Mark

Introducing Our New Points On Purchase Rewards Program

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Rewards program

As a small business owner I can tell you point blank, that we would be nothing without our customers.  And thankfully we have a lot of very loyal, regular customers who use our products in their ponds.

With this in mind, over the last year or so, we’ve upgraded our online shopping cart system and while it was quite an effort, we’ve worked out virtually all the major bugs and since that’s been accomplished, we’re now moving on to something that will be a sort of “payback” to all of you who have worked with us over the years.

I’ve been wanting to do a customer loyalty, or rewards program for some time and within the next few weeks, this program will become a reality.  So with every purchase you make, with every dollar spent, you’ll be able to accrue points that can be redeemed in future purchases and it’s the best way we know to help you save more when caring for you pond!

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Pond Aeration For Long And Narrow Ponds

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Every once in awhile I’ll get a pond owner who asks about aerating an oddly shaped pond.  Most commonly, what this PA10DiffuserUnderwater2 1means is the pond may be quite a bit longer than it is wide.  The shape really isn’t uniform but more oblong or extended.  The pond might be a 1/4 acre to an acre in size and this presents a bit of a challenge for fitting a typical aerator kit.

Most of these systems are, at least initially, laid out with a uniform pond in mind.  It might be round, square, or a something close to that, and if that’s the case it’s no big deal.  Just fit the suggested unit to the surface area and the depth that you’re working with.

You might recall that depth is a critical factor here because the deeper you can get a diffuser the more surface area it will positively affect.

But on ponds that either have a really oblong shape, or those that are very shallow, there’s a better way to cover them, and that’s with an additional diffuser, rather than just using a single one.

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Why We Changed Our Small Pond Aeration Kits

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If you’ve visited our website recently you may have noticed a change in our small pond aerators.  With this in mind I Aquascape pa2wanted to bring you up to speed on this and why we made the changes.

The fact is we are always on the lookout for better performing products and processes and with regards to the Airmax Pond Air 2 and Pond Air 4, they have been admirable and solid performers for us for a handful of  years.  Some of you reading this may have one running in your pond right now and if so, I suspect you’ve been fairly happy with it.  We have been as well.

But we did run into issues with some customers who found that the Airmax units had some depth limitations.  In other words they really weren’t designed to go much beyond 3 or 4 feet in depth.  This will be just fine for many ponds but not for everyone we serve, and so when we came across several units that could work down to 8 to 8 feet, we just had to check them out.

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There’s No Better Way To Protect Your Fish From Herons

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Carol, a pond friend of ours, wrote into us recently and had a great question about heron decoys.

Last fall, a Great Blue Heron came into her fish pond and may have taken out any number of fish.  It was hard to tell just how many, but some were likely eaten, and while eventually they did get the bird to move on, she was worried about the return of another one.

It’s a valid concern for fish pond owners, particularly in the spring and fall when herons are migrating around.  They’re always on the lookout for an easy and tasty meal, and fish ponds tend to provide that in droves.  These easy pickings tend to keep a bird around, and it’s not unheard for them to clean a pond out in a few days of feasting.

But this doesn’t have to happen to you…or Carol.

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What’s So Special About Starter Bacteria For Ponds

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We live in a complicated world.  Go to most doctors and there’s a good chance he’s a specialist in something.  I know general practitioners still exist but they sure aren’t as common as they used to be.  As I found out recently, even the common car key, just isn’t so simple anymore.  I still haven’t decided if having a computer chip in the things is an upgrade.  

Nevertheless, progress, as they say will move forward whether we like it or not.  But coupled into that evolution is an increase in complexity, and with that, usually an increase in confusion.

Which leads me to a recent question that came in from a concerned pond owner.  He wanted to know more about starter bacteria for ponds.  If he should use one.  Where he could find one.  And how long he should continue to use it.

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Watch Out For Chlorine In Your Fish Pond

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I recently came across this post in a pond forum and wanted to share this with you…and while you’d think this would be a rare thing to happen in a fish pond, that’s not really the case.

“Late last fall ,I allowed a distraction to cause me to effectively KILL all  of my Goldfish ,I had just turned on the tap water to add about 50 gals of make up water,company came ,and you know the rest ,5 hrs later ,the massacre was found ,I was SICK ,after the funeral for 85 of our friends.”

If you live in a city and/or use municipally treated water, then you’re facing a challenge of dealing with either chlorine, or worse yet, chloramines, in the water.  These chemicals are commonly used to help disinfect drinking water and while they may not cause any issues for us in the short term, the fact is they are deadly to pond fish.

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