Keeping Good Water Quality in Your Pond

Learn why water quality is important, and find out the steps to make sure that you’re keeping good water quality in your pond from the Pond Boss, Bob Lusk.

Today, we’re going to talk about water quality. Now before you roll your eyes or run off, stay with me for a minute. Water quality is really important.

You know, scientists call water the universal solvent. Anything that can dissolve into water, will. That includes grass clippings, leaves off your trees, minerals, rocks, even some metals dissolve into water. Now when that stuff dissolves into water, nature won’t leave it alone. Something’s going to grow you’re going to get plants you might get plankton and you might get algae. So keep your water healthy.

It’s a good idea to check it twice a year. Now how do you do that? Well, the best way is to get in touch with your local county agent. They usually have contact with the land-grant universities in your state, and almost every one of those has a soil sciences lab, where they can check the water quality. They’ll help you. All you need is a bottle of water shipped in with a form filled out for a nominal fee $20 or $25 and you can have the pH, the alkalinity, and the hardness checked, and you can have somebody like me tell you what it means.

Now, after the water’s analyzed, then what? Well, you know what your pH is, and you know those different parameters, and you may want to change it. For example, if you get your water test back and you find out that your water has acid. Well, you can add an antacid. Lime, for example, is nature’s pond antacid. Its easy to do.

You know, what’s unhealthy water? well, as the pH changes and things begin to deteriorate and the health of the water declines you wind up with heavy plankton blooms. You might end up with planktonic algae, algae blooms. The water’s got a little odor to it, and those things you don’t want. So, paying attention to water quality is a good place to start. That way you can adjust it.

So, let me just tell you this, water quality is a big deal. It leads to the health of the pond. Healthy ponds grow big fish, lots of good healthy plants in the quantities you want, gives a good color to the water, and it makes you happy, and if a healthy pond is doing what it needs to do, and you’re happy, that’s what we’re after.