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David: Some of you may have a pond at home and the first thing that you want to do at this time of the year is obviously you got to clean it out because it has had a lot of gut going in it all winter long. So, I brought Tom Frost from Metro West Gardens and he is going to help us settle this. Tom what is the first thing people need to do? This guys need to do in order to keep their ponds good all summer?
Tom: Add a minimum if you have fish in the pond, there a bit minimum you do not want to do is at least a half of water change if you do nothing else.
David: Okay.
Tom: So, what we will recommend is a full clean out which is filling a holding tank with the existing pond water if they have fish. The fish moves into the holding tank the rest of the water is not drained out of the pond and we hose down or power wash all the rocks and the sides of the pond and re-drain it out again, install the pump any filtration media and fire it up. Some of the other towns either put chlorine or chloromines in their water.
David: Okay.
Tom: Okay, so for fish safety we have the treat the water with a dechlorinator.
David: So Tom, if I have fish when should I start feeding the fish.
Tom: Now, when the fish start poking around the top surface of the edges of the pond that means they are hungry and they are looking for food.
David: Okay, is there anything else that I need to know so that I have a really good pond this summer.
Tom: Mother nature is going to have healthy bacteria in your pond like in streams to keep them clean. Well, if we clean all this out and we add just tap water it is missing some of that. So one of the healthy chemicals were added as a healthy bacteria.
David: Okay. So, something like this, how much is this going to cost.
Tom: This happens to be an Aquascape Designs Kit, this is a signature series kit which runs of a approximately retail price of around $2,200.00 but Aquascape also makes a midrange version which is the nursery pro line and that line get sold at garden stores for about $850.00. So, you have the kit and all you need to do is add rock to rock it in and water.
David: Remember one of the important things is to mimic mother nature so you want those good bacteria in there, you want to be adding that throughout the season. That is going to help to keep your ponds really nice and clean. And also, remember when you are landscaping around it, try to create an environment where it really looks really natural, where you just have a pond or a waterfall, it is something that you will be able to enjoy all season long.
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