If you love spending time in your backyard, you may have decided a pond was the perfect addition to the landscape. While this offers a beautiful and intriguing focal point, ponds require ongoing maintenance to continue operating properly.

To ensure your pond looks great and offers a safe, clean home for your fish and other aquatic life, use the tips found below.

Avoid Adding too Many Fish

You need to ensure your pond isn’t overpopulated. If you have too many fish, the waste they create can cause an imbalance in the quality of the water. You can reduce issues by circulating the water with pond aerators and fountains, but reducing the fish population may be required.

Don’t Use too Much Fish Food

You need to keep track of the amount of food your fish can consume in about two to three minutes. Once that amount of time has passed, the remaining food will fall to the bottom and begin to decay. Take it easy on the fish food and don’t feed them more than one time per day.

Add Plenty of Plants

Plants act as a natural filter for the water. Because of this, you want to ensure about 40 to 60 percent of the surface area of the water is covered by them.

Use the Right Size Pump

Be sure the pump you installed circulates the entire volume in your pond once an hour. Be sure the flow to the pump isn’t blocked by debris from time to time, too.

Clean the Pond

Uneaten fish food, fish waste, and decaying debris can accumulate quickly on the pond floor. Be sure to clean out the pond often to minimize the possibility of an increase in ammonia levels. You can also add beneficial microbes to the pond, which will help maintain a balanced ecosystem.

Filter the Pond Well

Determine what size filter you need for your pond by looking at the manufacturer’s recommendations. With a filter, bigger is usually better. This is going to help ensure the filter will handle the pond’s capacity. Make sure to clean the filter from time to time, too, based on the instructions provided by the manufacturer.

If you want to ensure your pond looks great and that it keeps the fish inside healthy be sure to use the tips and information above. Each of these tips will ensure you can enjoy your pond for years to come and that you don’t have any significant issues with the water, plants, or fish in it.