Everything You Need To Know About How To Care For Your New Pond

Find Answers To The Most Common Questions And Concerns New Pond Owners Have
Beautiful new pond

Whether it’s checking water levels, cleaning skimmers, or keeping your pond healthy, we have the answers to these questions and more. Find out what it takes to keep your new pond healthy in the post below.

I’m Like A New Parent

“Is it because you feel overprotective and worried about our new pond?”

Amanda nods her head and looks out over the pond. “It’s just, we need to take care of our pond. Right now it’s beautiful and perfect and I want it to stay that way. It’s best for our fish and us seeing as how we put a lot of money into it.”

Pond with empty and shady spot perfect for shade loving plants

James rubs her back. “I know, hon. Don’t worry, we’ll take great care of it and be the best pond parents ever.”

Amanda gets out her phone. “Whatchya doing, hon?” James asks. “I’m looking up how to take care of a new pond. I want to make sure we know what we’re doing.”

After some research, here is what she finds-

How To Check Pond Water Levels

One of the first things people want to know is how to know when their pond is full. They don’t want to over or under fill it.

Skimmer and filter mat ready for fall pond maintenance cleaning

There are 3 ways to find out:

  1. Take the top off of your skimmer lid. You want there to by a minimum of a ¾ inch gap between the water’s surface and the top of the skimmer gate (the opening water and such comes through).
    • Use a marker or piece of tape to mark the fill line
  2. You can also use the skimmer’s faceplate. You want a ¾ inch gap between the top opening of the skimmer and the water’s surface.
  3. Use a rock as a guide. Choose a rock that touches the water and use that as a guide for full or not full enough. The video shows a great example.

How To Clean A Pond Skimmer

Along with this question, we are asked “where’s my pump?” and “where are my filters?” The answer is that it’s all in your skimmer.

Cleaning a skimmer basket

To clean your skimmer:

  1. Take off the lid
  2. Close the skimmer door
  3. Let the water drain out
  4. Lift the basket out
  5. Pull out debris in the basket
  6. Take out filter mat and clean off
  7. Put everything back

*The sucking sound you’ll hear is normal

How Often To Add Water And Where To Do It

It’s a little different for every pond (you can always ask us right after we install your pond). 

Within 7-10 days you may have to add about 3 inches of water. It depends on the time of year, weather conditions, where your pond is in your yard, sun exposure, etc.

To add water, take your garden hose and fill up the pond with water.

Dechlorinating Your Water

It may be a good idea to add a dechlorinating product to the water if you have fish. This makes the water better for them.

We recommend the Aquascape detoxifier. 1 pump treats 100 gallons. You can’t over dechlorinate the water but you don’t want to waste the de-chlorinator either.

Adding Beneficial Bacteria

Beneficial bacteria is another goodie you can add to your pond. They help filter the water and keep it clean and healthy.

A new pond needs twice as much bacteria for the first 2 weeks. One leveled scoop treats 1,300 gallons of water. It’s ok to go over on this as well. Add it to the part with the most aeration (normally in front of the skimmer).

Do it every day for 2 weeks then switch to 1 scoop a week after that.

Autodosers

You can also install an autodoser to do this for you. This device needs swapping out every month or 2 with a new maintain bag. You can see the exact process in the video.

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“This is great! I feel much more confident that we can properly care for our new pond now,” Amanda sighs in relief. James smiles. “Let’s keep looking around this website. We might find some other helpful information.”