WATER QUALITY BY JIM LAYTON Most water gardens are installed because the customer wants to bring nature close to home. The sound of a waterfall, colorful goldfish feeding from your hand and beautiful water lilies are all features that make water gardening attractive. Fish ponds without plants, designed to display koi and goldfish, are becoming attractive on the corporate level too. Hotels and retirement communities, for example, are beginning to incorporate aquascapes into their property development plans. While interest and installation of water gardens is increasing, knowledge of the care required to manage these aquatic landscapes is lacking. Many landscape firms who create beautiful aquascapes readily admit they know very little about maintaining the aquatic ecosystem they have built. This is unfortunate because the health of all aquatic life depends on the quality of water in the pond. Herein lies the root of nearly all problems that occur in water gardens-poor water quality. Relax! You don't have to be a biologist to understand how to manage a water garden. If you design or maintain water gardens, this article will provide you with the simple steps to keeping a pond healthy. For those simply interested in ponds, this will give you the knowledge to screen perspective subcontractors who design and install aquascapes. Let's start by comparing natural ponds to our water gardens. In nature, the number of living creatures in a pond is regulated by factors such as available food, space, oxygen, and predation. If, for example, the population of fish gets too dense, the population is automatically reduced to sustainable levels. This can be caused by a diseases outbreak or lack of food, for example. We design our water gardens to look natural, but the similarities end there. Our water gardens contain over 100 times the amount of fish found in nature. We all marvel when we see a thrashing group of hungry koi feeding at the pond's surface. But it is exactly that mass of fish that requires us to manage water quality. Our fish ponds are so heavily populated that we must add food, aerate the water and make partial water changes to keep things healthy. My point is this: natural ponds take care of themselves, we, however, must take care of the ones we build. Let's take a look at the water we are adding to the pond. Just about every municipal water supply is treated with chlorine or chloramine. These disinfectants are added to make water safe to drink. Unfortunately they are highly toxic to pond life, especially fish and other pond life like frogs. Chlorine readily dissipates in heavily aerated water after about 24 hours. Chloramine, a combination of chlorine and ammonia, is much more stable, requiring several days to be removed. Treated tap water, however, should never be added to a pond without first adding a water conditioner. Water conditioners are formulated to instantly neutralize toxic chlorine and chloramine. Regardless of brand, every water conditioner neutralizes a certain level of chlorine/chloramine per gallon per dose. If the water conditioner is under-dosed, residual chlorine or chloramine will be present resulting in dead fish. Next, we need to monitor the pH level, the amount of acidity in pond water. Although aquatic plants and fish can tolerate a wide pH range, pH should be tested monthly. While a pH level of 7.0 to 7.5 is ideal, a range of 6.8 to 8.2 is acceptable. pH is easily measured with test kits designed for pond use. Pond test kits also provide valuable information on adjusting pH if necessary. If you keep pond fish, you must test for ammonia and nitrate. Pond fish release ammonia directly from the gills. Urine and solid waste also contribute to the ammonia load. Uneaten fish food and plant leaves decompose, releasing ammonia into the water. Fortunately, naturally occurring bacteria.