Ratios in the Water Garden

Ratios in the Water Garden

Your water garden is a combination of plants, fish, water and external environmental factors. The number of fish and plants that you have in the water garden is going to be a determining factor of the success in your water garden. Ratios of fish and plants in your water garden are basic starting levels when you are first stocking your water garden. Because it is important to start balancing the water garden when first creating the water garden you don’t want to over stock the water garden when you are first starting out.

A good supply of floating and submerged plants will provide a good oxygen level for the fish that are living in the pond. At the same time, too many fish can be difficult for the water to handle all at one time. Increasing the fish population over a few weeks is easier when you already have balanced the environment so you don’t put additional stress on the fish that are living in the water.

Submerged plants are generally sold in bunches of six plants. For every ten square foot of water in your garden, you can have five or six bunches of submerged plants in the water garden.

For every ten square foot of water, you can easily start out growing two or three marginal plants in the water garden.

Water lilies require more space than most other plants, for the average water lily you can have just one for every ten square foot of water in the pond.

Floating plants do not require as much as the water lily, you should be able to start two floating water plant in every ten square foot of water in your water garden.

You will need to add snails to your water garden is you don’t often see snails in your landscape. Five to ten snails are going to be needed added to the environment for every ten square foot of water in your garden.

Fish are one of the most difficult ratios for you to figure when you are starting out building a new water garden. You need to think about the fish in inches rather than each fish. You can have a maximum of one foot of fish in the water garden that is just ten square foot. So if you have tiny goldfish, you can have a few, but if you have a koi you can only have one or two based on their size. ( But be aware the while the koi will grow slowly soon you will have a few 1000 goldfish )