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Pond Advice For Small And Large Ponds

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The Best Pond Vacs For Water Gardens And Ponds

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The latest offerings of pond vacs and vacuums in 2019 encompass a pretty wide range of prices and capabilities. When evaluating the various models, one thing can be certain…they are not all created equal.

Ultimately choosing the proper vac for your needs comes down to the size of your pond, the depth you’re dealing with, and the particular substances you’re trying to remove from the pond itself.

If the work is fairly light duty, with some minor leaves, a bit of muck or debris, or uneaten fish food, then all of the vacuums listed below should handle that job alright. This is assuming the pond is fairly small…say 1000 gallons or smaller, with a moderate depth of 2 to 3 feet at the most.

As the debris load gets heavier or larger, and the pond size increases in both depth and surface area, the demands on the pond vacuum will go up. And so that all needs to be taken into consideration.

What’s Your Time Worth?

Several vacs are considered continuous duty…meaning they never shut off…they will suck and discharge at the same time. As you might expect, this greatly speeds up the time spent on cleaning. Others will pull and discharge in cycles…so while discharging, the vac will not be able to clean the pond. This is not a huge inconvenience for smaller ponds, but for a larger one, it could take quite a while to work through these cycles. The top three models listed below are all continuous duty vacs, and in this respect, they are the most expensive of the lot, but you do get what you pay for.

Consider Your Depth

The other big issue with pond vacuums is their capability to handle various depths. There is a certain amount of horse power needed to pull debris from the bottom of the pond. If your depth is only a few feet or so, then most any powered vac should handle this. Even some light duty muck vacs can work, but they likely won’t manage any kind of heavy debris like wet leaves or algae.

As a pond get’s to three feet or deeper, down to six or seven feet, the more expensive powered vacuums have to be considered. The Matala Cyclone and Oase Pond-o-Vac 5 are the two top contenders here. The Matala is said to be able to pump from as deep as 18′, however realistically, with debris the depth will probably be lower. The POV5 is rated for 7.5 feet and should work fairly well at that depth.

Of all the pond vacuums represented in our listing, our top rating actually goes to the Pond-o-Vac 4. It’s an older model to be sure, but represents the best balance between all the offerings. It isn’t as powerful as the two top models, but will work in depths down to about 6′ which is more than enough for most pond owners. It is continuous duty so it offers the same type of time savings, but has a much more affordable price. All in all, its probably the best fit for many pond owners.

And should you demand a bit less in capability, the POV Classic is a good choice. Need more? Check out the Matala Cyclone or the POV5…which are some of the best consumer oriented pond vacs that money can buy.

The Most Effective Way To Protect Fish From Herons

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Pondshelter

For small pond owners with fish, there’s one thing you simply do not want to see hanging around your pond.  And that’s a heron.

In actuality, any type of wading, fishing bird could spell trouble, but Great Blue Herons seem to top the list of trouble makers when it comes to goldfish or koi ponds.  And they are effective hunters.

Stories abound from pond owners who have watched as their fish numbers dwindled with the arrival of one of these winged hunters.  They are opportunistic, patient, and persistent, and they can cause a lot of trouble for valuable fish.  

It should be noted up front that all of these birds are protected by law, so physical harm or eradication is really not advised.  So a pond owner will normally turn to some type of defense.  And we’ve seen a lot of them over the years.

So how do most of these tools stack up in the real world?

Well, the report on many of them really isn’t all that good.  Despite what many marketing folk might suggest, decoys, sprayers, shiny lights and flashing things, are simply no guarantee that a bird will be deterred.  I’ve come to think of Herons as a relatively smart bird, and when an easy meal is at stake, they’ll put up with a lot.

What makes the task of defense so difficult is that you can’t watch the pond from dawn till dusk.  And one never quite knows when a bird will show up.  In most parts of the country, spring and fall tend to be more common periods, but in reality, anywhere that Herons nest or winter could be viable territory for them.

So in the end, here’s the one tool that seems to work better than anything else…and it’s simple and probably won’t come as a big surprise.

Pond Netting.

Without question, the one thing that the vast majority of pond owners reported as effective was some type of pond netting.  Ideally, the net should be elevated above the water, with some type of under-structure to support it.  Any netting is really better than nothing, but for full protection, I prefer the elevated type.  Make sure the mesh is relatively small and tight.  It doesn’t have to be super small but a 1/4″ to 1/2″ mesh is ideal, and anything up to about 1″ is acceptable.

We often think of netting as a useful tool during the fall to keep leaves and debris out of the pond, but in truth, it’s a valuable thing to have around at any time of year.  You want something that’s easy and quick to deploy as well.  This isn’t something you would necessarily need to leave over the pond all the time (although you could).  But in times of trouble, people simply got the best results from covering the pond until the intruder left the area…and usually that happens pretty quickly if they arent’ getting a few easy meals.