To Rock or Not To Rock Your Pond?
Greetings from the world of waterscapes. There is much debate in the pond building world about whether or not to Rock your pond. You may read a lot of blogs or articles saying that rocking the pond is bad idea. Their reasons for this are that it makes it so the fish won’t stand out as much. Also that rock will make it harder to manage plant growth. Once your fish get big enough they will be equally beautiful in a rocked pond, and there are several ways to manage you plant growth easily, even with rock. However, the main reason they say not to rock your pond, is that it will make it harder to clean. This is true. When you put rock in a pond, you are no longer able to completely sanitize it from top to bottom. The real question here is whether you should completely sanitize your pond.
Why No Rock Causes Problems
What do we use to keep our ponds looking fresh and clean all year? We use beneficial bacteria. I maintenance a lot of ponds that have no rock and their biggest problem is constantly green water. They add beneficial bacteria every day to get rid of the green water and they’ll get their Pond looking clear but as soon as they go back to using the bacteria weekly the pond gets out of hand again. The reason this happens is when you have no rock in your pond the beneficial bacteria has no compatible surface to thrive on. Bacteria doesn’t stick to liner which means it goes through the filtration system and gets washed out when you clean your filtration.
When you do a clean out, you are completely sanitizing your pond. You are pumping every bit of beneficial bacteria out of that pond along with the water. Then you run into the problem of your water turning green immediately afterwards. This leaves you so disappointed, that you won’t be able to truly enjoy your pond for the rest of the season. For beneficial bacteria to work properly there needs to be an abundance of it on as many surfaces of your pond as possible.
Why Rock Is Good For Your Pond
Rock creates a healthy environment for aerobic bacteria, which in turn creates a healthier environment for your fish, aquatic plants, and improves your water quality. While some may believe that no rock in the pond makes it easier to clean, it also means that it’s going to need to be cleaned a lot more often. It will take that much more maintenance to keep it clean.
Through research and years of doing maintenance on thousands of different ponds built so many ways, most experts have concluded that mother nature knows what she’s doing. If you stick to a pond that is as natural as possible it will stay cleaner and healthier longer. If you truly want a beautiful water feature the most important part is recreating what Nature has already perfected.
As always, we are here to answer any of your questions. Catch you downstream.