For most of the US pond building industry, there are four seasons. Those in the southern 2/3rds of Florida, Southern California and extreme south Texas, you can stop reading right here. Well maybe not, annual cleans still need to be done in your market area as well. Spring is just a word to those of you who experience year round summer. Lucky dogs.

We’re currently in the middle of the winter season here in Georgia. This is the time of year when we get our equipment and supply inventory ready for Spring Start ups, the official launch of the new year’s business for the majority of pond professionals across this great country. As soon as water temps start to rise about 10 degrees above frozen solid, we start venturing into the field getting our customers’ ponds cleaned out and off on the right foot for the new year. For rock and gravel style ponds or ponds with no bottom drains, an annual drain and clean is just about mandatory to maintain optimum water quality and fish health long term.

Note: Before I start getting blasted with emails about the pond that hasn’t been drained or cleaned in 300 years and you’ve never had any fish or water quality issues….fine. You’re the lucky exception. Don’t go to the dentist or the doctor for regular check ups either. A pond is a living entity. As a professional, I recommend an annual check up and clean up by a professional. Your customers’ overall ponding experience will benefit from it.

We do what are primarily considered sacrificial 100% water changes when we do a Spring Start Up, otherwise known as a “Spring Clean”. Why do we do it this way? Well, let’s think about it for a minute. The pond has been out there accumulating organic and air-borne debris for a year. Granted, some will have been captured in a skimmer configuration, but a lot of small organic debris will have become waterlogged and settled into all the nooks and crannies of larger rocks as well as sifting down into any gravel on flat surfaces.

Obviously, some bacteriological activity has been going on, converting some of the waste down to plant food. Seriously, think about it when someone tells you that a “once a year” clean on filter media is all that is recommended? To me, that’s like being convinced that this oil filter is good for 150,000 miles. Ever hear of “channeling”? That’s what happens when your filter pads are clogged and the water is going around the corners or edges of the filter media. That means your “filters” are clogged and all the “crud” is going right back into the pond. The biological processes that are actually going on in the pond are grounds for a whole other article.

Remember, these are ponds without bottom drains, usually with gravel in them and they don’t really have the built in ability to get this debris out of the pond, especially if the only mechanical filtration is only cleaned “once a year”. We want to get this debris out of the pond environment prior to it becoming septic and lethal to fish and aquatic life. Simply draining and refilling the pond with new water is really only putting a band aid on a potential tourniquet wound. You need to thoroughly rinse out all the nooks and crannies, rinse it down to the lowest point in the pond and get rid of it. This water makes great fertilized water for plant beds and lawns.

We use a two pump system when we do a Spring Clean. For more details on this methodology, see www.PondCleanout.com. We use one pump to lower the water level down to a level where it is relatively easy to catch the fish. We put some of the cleanest pond water in our tanks, about a 1/4th and add another 1/4th of fresh tap water appropriately De-chlorinated and treated. This allows some “jump proof” room in the tank to deter fish from jumping out and allows them to start acclimatizing to the “new” water when they’re put back in the pond. We also cover our tanks with nets for additional insurance and supply aeration. Both are important.

The care of a pond’s fish is probably one of the most important aspects of doing an annual drain and clean of a pond. There is no quicker way to get a customer upset than to cavalierly treat their fish in the catching, holding and return to pond process. Note: For those who don’t know what a sock net is, Google it and get one if you intend to handle fish safely, responsibly and professionally for your clients.

We then use another pump, about 4000 gph with either 1 ½ or 2” flex pipe to use the remaining water to rinse and flush all the accumulated “crud” out of all the nooks and crannies down to the other “draining” pump. It’s amazing how much crap is caught up in the course of a year in a “natural water garden”. We use “volume” of water, not pressure, to rinse this crud out of the pond environment. We feel that anything over 85% of crud gone is good. The rest has been both shaken and stirred and can be considered excellent bio-starter for the pond to kick off the new season. Ten years of applying this method and logic have been proven to be highly successful and effective.

