5 Things You Can Add to Your Koi Pond to Make it More Beautiful

Whether you build a koi pond on your own, hire a professional to set it up, or move into a home that already has one in the backyard, you can always take additional steps to decorate it and make it prettier. Koi have always been praised for their ornamental appearance, but their beauty can be enhanced by means of improving their surroundings with decorative elements that go beyond their aquatic habitat. Keeping a koi pond is an activity similar to gardening in the sense that you can complete many decorating projects on your own. Here are five DIY ideas you can try to improve the overall look of your garden pond, brought to you by the pond experts at Aquatic Warehouse, a trusted provider of koi pond supplies.

1. Plants

You can never go wrong with adding more plants to a koi pond. If for some reason you established the pond without plants, this is a project you should take on and complete as soon as possible because doing so is one of the best ways to improve the health of the ecosystem. Floating plants such as water hyacinth should be your first choice. They can be augmented with water lilies planted on the shallow sections or bog plants such yellow iris at the edge.

2. Floating Pond Lights

Thanks to LED technology, battery-powered pond lights that float on the surface are priced very reasonably, and most of them are shaped to resemble water lilies that change colors as they rotate. If you already have floating plants, set these pond lights away from them so they don’t get tangled.

3. Landscaping Rocks

Adding colorful river rock for the bottom of the pond is an option if you manage to keep the water crystal clear at all times, but this allows fish waste to accumulate and makes it difficult to extract. A better idea would be to allocate some of your decorating budget toward landscaping rocks to place around the pond. Combining fragments of slate, limestone, and flagstone shouldn’t be too expensive, and you may be able to purchase inexpensive remnants from flooring contractors.

4. Driftwood Pieces

Attracting birds and lizards to your garden pond is a matter of setting up driftwood in the right places. There’s a pond rule to follow with regard to driftwood: if it’s meant to go in the water, it should be fake. You don’t know if natural driftwood may contain pollutants, parasites, or other pathogens that could throw your ecosystem off-balance. It also creates a perch for predators that you have to account for. Natural logs can be placed a couple of feet away from the pond amidst rocks.

5. Floating Fountain

Even if you already have a waterfall or bubbling aeration system in place, installing a modern floating fountain complete with colorful LED lights is a smart idea. These fountains are easy to plug in and keep in place by means of a tether hook located on the base.

Keeping your pond looking beautiful also involves having all the essential supplies on hand to maintain it properly. Whether you need submersible pond pumps, beneficial bacteria, filtration, supplements, or any other essential pond supply, Aquatic Warehouse has got you covered. Stop by our store located in Kearny Mesa, order what you need from our website and have it shipped to you, or give us a call with any questions at 858-467-9297. ​