Canadian Pond Newsletter September 2005 Issue: 9 Vol: 1
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The Stillness of the Pond
We are all starting to feel the chill in the evenings signaling the coming of autumn and all the beauty that arrives with the shorter days: the crisp morning air, the leaves changing colors, the birds flying south in formation. You can really smell the change in the air and the morning breeze rustling the reddening leaves is particularly lovely. The pond temperature is starting to drop and only the bravest of the brave dare to go for an afternoon swim! The plants around the pond begin to slow their growth and prepare for the cold that is coming and the fish are slowing their digestive systems and metabolism as things begin to feel noticeably colder overnight. This month we will look at some ways to prepare your pond for the winter, but first...

The Canadian Pond 2005 Summer Photo Contest We asked you to grab your digital cameras and head out to the pond and take some pictures of your pond. We've received some great shots from all over and are pleased to announce the winner of our Grand Prize is Bradley Jackson of Vermont! Congratulations Bradley and your winning photo! Your grand prize of a case of BactaPUR XLG is on its way! This will help keep your pond stay clean and algae free! Click the photo to see large version. GRAND PRIZE WINNER The Morning Trees Bradley Jackson, Ontario The calm simplicity of this picture is stunning. This pond is hidden from view but the morning light is starting to reveal and reflect the myriad of creatures who are waking up to a new day on the pond! A pond can be a sweet mysterious place and this picture captures the romantic freshness that can only exist in nature. We can only imagine coming down from the house and seeing such a glorious scene with mist rising off of the warm water and fish jumping in their chase for food. Beautiful! RUNNER UP Lilies in the Mist Monica Langlois, Québec This lovely natural pond is idyllic and you can really sense the stillness in the picture. The birdhouse perched in the distance will mean a constant stream of birds flying to a fro around the pond and the lovely bloom of flowers slightly shaded near the water is just glorious! We can almost hear the crickets and frogs in the warm summer sun and would love to be sitting on a blanket having a picnic near this amazing pond! Great Shot! The dragonfly is surely one of the most amazing creatures we can have playing near our pond! In this photo our "dragonfly wrangler" delicately holds the creature as she sits on a piece of wood taking a break from the search for insects. A great shot! A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step! Nowhere is this shown to be true more than when someone undertakes a pond building project! This picture shows the messy beginnings of a large pond...we like this picture because even though it looks like nothing right now we are sure that the "after" picture will be tremendous! We can't wait to see this pond next year! Glad to see people undertaking such large projects! We liked this picture because it show a very clean pond with great vegetation around it and it looks so completely natural! A perfect place for swimming, this pond is kept clean with the help of the three aerating diffusers that you can see bubbling in the pond! Way to go! There is nothing on Earth like the incredible symphony coming from the frogs in a pond. This big hopper is quite curious and comes close to the photographer to see if maybe they are an oversized bug! What can we say, we just love our frogs so we had to pick a picture like this to be in the top six! The cooler nights are beginning to have their effects on the aquatic plants and this is a great picture of a Sagitaire in turning to seed. There are often wonderful changes happening in ponds if you look closely and this picture shows that there are excited shapes and colors transforming all around the pond, you just have to look closely. Nice picture! Thick rich grasses surrounding a pond keep erosion down, help filter the water and create a natural zone of filtration to keep rain water from washing nutrient rich materials into the pond. This pictures captures a well landscaped pond bank.

The end of summer means we spend less time outside around the pond but there is more to do than wait for the ice to come! Now is the time to start thinking of how you will care for your pond over the winter. The things you do now and in the next few months will have a dramatic impact on the health of your pond next spring and summer.

While most of the pond owners we know have fish it is only those with smaller ponds and water gardens who actually feed their fish. If you feed your fish during the summer months it is now time to stop feeding them. With the cooler temperatures the fish are starting to slow down internally and if you continue to feed them as they approach an almost hibernetic state you can cause health complications.

