To use in a water garden simply fill a cheese cloth sack or some stalkings with a couple pounds of activated carbon or charcoal, tie it, rinse very well or your pond will turn black in seconds. Once you rinse until clear place in a skimmer, filter, or where the water is moving and your pond will be rid of toxins very quickly. Remove before treating with a chemical or fish medicine as the carbon will absorb it in its entirety. Change the charcoal every 6 -12 months, you can rinse a few times during the year with clean pond water or well water.

Pond Clarity, 1. Dont sub natural fish diet with fishfood 2. Proper Plant Coverage (40-60% ssurface) 3. Proper Filtration

By far the easiest way to keep a pond clean is by having a skimmer as part if not all of your filtration.

There are many inferior skimmers out there. Atlantic made some very flimsey skimmers a few years ago and though I know they have improved there are better ones on the market. Two brands I like are EasyPro and my favorit Savio. Savio could still be improved, I would like to see a model with more than one filter mat inside! Instead a few years ago I bought 2 skimmers for a couple’s pond in town and added a pump to each as I gave them two waterfalls.

This woman is sitting on the savio skimmer, feet on savio compact skimmer.

The savio and easy pro are both sturdy. I am a big guy and can easily stand on the savios lid without  it moving or bending one bit. I always use the 16″ skimmer faceplate (sold seaparatly for $18-25). They have a 6″, 8.5″ and 16″ faceplate all available for the same skimmer ao you dont need to decide what model to buy.

Skimmer in ground next to dug pond before liner is added.

The skimmers go into the ground in a small hole next to the pond. The face attached to the liner and you simply bolt the plate on and use a boxcutter to remove the liner inside the faceplate. There are no glues or adhesives with the savio so the unit can be used with more than one liner if need be to increase the size of the pond later!

The pump sits in the back of the skimmer this extends the life of the pump as the water is always clean when it enters the pump, the filtration occurs before the water gets to the pump. You also dont have to look into the pond and see a pump and hose. This too frees space in the pond for fish or more plants.

When you turn on the pump water is pumped out the back where the pump is located and pond water begins filling the skimmer with new water from the pond. Water flows first through a basket which catches any leaves, fish waste, or garbage in the pond like seeds from trees. Every so often just like in a pull you can take the lid off the skimmer and bull out the large basket and dump it into a garbage bag or compost pile. After water leaves the basket it flows through filter material (a woven fabric) which beneficial bacteria grow and remove the small particles and nutrients from the water.  As the good bacteria multiply the mat gets heavy, simply remove the fabric inside its compartment and hose off as needed. If you feed your fish a lot this may be every few days. If you dont feed your fish or feed them less often then it may be many weeks or a month before you need to hose out the filter.

The skimmer here is located to the right of the green shrub behind the fountain.

If installing a new pond bottom drains can be connected to the skimmers to remove debris from the pond bottom. Remember skimmer remove 85% of debris before they can sink to the bottom anyway. With a bottom drain you should approch 99%. Place a skimmer on the opposite side of the pond than the water fall to get full filtration of the pond.

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