Quick Question

[ttimmer10]

I have an outdoor pond and was wondering the necessity of a pump to get oxygen into the water if I planted aquatic plants in it. It seems to me that if there are plants in there they will add oxygen to the water... is this addition sufficient enough to support fish?

oh so many more questions... but that will have to do for now.
thanks

It depends on several factors.

1. the plants must be oxegenators, Sumberged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV). Marginal plants do nothing to add [acronym:5636659a35="Oxygen"]o2[/acronym:5636659a35] to the water. Neiter do water lillies, they do their co2/[acronym:5636659a35="Oxygen"]o2[/acronym:5636659a35] exchange with their pads, so all is done above water.

2. bioload. You must have a balance of fish to sav. if you have a lot of fish, and few sav, there will not be enough [acronym:5636659a35="Oxygen"]o2[/acronym:5636659a35] genetrated.

3. type of fish. If you have fish that destry sav, (such as koi) it will not work. goldfish eat a little sav, but not enough to destroy the sav, at least [acronym:5636659a35="In My Experience"]ime[/acronym:5636659a35].

Prolly more factors, but those are the main ones.

[acronym:5636659a35="Hope this helps (or) Happy to help"]HTH[/acronym:5636659a35]!

[stoneydee]

And remember that goldies usually do better with extra aeration anyway - so if you don't run a pump, I'd at least drop an airstone (size dependent on the size of the pond) in there. . .

[ttimmer10]

cool, thanks I knew that emergent and floating aqu ve exchanged gasses outside of the water, but was not sure if the SAV was enought to support the fish.
thanks