Note: Be responsible on where and how you dispose of the pond’s water. It doesn’t do anybody any good to wash out the neighbor’s prize flower bed or wash all the customer’s mulch down onto their yard or patio. Be responsible and think about where all that water is going to go and what it is capable of doing, both damage wise and beneficially. You can water a small orchard with a little consideration and additional work. Upsell the service.

Years ago, we developed a check list to follow when doing a standard spring clean. A checklist can be very helpful in keeping you from forgetting a step and optimizes the business return potential. Stop and think about the steps and services that should be included in a pond clean, make a list, follow it and improve or add to it as needed. Areas that should be considered: Fish, appearance and overall health. Equipment, plants, displaced or shifted rocks repositioned, de-chlorinator, time release fertilizer tablets, outdoor rated wire connectors, nets, clean out pumps and hoses, drop cords, water hose, rubber boots, holding tank(s) for fish, aerators for fish holding tanks, covers for holding tanks, replacement filter media, replacement hardware for rusted or corroded fittings.

Do you check a client’s submerged lights when you do a pond clean? This can be somewhat of a pain when the pond is full of water. However, if you’re doing a total drain and clean of a pond, what better time to check and replace light bulbs and/or fixtures that have failed? They’re high and dry when the pond is drained. Be sure to take a few seconds and clean the lens covers of all the underwater lights. When the lights come on that first night after the clean, the customers will swear you put in brighter bulbs.

The same is true of thinning out overgrown aquatic plants. You can thin them out, taking the viable surplus back to the shop to be re-potted for future sales as well as clean up the mess quickly and easily prior to refilling the pond. On an established pond that we are draining and cleaning, we normally only add fertilizer tabs to the lilies. This gets them off to a great start and helps them bloom more profusely. Lilies in heavily shaded ponds benefit the most from the additional nutrients and often times won’t bloom well or at all without the extra kick from time release fertilizer tabs.

Lotuses are another pond plant that does well with the extra boost that fertilizer tabs offer. Most aquatic marginals that are naturalized in the pond are well enough established after their first year to not need this extra boost. Containerized plants will most definitely benefit from the fertilizer, as most plants have thoroughly leached all the nutrients out of their planting media by the end of their first or second year in a pond. Many will need to be transplanted to larger containers.

A quick side note on de-chlorinators is in order I feel. Caution….many liquid de-chlorinators lose their effectiveness quickly once the bottle is opened. Even a sealed, factory packed bottle may be totally ineffective if it has set on the shelf somewhere for over a year. I’ve seen entirely too many experienced pond builders loose a customer’s entire collection of fish by using a recently purchased bottle of liquid de-chlorinator that has no effective ingredients left in it.

I have been using Sodium Thiosulfate crystals purchased in fifty pond bags direct from the chemical supply house for years with no problems. We dose liberally, as I feel its cheap insurance to use a little extra rather than being miserly and not using enough and possibly losing a customer’s fish. Sodium Thiosulfate can be overdosed. However, it takes about 50 plus times the recommended dosage to even get close to endangering fish. Using two or three times the recommended dose is not uncommon for us.

Know your local water sources. Different municipalities and counties often times use different chemicals and water treatment methodologies that may very well affect what type of water treatment neutralizers you’ll need to use to safely return fish to your customers pond. This is YOUR responsibility. Know the water. Never stick the re-fill hose down in the water, even from well water. Prop it on the edge of the pond and let it splash on the surface. This allows many possibly toxic gases and chemical additives to off-gas and be released into the atmosphere rather than being trapped in the water and possibly compromising the pond’s fish.

Some municipal water is so soft that you’ll need to add Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda) immediately to the new water along with de-chlorinator to keep the Ph from radically fluctuating. In one of the Atlanta area water districts, this has to be done weekly to the water, as it is so soft it can’t maintain its buffering ability without the Bicarb. Several of my customers buy 50 pound bags from me. I get mine from the professional pool and spa supply house and most of the time it’s cheaper than Sam’s or Costco.

These are most of the high points of Spring Start ups. Put together a step by step process that works, gets the job done professionally and stick with it. Have a great start to a great year.

Dave A. Jones
The Pond Professional

The weather this year has most of us waiting on spring. Whether North, South, East or West; there seems to have been interesting weather in most regions of the country affecting some of ponding the adventures.

