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Grey Lotus Garden Aquarium Customer Photo - Window view with Fish, decor and airstone_edit

Planning your Aquarium

Planning your pond is a fun and rewarding process, we are always amazed by our customer's unique approach to setting up their ponds and adding the WOW factor to their indoor/outdoor living spaces.  How far you go is entirely up to you, you can simply add water and watch nature take over, attracting birds, pond skimmers, dragon flies and many more creatures, or you can add some of the many accessories we have to offer which are customised for the Garden Aquarium range.  

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The Garden Aquarium range provides a unique solution to adding a low maintenance, safe pond or water feature to your outdoor living space whether it is on a patio, decking, shrubbery, lawn, roof terrace and so on, the possibilities are endless. Check out our Customer Gallery to view some of the many ways that our customers have incorporated and used the Garden Aquariums. From traditional pond keeping to housing turtles and even sting rays.  Our Aquariums have also been used to create a biotope for native sticklebacks and as an Aquaponics project for growing fresh fruit and vegetables.

Green Lily Garden Aquarium Raised Pond Hexagon Fish in Sun Two Windows and fountain

Positioning your pond

The Garden Aquarium is best positioned where it gets a little shade throughout the day.  The aquarium liner sits directly on the ground, and so it is important to ensure the surface is flat and free from sharp objects.  The Aquariums are suitable for many surfaces, including patios, shrubberies, balcony, decking, chipping and grass.  We do however,  recommend not having grass grow to the edge of the aquarium as cutting the grass can cause damage to the aquarium itself.  

Sand and stone base

Putting decorative stone or sand at the base of your aquarium is a great way to create your natural environment.  It not only helps disguise any fish waste, the fish enjoy rummaging around in it and its great to hold down oxygenating plants and conceal any wires from your electrical equipment.  There are many different varieties of sand available from aquatic and pet stores.  You may also wish to incorporate some stone/pebbles to the base to add layers and texture.  These can also be purchased from many aquatic stores or from a builders merchant (such as plumb slate), just ensure its washed clear of any dust before using it.

Brown Lotus Garden Aquarium Customer Photo - Full view with fish plants and filter
Lotus Garden Aquarium Grey - customer pic with waterfall USA
Iris Garden Aquarium - Buddha, Rocks Pump waterfall and air strip

Running water...

Bring your aquarium to life with the relaxing sound of flowing water, see your aquarium at night with lights and add oxygen to the water and enhance the look for the aquarium with a stream of bubbles.  

Fountain and UV filtration

Grey Lotus Garden Aquarium Customer Photo - Night view with fountain

Adding a filter and fountain to your aquarium creates a relaxing sound of flowing water and is great for fish health.  Our German designed pumps are market leading and are proven to last with UV filtration to keep the water crystal clear.

All in one Fountain & UV Filtration

Oase Filtral 3000 UV pump for Garden Aquarium Raised Garden Pond outside photo
Green Lily Garden Aquarium Raised Fish Pond Hexagon Looking into pond with Garden Chairs

The Filtral range combines the fountain, pump and UV filter in an all in one unit with 5 fountain attachments included.  Place this in the middle of the aquarium and simply run one cable back to the supply.  We supply two versions, the Oase Filtral 3000, which filters the whole aquarium twice an hour.  The Oase Filtral 6000, filtering the water three and a half times an hour and powers our custom waterfall blade. 

Top Tip: A great low cost way of adding oxygen to the water is the Oase Filtral Aeration Set. No power required.

Suitable for: Iris, Lily and Lotus Garden Aquariums

Fountain & External UV filters

An external filter and small but powerful internal pump can reduce the visibility of the equipment inside the aquarium.  The small pump is the size of your fist and can be placed in the centre of the aquarium with a fountain, or can be placed in the corner out of visible sight and can be connected to the waterfall blade.  This unit circulates the water 2,500 litres per hour, the whole aquarium three and a half times an hour.

BioPress-PondoVario-Pipe- Waterfall Set

Suitable for: Iris, Lily, Lotus & Double Decker Lily Garden Aquariums

Tancho Garden Aquarium raised garden pond pump filter bundle

Tancho Supersize Pump and External UV filters

Our Tancho range starting at 2,650 litres requires a larger pump, the best setup we recommend for this is the Tancho pump and waterdall bundle, Aquamax Eco Classic Control, a powerful pump which is also Bluetooth enabled for ease of control.  This connects to the newly designed FiltoClear 19000 which filters the water crystal clear and connects up to the 80cm Garden Aquarium waterfall blade, creating the perfect natural sound of running water.  

Suitable for: Tancho & Double Decker Tancho Garden Aquariums

Brown Lotus Garden Aquarium Customer Photo - Night view with LED lights and pirate ship

Suitable for: All the range

Light....

What makes our aquariums unique is the large viewing window.  A great way to enhance this view into your underwater world is to add some LED lighting, a perfect way to enjoy your aquarium day and night.  We offer a range of  lighting options from solar powered to mains supplied.  The 3 x floating Solar Lily lights and the 3 x Solar white LED.  Or for mains powered, light up the fountain with the LED fountain ring.  We also supply a mains powered 3 x white LED, and the very popular, remote control multicolour RGB 3 x lights, allowing you to switch between many colour variations and switching them on and off from the comfort of your home.  All our lights are weighted so can be positioned where needed at the bottom of the aquarium. 

