Should Your Tampa Pond Include Rocks and Pebbles?
Nothing invokes a sense of calm and adds interest to your landscape much like a backyard pond. While the focus often lies on the water itself, the addition of river rocks and pebbles can elevate the pond's visual appeal and aid in water quality. These decorative rocks and gravel protect the pond’s liner from degrading after being hit with too much direct UV light, plus they provide beneficial microorganisms a place to grow which translate to healthy, happy fish and cleaner water.
So how do you incorporate rocks and pebbles into your Tampa Bay backyard pond to create a harmonious aquatic landscape? Our professional team from Focal Point Ponds can take care of every detail before, during, and after pond installation, which includes selecting and fitting the best types of pond stones to create a beautiful and sustainable ecosystem.
Choosing the Right Pond Boulders and Rocks
Depending on how you want your water feature to look, we can help you hand-select pond stones that are visually striking, ecologically sound, and built to last. You can specify from a variety of options, considering size, shape, color and texture, to mimic a natural look. From large boulders that can serve as focal points to smaller pebbles that anchor water plants, we can make them complement each other to get the effect you are trying to achieve.
While many feel that rocks add to the outdoor-look of your pond, mimicking a natural stream or creek, a high number of rocks are not for everyone. This is personal choice and like many other pond factors, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Look online for inspiration photos or how you might want your pond to look or not to look. Some owners think that by using nothing more than the black liner in the bottom of their pond, they allow for their
colorful fish to stand out against a less busy background.
Creating Natural Transitions
When placing rocks and pebbles in your pond, we’ll set out to create naturalistic transitions between the water and the surrounding landscape. Just like how nature sorts rocks in streams, we can arrange small and large stones along the pond’s edge to create a gradual slope that doesn’t look man-made. We will also incorporate rocks of varying heights and sizes within the pond to create depth and dimension. What you’ll get is believable realism that blends naturally into the landscape. It's always clear that a backyard pond in Tampa is man-made, but part of the magic comes from making it look so good that people are able to forget that.
Speaking of transitions, adding a rock waterfall or sloping stream to your pond can be a great way to increase volume, add beauty, and reap the natural benefits your water garden will receive by increasing movement with water flow and promoting oxygenation. The sound you get from a waterfall doesn't have to be created by water actually falling from a spillway or stone. You can get a very similar affect by having different levels or platforms filled with stones and pebbles which the water will rush through on its way to the main pond. When done right, this can be a visually captivating way to add natural sounds all while increasing healthy attributes to your Tampa pond.
Enhancing Aquatic Plantings
By strategically positioning rocks and pebbles, we can create planting pockets that allow roots to anchor and plants to thrive. Plants like moss and java fern can attach to a rock and act as a natural filtration system for stabilizing water chemistry. The rock surface also provides a home for healthy bacteria
(aerobic bacteria)
that can break down fish waste and other debris. If you have a large number of fish in your pond, the bacterial levels will naturally increase, but with enough stones and rocks growing the right kind of bacteria, these higher levels should have no problem handling the higher amount of waste in the water.
Maintaining a Clear Pond
Once your pond is complete, ongoing maintenance is essential to keep it healthy and thriving. We can periodically inspect the pond rocks and pebbles to ensure they won’t tear the liner or release harmful substances. Before any new introduction of rocks, we’ll clean them by spraying and washing their surfaces so their sediment won’t clog up your filter or ruin a healthy ecosystem. We’ll do it while safely moving your marine pets without adding stress on your fish.
Trust The Pond Pros
As an established pond installation and maintenance professional in Tampa Bay, we can make your beautiful and relaxing backyard dream come true without the hassle. From carefully tying together design elements to using the appropriate materials and integrating naturalistic features, we, at Focal Point Ponds, have got your rock-adorned aquatic landscape covered.
