Just thought that I would update you on the progress of the pond and send you some pictures.

Hi Kevin,

Just thought that I would update you on the progress of the pond and send you some pictures. All fish are extremely healthy and well and all survived the winter. Last year I said that I had been a bit disappointed with plant growth and you said that the plants would have to relearn how to absorb nutrients again from the water as opposed to compost. Well they have and the pictures are testament to that. We have had an explosion of plant growth.

Not sure if you remember that I was unable to get Laterite last year so used the JBL AquaBasis plus. I don't think it was up to the job, as the plants were looking very sickly spindly and yellow when they started growing in spring this year. I added a couple of treatments of Velda Ferro plus and the plants burst into health. I have not added any other supplements this year.

I did get some blanket weed in the anoxic pond and the main pond at the start of the year but when the iron kicked the plant growth off, this has gone. Next year I will add some iron earlier.

I did not do a winter or spring clean out as the pond was new last year and it didn't need it. I just cut off all vegetation and left the pump recirculating through the main pond, but this winter I am going to leave it running through the anoxic pond but just bypassing the black box pre-filter.

I currently have about 30 x 5 inch fish and all seems well with nitrite and nitrate at 0. This year has also seen "wildlife" in the pond. We had a visit from a very large frog, a dragonfly, and we have pond skaters, snails, and things resembling wood lice, centipedes and a minute see through prawn. We must have also had a spawning at some point because we spotted one tiny 10mm fish.

So all in all we are thrilled.

Rachel, Nottingham U.K