The pandemic’s increase in residents’ time close to home has led to a run of on-property improvements. One interesting add-on is a backyard or garden Koi pond. AquaReale, a nearby water features company and Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce member, is a font of information on them.

A Koi pond is essentially an ecosystem, meaning Mother Nature herself cares for details such as food, shelter, and its Koi fish residents.

The upside is that, when properly installed, a Koi pond is low-maintenance for its owner.

But properly installed are the watchwords.

The components of a healthy Koi pond are:

• Filters that remove excess nutrients and skims debris from the water’s surface
• Rocks and gravel, which protect the pond’s liner from deterioration from the sun
• A recirculation system for proper oxygenation for fish and plant inhabitants
• Fish (of course)
• Plants, which add character as well as perform additional filtration duties

Together these elements sustain a circle-of-life relationship: Fish eat plant life; fish produce waste that falls to the pond’s bottom; that debris is broken down by bacteria supported by the rock foundation; once broken down those substances become food for the plants; the plants grow and become fish food all over again.

Full contact information for AquaReale is at the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce website.