Pond Liners Online

Epalyn pond liner is slightly more flexible than Butyl pond liner, although they are very similar in appearance. Epalyn pond liner is superior to Butyl in certain major physical properties, such as its tear strength and tensile strength.

Epalyn liner retains its strength, durability and elasticity regardless of the influence of water, heat and temperature fluctuations, movements in the ground or UV radiation. This means it remains stable with advancing years, without shrinkage, melting, brittleness or cracking.

Available in 0.75mm, 0.85mm and 1mm, all grades also come with a lifetime guarantee.

For all garden fountains and water features, you need a good water pump for your project to look impressive and be a success.

Pumps vary in water flow and capacity, power supply, filtration, possible uses, durability, size, maintenance and cost. All these matter when choosing a pond pump.

The success of garden water features involving moving water depends ultimately on the pump. A suitable water pump can also help to keep an ordinary pond clear and healthy for fish and aquatic plants.

Choosing a suitable pond pump from the bewildering selection available is therefore most important. Here are some of the things to consider:

• Pond application - submersible pond pumps may be used to operate garden fountains, streams or waterfalls, to filter garden ponds or to power free standing patio water features.
• Pump Capacity - this may be expressed as a measure of water flow (liters or gallons per hour), and/or ‘head’, the maximum height to which the pump will raise water.

For fountains, the ‘head’ is the more significant measure, as it tells you how high the pond pump will throw water above the surface of the pond.

A pond only needs to be completely drained of water if the pond liner is damaged at the bottom of the pond. For repairs to the sides of the pond, drain the ponds water until the damaged area is exposed.

Examine the pond liner to ensure that there are no additional leaks in the PVC liner. Mark these leaks by circling them with a piece of chalk.

Cut a piece of PVC liner in a circular shape. The shape will need to be larger than the size of the hole in the pond liner.

Clean the pond liner in the area around the hole with a brush and a small amount of dry salt to break up the algae around the tear. Rinse with clean tap water.

Dry the surface of the tear using a cloth or a hair dryer.

Spread PVC liner patching glue over the surface of the tear and the surface of the patch. Allow the glue to dry until it is no longer tacky to the touch.

Press the patch, glue side down, over the hole in the pond liner so that the two glued sides are sandwiched together. Apply the patch uniformly over the hole to prevent wrinkles. Hold for 30 seconds.

Wait 48 hours for the glue to cure before refilling the pond.

Pond heaters or pond de-icers are a necessary pond accessory for all Koi or other fish keepers as it is important that the pond water is kept at a stable temperature to ensure a healthy environment for fish during the cold winter months.

Pond water heaters usually come as a submersible pond heater or as a floating pond deicer. Submersible heaters lie on the bottom of the pond and must be completely submerged when in use. They heat a larger area than a floating pond deicer would.  are the lower cost option and the easiest to install.

Fish can usually survive in a garden pond during the winter months provided the water is deep enough. If you have a shallow pond you should use either a pond heater or a pond de-icer. If you notice bubbles forming under an iced over pond, it could be methane gas, which is toxic to fish if it is not allowed to escape. If your garden pond does ice over and you don’t have a pond heater or pond de-icer, an alternative method is to place a pot of hot water on the ice surface until it melts through, allowing the methane to escape.

A floating pond deicer floats on the surface of a pond and works by melting a hole in the pond ice cover. This allows gases to escape during the freezing winter months. Pond de-icers contain automatic thermo-regulators that turn on whenever the water temperature drops below 40-degrees Fahrenheit. Pond de-icers are the lower cost option of preventing a garden pond icing over and are the easiest to install.

To determine the size of pond heater you need, consider that it takes approximately 1000 watts to heat 250 gallons of water to 10-degrees Fahrenheit. You will need to make your own calculations based on the size of your garden pond.

This information is bought to you by Pond Liners Online, suppliers of high quality rubber pond liners, PVC liners and protective pond underlay.

I guess I speak for most of us in the UK, that we are longing for the warmer, sunny days which Spring brings. So, while we still have a few weeks to go, it’s important to schedule in spring pond care for when the days do start to get warmer. Spring will also become evident when fish start swimming around more energetically and plants are poking green shoots above the water.

If you are a koi fish keeper and don’t have a water heater in your koi pond, it is important to note that koi fish must not be fed until the pond water temperatures are stable at around 55 degrees F at night.

Things to do when spring approaches:

• Give your pond filter a good cleaning. If you have a biofilter, give it a boost of a bacteria/enzyme product to ensure a good bacteria colony starts to grow in the biofilter.
• Clean your pond pump and check all hoses for leaks or cracks.
• If you have a net covering your pond, make sure it is still intact, if not, replace it.
• Remove leaves or other debris in your pond.
• As the water heats up, the debris begins to decompose, contaminating the water, which in turn affects the health of fish.
• Spring is a great time to totally clean out your pond. Remove all water, all equipment, scrub the sides lightly (no soap), rinse - this is optional and would depend on size of pond, amount of plant and/or fish content
• Check your fish for any illnesses or wounds.
• Divide and repot pond plants. Avoid re-potting with soil full of organic matter. Most water plants grow well by potting them up in sand and don’t require fertilizer. Water lilies are, however, an exception and do require fertilizer for a healthy growth. Water plants get their nutrients by utilizing fish waste. If you have extra plants after you have divided them, you may want to consider growing them in low, damp spaces in your garden.
• If you keep fish in your pond, make sure that up to half of the surface of your pond is covered with floating plants as it gives the fish a place to hide from predators and keeps them cool in the heat of the summer. It also keeps the sun from encouraging algae growth.
• If your pond is lined with a pond liner, check that the material you have used for the edging is still in place, sufficiently covering the pond line to prevent any possible damage from claws or the UV rays - rubber pond liners are UV stable and will withstand long periods of UV exposure - but, a bare edging exposing a pond liner can detract from the beauty of the pond.

