Aqua Eden

I'm still learning after my first year having a pond, but I'm pretty sure that my Koi eat the roots on my water hyacynths and water lettuce. I wasn't sure if you have fish or not, but that could be part of the issue if you do. The ones they can't get to flourish and serve to replace the ones they ea...

Good feedback as always. I'll read and network more before I decide if I pursue this. I promise I'll send you some pics. I haven't yet because I still don't feel like I'm "finished", but I'll give you some work in progress pics from my first year. We really are enjoying our pond and fish. ...

I recently did a local Tour of Ponds and was surprised that several Koi pond owners swear by adding salt to their ponds periodically. Whenever I think of doing this, it seems too much like cooking a gumbo to me. Their ponds were some of the cleanest on the tour, with less algae than many others. I h...

Jake, I'd like to see what plants you use for ground cover in the wet locations since I am still trying to finish my landscaping of my new pond. I'd be interested in swapping some, if I had any - and I'll keep that in mind as I find some. I do have some floating plants that I can offer you, but they...

For those of us in hotter climates, I'd appreciate a little discussion about pond summerization. In the Baton Rouge, LA area lately (July-Aug), we have seen ambient temperatures averaging around 100 DegF in the afternoon with humidity in the 90's. What is the range of good water temperatures for Koi...

I am concerned about my fish jumping out of the pond after hearing several horror stories from friends. Is there any rhyme or reason to why or when this happens? Do Koi jump out typically where the pond is shallow, deep, sunny, shaded, aerated, stagnent, etc... ? Is there anything practical I can do...

I do have a fair amount of green algae forming on some of the rocks and I think some of it is string algae. What do you recommend I do about this?

Are there any algae-eating fish or snails you would recommend or caution me against?

Should I monitor water quality for anything periodically?

I have been cleaning the filter-pads by spraying with a water hose about once every 10-14 days, and there usually seems to be 10-20% of the bottom pad starting to get caked-up with sludge (and good bacteria I'm sure) – should I clean it more often? Should I continue cleaning all the filter media a...