How do you spell pond maintenance? Gary Wittstock spells it P-F-B-O-G.
“When you’re working with fish and plants in a pond, you create an ecosystem,” says the president of Pond Supplies of America, Yorkville, Ill. “I always suggest that people use PFBOG as a checklist for keeping all the right elements in balance in the pond.” Here’s what the cryptic phrase stands for:
P – Plants. “Not pumps,” Wittstock says. “A good selection of aquatic plants will help purify the water by using nitrogen in fish waste as a nutrient source.”
F – Filters. Wittstock recommends using one mechanical and one biological filter.
B – Bacteria. “We add supplement bacteria to a pond to keep the ecosystem in balance,” he comments. “These products are consumables that come in jars and you just sprinkle some in on about a weekly basis.”
O – Oxygen. “This is where the pumps come in,” Wittstock says, explaining that as water comes into the pond’s skimmer for cleaning, the pumps move it up into the waterfall box where the water cascades back into the pond.
“Waterfalls are wonderful oxygenators because the water collects oxygen molecules as it makes its way back down to the pond. Oxygen is essential to support an ecosystem because beneficial bacteria thrive on it.”
G – Gravel. Wittstock notes that larger rocks are helpful for protecting liners and adding dimension to water features, but gravel also is an essential element. “Rocks don’t provide a lot of surface area, but tiny pieces of gravel that fit in between the bigger stones give a lot of room for bacteria to colonize and purify the water,” he explains.
The author is associate editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at lspiers@lawnandlandscape.com.