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To maintain your pond, you’ll need to occasionally clean your backyard pond, especially if you have koi fish. Test the water twice a week to make sure your fish have everything they need and always remove visible debris.

In addition to length and width, pond liners also come in various thickness levels. Thickness is measured in mils, a unit of measurement equal to one-thousandth of an inch, with most pond liners ranging from 15 to 60 mils in thickness. The smaller the number, the thinner (and weaker) the liner. To prevent rips and tears, it’s best to choose a pond liner that’s at least 30 mils thick.

Smaller, pondless water features like bird baths, self-contained fountains, and bubbling rocks are much lower maintenance than their counterparts that include ponds. Pondless features help you avoid high pond maintenance costs and allow you to spend more time enjoying the water feature and less time on upkeep.

While they’re popular and have a lot of pros, the cons of river rocks include the following:

• River rocks don’t break down or provide nutrients to plants. 

• These stones can get hot and scorch nearby plants. 

• River stones may heat the surrounding soil to inhospitable temperatures. 

• Rocks can block rainwater from seeping into the ground if installations are too thick or tightly packed.

Most downsides occur when using river rock as mulch in gardens and flower beds. However, you can still incorporate river rocks into your landscape as long as you use them in the correct ways.