In Central America- that’s NEBRASKA-about the time we thought we might have a pleasant winter, it was “Katie bar the door” and the weather temperatures went below zero. Spring doesn’t officially arrive until March 21st no matter what part of the country you live. But it is understood that you zone 1, 2, and even some 3’s are chomping at the bit to get ponding.

So, is this the year you expand your pond, up grade or renovate? Don’t forget that the sponsors of IPPCA are resources for parts and pieces for those “up grades” and “renovation” projects. Also IPPCA technicians are just a phone call away at 770-592-9790 and the Message Board has always been a great resource for information.

Apprentice Contractors

• Eric Triplett
• Ted Greiner
• Andrew Majsztrik
• Lucio Farias
• Tim Krzeminski
• Slawomir Popielarczyk
• Michael Parrella
• Tom Frost
• Ray Estorga
• James Kloese

Basic Contractor

• Stan Miller

Supporting Contractor

• Douglas Brown

Approved Contractors

• Bruce Adams

Apprentice Retailer/Dealer

• Barson's Greenhouse
• Adam's Lawn & Garden
• Koi Depot of San Diego
• Coastal Pond Supply

IPPCA welcomes our new memebers.

Liquid Landscape Designs, Inc. is a New England-based company that specializes in the residential and commercial aquatic-landscape (aquascape) industry. With ties in the national water garden market, LLD provides the best possible services through the use of only top quality products with out the marriage to one specific product manufacturing company.

Graystone Industries/American Pond™ is a wholesale distributor for multiple lines of quality pond supply products. American Pond division is a manufacturer of pond kits and high quality natural water treatments under the American Pond™ brand.

Water Works Ponds is the premier water garden installer and supplier in the greater Edmonton area. Over the years we have developed and refined out techniques for building and maintaining beautiful water features. Water gardening in general is filled with misinformation perpetuated by a lack of field experience. Many so-called experts claim they know what best works in water gardening, but don't have the actual hands-on experience. Our philosophy towards water gardening has proven successful through the years of building and maintaining water features. Using quality products and construction techniques has substantiated out results. We believe crystal clear water can be achieved without complicated filtration techniques. We construct water features to look completely natural without exposed and unsightly liner, pumps, plumbing, and filters. The Water Works Ecosystem was developed to alleviate the common problems that have tainted the perception of owing a water feature. Nightmare ponds that looked unnatural had green water, leaks, overflow issues and water under the liner, is often the view people have of owning a pond. However, some of our happiest customers are previous owners of nightmare ponds. Despite a bad experience, their desire for a beautiful water feature gave them a reason to try again. They now enjoy low maintenance, problem-free ponds.

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Pondbuilder....has good entry level products


Join in today and give us your opinion.

By Jay Bearfield
Liquid Landscape Designs

I joined the IPPCA in 2005 after reading about it in an article published in an industry magazine. What attracted me most from the article was the idea of an association that wasn’t some elaborate marketing scheme. I mean, was this for real: An association that provided sound information from the field and wasn’t afraid to use and put different company’s products to the test? It was just unheard of.

After my initial phone conversation with Dave Jones, the current president, it looked like this was the association for the “real” installers: Highly professional and motivated individuals covered with pond scum, smelling like muck and armed with a net. All of whom meet the most basic of requirements: dedication to the hobby as well as the industry. And to my great pleasure, I have not been let down!

And now, two seasons later, I seek to be part of the next level of our ranks: the Certified Professional Pond Contractor (CPPC). My simple reasoning for seeking this achievement is this: “Street Credit”. As we all well know, sales and service are essential to all of our businesses. To be recognized as certified by an association with strict, published standards, will only help with the acquisition of future clients and help exemplify what it means to be provided with professional service.

I can only hope that when I have the honor of displaying this certification more public awareness is created for this association, and in turn this industry. Additionally, I feel it can only help contribute to the public realization that there is such a thing as ‘Pond Contractors’, individuals who actually specialize in water features. And when it comes to this particular group of professionals, I think everyone who comes across us will realize: “We’re DAM good at it!”

Reprinted from Archives