• Test your pond water with an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Test Kit. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals sells a kit that provides a chart for aquarium solition / PH Balance / Pond Salt for Ponds with plants.

Check and Maintain

• Once it starts getting colder, use your digital thermometer when feeding your Koi to check the pond temperature. When it drops below 50 degrees you will want to stop feeding your Koi until the temperature rises again. (See About Fish.)
• Empty the Skimmer™ net as needed. This will be different for everyone. Some customers go all year removing the Skimmer™ net only when they change out the biological filters (lava rock located in the Bio-Falls™ net).
• Rinse out the mechanical filter every other month or so. Do no rinse out the pads in the Bio-Falls™ unit.
• A 20% water change should happen every other month (or 10% every month - this is typically taken care of when you replace evaporated water).