Basic Water Garden Supplies for Beginners
It is not uncommon for people planning their first water garden to spend more time designing the layout of the garden, picking the various plants and rocks to surround it and looking at what kind of fish they want to stock it with than which water garden supplies they will need to build and maintain the whole setup! Of course it is easy to get caught up in thinking about the attractive parts of the plan rather than the nuts and bolts work that is yet to be done, but if you intend to have a high functioning water garden outside your home then now is the time to start putting some serious thought and planning into your supplies.
One of the first water garden supplies you should to consider is what kind of pump you will need. You can get away with not using a plastic pond if you choose–and they are often very small anyway–and you can get away with worrying about foliage and rocks later. The pump, however, is vital and is determined by two factors: whether you will have fish and how big your pond will be. If you will not be putting in fish you can get away with a weak pump that moves the water around gently, but plants and fish, like all living things, need oxygen to survive. As such you need to figure out how many gallons of water your pond will hold and buy a pump that can move it all within an hour (if 500 gallons or less; over that amount you want to move half the volume each hour).
The next two important items are related, namely a pond skimmer and filter in order to keep the water running smooth and clear. These two devices clean out decaying organic matter and filter out nitrates left over from fish waste. Some plants can actually take care of the filtering for you, creating a small scale ecosystem that uses up less energy. But for beginners it is best to stick with the mechanical version at first, and preferably a unified system that comes with a skimmer.