Accumulated organic materials can sit on the pond bottom and turn into black muck. Decomposing leaves and other natural materials will become nutrients which can feed summer algae growth. If you can reduce or eliminate the organic load of your pond you will have a healthier pond next season. In smaller ponds you can use a pond skimmer or rake to pull out any organic debris that could end up sitting on your pond bottom over winter, decaying and releasing toxic gases. Any reduction of debris that you can provide will help your pond so if you are able to manually remove any materials from the pond you will make a difference for next year.

Another good idea is to cut back water lilies, iris, cattails and any other grasses that start to die off with the colder temperatures. This will prevent them from simply falling into the pond where they decay. Better to cut them first and add them to the compost pile!

Of course it is impossible to remove all the leaves and waste materials from fish and birds so it would be extremely beneficial to your pond to end the season with a treatment of beneficial bacteria. This safe and natural bacteria will actually consume the organic materials on the bottom of your pond! When the ice melts in the spring your pond will contain fewer nutrients that are likely to turn into algae. Remember that this bacteria will be much more effective with the oxygenating effects of an aerator.

Adding an aerator may be one of the most beneficial things you can do for your pond and installing it now is an ideal time. The aerator will leave a nice hole in the ice which acts like a chimney allowing gases from decomposing material to escape. Your fish will have an better chance of surviving the winter with an aerator installed as they will be receiving high levels of oxygen throughout the winter instead of being trapped under ice with no extra oxygen coming in. By adding the aerator now you will be giving your pond a big head start on next year! Watch an Animation on the Benefits of Pond Aeration on the Canadian Government Department of Agriculture official website.

An aerator does not need to be a large and complicated system. Different ponds need different treatments. Shallower ponds will benefit from our Bubble Tubing for aeration while deeper larger ponds can be immensely helped with a Diffuser Disc system to circulate and oxygenate the water column. We can help size an aeration system for your pond and prices range from $500 and up. A good place to start sizing a system is on our Aeration Page. Of course we are available to assist you personally via e-mail or by telephone 450-243-0976 Monday to Friday from 9am to 4:30pm Eastern Standard Time.

THE 149th ANNUAL BIG BROME FAIR

The Brome Fair is a good chance for us to spread information on natural ways to care for ponds and the proper techniques to manage an e aquatic ecosystem and any sort of constructed wetland. We displayed our aeration systems, fountains and pond related equipment to around 50,000 visitors this year and once again we had our 20 foot Superior Windmill aeration system on site and when the wind was blowing the disc diffusers we had in the display tank were really sending up a boil! The windmill compressors create 35 PSI and 3 CFM so they can really do a great job of circulating the pond water.

This year we had some amazing colorful display posters made by Christina Ishoj to explain some of the more important aspects of ponds and pond maintenance. They were a big hit at the fair as young and old alike enjoyed the colorful easy-to-understand drawings explaining ponds. We have reprinted them here in PDF format if you would like to download them ...they are useful for convincing relatives or neighbors who aren't convinced anything can be done with an algae covered, swampy, smelly pond! Download Poster 1 Healthy Pond Vs. Eutrophic Pond Download Poster 2 Typical Pond Aeration

At the fair this year we were please to announce that we have also become authorized dealers of Kelln Solar. Kelln Solar is based in Saskatchewan and has a full line of solar powered water pumps and aerators as well as watering systems for livestock. We used the fair to showcase some of their simply yet useful pumps, watering systems and aerators that require only the free energy from the sun to operate!

The solar panels we set up attracted allot of attention and the bright sun that was shining really had the aerators bubbling at full speed. The Kelln Solar direct aerators work by using a single solar panel connected directly to a 12v air compressor. There is no batteries needed. When the sun shines the aerator is working and when it is dark there is no bubbles. We have solar aerators for ponds up to 16 feet deep and while they may be small in size they are very effective!

In this picture we see David adjusting the solar panel. At his feet in the blue plastic display tank you can see the resulting bubbles rising from the dual disc diffuser. The tiny DC compressor fits into a small wooden box. A complete direct aeration system with 100 feet of self-sinking tubing and the dual disc diffuser base is $1999. It's a cost effective way to add a simple aerator to small ponds.

Contact us for more info on our solar systems.