HAPPY SPRING CLEANING - when the good weather arrives!!

There are so many creative ways of making water features for small gardens. You can use just about any type of container to create a unique feature in your garden. An idea is to turn a wooden rectangular box into a focal point on a patio. Here is a basic guide on how to create this feature:

• put the wooden box in position in your garden or on the patio
• line the box with a pond liner to make it water tight
• place a submersible pump in position and cover with an inverted flower pot to protect it
• make sure the water is deep enough to cover the pump completely
• create a stone feature around the pump - you can do to your taste, but a unique effect is to lay the stones in such a way that water emerges from a rocky cascade at one end and water flows down to the other end so that it produces the effect of a little stream.

If your garden pond is frequently plagued by predators, there are a few solutions to consider depending on what type of predator is preying on your fish.

A solution may be to put netting over your pond. A fence around the perimeter will also serve as predator protection, but may detract from the beauty and landscaping around the pond.

Another predator distraction is to construct the edging around your pond with a significant edge overhang.

Some interesting advice I heard on keeping the Grey Heron from preying on the fish in a garden pond - herons apparently recognise crocodiles as enemies and will keep away from any waters where they are lurking, so put a plastic crocodile at the edge of your pond (heron’s usually feed close to the banks).

A pond pump needs regular maintenance to keep it working efficiently. This requires that you remove the pump from your pond to clean off and dispose of any collected debris that might cause the pump to slow down or to eventually burn out. How often should this be done? Well, it largely depends on the season, the size filter screen, the density of vegetation surrounding your pond and whether any trees are growing close by - all of which will contribute to how often your pond pump needs removing and cleaned. During the autumn months, your pump may require daily, or more frequent maintenance to keep the filter clear of debris.

To clean your pond pump, remove the pump from your pond and hose the filter screen clean. If you don’t have time to do this regularly enough, then consider fitting a larger filter box to the pump - the larger the surface area of the filter screen, the less often the pond pump will need to be cleaned.

There is no doubting that a water feature of any form is a wonderful focal point in any garden. But, for many of us it is perhaps the thought of all the maintenance that is potentially required to keep it healthy and looking good, which puts us off having one in our own gardens.

There are, however ways of constructing a pond with added features, which require low maintenance:

• Site the pond in an open area of full sun with no trees or nearby shrubs that might deposit leaves in the pond or damage the lining of the pond with root intrusions.
• Site the pond at a slightly higher point of the lay of the land to prevent surface runoff contamination.
• Use pond lining materials of high quality to prevent having to carry out any chronic or recurrent repairs to the pond.
• Provide a protective underlay beneath the pond liner to help prevent sharp points on rocks working their way through the soil and puncturing the liner.
• A pond needs to be installed so that it is perfectly level - apart from a potentially irritating lopsided appearance, it may result in the pond flooding more easily.
• Constructing a pond for low maintenance requires that it be accessible as there will be times you will need to go into the pond. Sloped sides will make this difficult, particularly if there is algae growing on the lining of the pond.
• Create a low maintenance edging by cementing down heavy stones or slabs so that they will remain securely in place. Paving blocks or bricks also create a low maintenance pond edge.
• Install a submersible pump setting it about 15cm (6 inches) from the bottom of the pond. Setting it above the bottom of the pond will keep the pump from pulling-in settled debris. The filter screen will still require taking out and hosing down weekly in the summer and autumn months. The larger the surface area of the filter screen the less frequently it will require cleaning.

I hope these ideas will either help convince you to go ahead and construct a pond in your garden, or they’ll help shorten the time required to maintain your water garden.

What could be more soothing than the tranquil sound of water trickling over stones in a mountain stream? Well, why not create this effect in your own garden or patio. Using a decorative container, pebbles and a submersible pump, you can create a water feature where water is the focal point:

• Choose a decorative container big enough to house a submersible pump with rocks or pebbles covering the top.
• To keep the container water tight, line with a rubber or PVC pond liner. The pond liner will be secured in place by carefully positioning the pebbles in the container.
• Put an inverted plastic bowl at the bottom of the container to house the pump. The bottom of the bowl needs to come up to about 10cm (4 inches) from the top of the container. The bowl needs to have holes drilled into it for the water to move about freely.
• Drill a hole through the rock/stone, which will form the focal point of the fountain.
• Push the pump outlet through the hole in the rock/stone. Sandstone or limestone are the easiest to drill through. Make sure the stone you use is hardened and weathered - a freshly dug stone may give off gritty particles, which will gather in your container and block the pump.
• Decorate the surrounding area with pebbles.
• Once installed, keep checking the water level, particularly in warmer, dry weather and top-up as required.
• Add algicide to the water to ensure that the water remains crystal clear.

Now, you can sit back and enjoy the tranquil sound of your own water feature.