Bubbles...

A great way to improve your aquarium and fish health is to ensure the water is well oxygenated, this also enhances the filtration efficiency keeping your aquarium cleaner. 

We have customised a range of products to provide many fantastic ways to do this.  We supply two air pumps, these sit outside the aquarium and the two outlet pipes run into the aquarium for a constant stream of bubbles.  We have one of the largest air stones on the market, the 1m long air stone, the 50cm air stone which creates a fantastic wall of bubbles.  The circle air stone creates a fantastic tube of bubbles for the fish to swim around and enjoy.  As well as the air stone block, perfect for creating bubbles from in and around your aquarium decoration (such as the shipwreck galleon).  

Couple up your air stone with the grass feature, this provides a natural looking grass feature with bubbles running through it.

We also have a solar air stone option with the Pondo Solar 150.

Garden Aquarium - Window view with Fish, Pirate ship and air stone
Grey Tancho garden aquarium riased koi pond at night with lights illuminating the bubbles and fish swimming in the window

Decoration...

With our aquariums being much larger than the average aquarium, its very difficult to design your underwater space with the right sized equipment. That is why our designers have been busy customising some super sized aquarium decoration. We have a range to suit the style you require.  The traditional sunken pirate ship galleon, measuring 1m in length comes in two parts, with a secret  treasure chest and a crest recognising our country, the historic land of Wales!  We have the large ancient Buddha head which looks fantastic coupled with our Rock Mountain and the Tall Rocks.  Everything you need to enhance the look of your Garden Aquarium.

Garden Aquarium sunken Shipwreck for aquarium
Garden Aquarium Budda from front close up.jpg
Garden Aquarium sunken Shipwreck for aquarium
Garden Aquarium Tall Rock Pond Decoration.jpg
Garden Aquarium Rock Mountain Pond Decoration.jpg
pond plants mini-Nymphaea Aurora 2
pond plants, yellow
pond plants EL Caltha palustris
pond plants mini-Aponogeton distachyos

Plants....

Plants help create a natural environment for your fish in the aquarium.  Improving water quality and providing a fantastic natural finish to the aquarium. Plants are also great to create a natural shade for the fish inside the aquarium.  We have teamed up with the award winning aquatic plant nursery Anglo Aquatic to create a large and extra large pack customised for the Garden Aquarium range.  These include marginal above water plants, oxygenating bunches, water lilies and deep water plants, a perfect combination for your aquarium.  We also include in our plant packs a custom made plant pot holder with an aluminium arm to hold it in the perfect place at water level, also available separately. 

With the large windows in our  aquariums you can also enjoy your ground level plants, which you would not normally see.  In our plant packs, we also include a deep water plant, miniature lilies and oxygenating plants.  The deep water plant provides a great environment for the fish to swim and explore, the miniature lilies can be placed to the side of the aquarium and will send stalks to the surface of the aquarium covering the water surface with lily pads.  Not only will they create wonderful flowers but they also provide great natural shade for your fish. 

And finally, what we would suggest is a must for your aquarium are some oxygenating plants.  You can fix the stalks to the stone/sand at the base of your aquarium to give the effect of them growing out of the ground.  Bunched oxygenators  provide excellent protection for you fish, and if they are looking to spawn, provide a great environment for baby fish to hide and flourish.  This is a video of our oxygenating plants creating natural bubbles, its great seeing nature at work.  To find out more about the benefits of a planted pond/aquarium and some suggested plants click here.

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pond plants mini-Ceratophyllum demersum

Cover....

Unique to Garden Aquarium are our custom made black powder coated and galvanised covers.  Not only are they functional but they look fantastic too.  The covers offer great protection for children and animals.

garden aquarium pons
Garden Aquarium Lily Fish Pond Guard Cover Galvinised and Black Powder Coated Full View wi
Garden Aquarium Lily Fish Pond Guard Cover Galvinised and Black Powder Coated Gap in middl
Iris Garden Aquarium - Arial view of the Pond Guard and Waterfall
Garden Aquarium Lotus Fish Pond Guard Cover Galvinised and Black Powder Coated zoomed in c
Maintenance Pack with Paint for a garden aquarium

Starter and Maintenance

If when first starting your aquarium, you intend on  using tap water, you should leave the water settle for at least 24 hours, ideally with the pump running.  This will ensure all the chlorine evaporates from the water. To give your pond the best chance of being a healthy environment for your fish, you should consider adding healthy bacteria to the aquarium. You can do this by adding a solution called BioKick Fresh.  It is a special solution that kick starts the process of creating healthy bacteria in your aquarium -  this can be purchased in our shop and is part of the starter and maintenance kit​.  You can add this while the water is settling.  We also supply a pond tester kit to ensure the parameters of the pond are as they should be.

Maintaining your aquarium can be fun and rewarding.  We recommend cleaning the filter once every 2 to 3 weeks and at the same time you can keep your widows clean by running the extra large magnetic window cleaner over them.  This is great as it cleans inside and out without getting your hands wet.  You do not need to clean the filter in the winter as often, as the fish go into hibernation and don't eat much.  

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The start of the season its a good time to give your aquarium a spring clean.  In out starter and maintenance pack we have the UV bulb, we recommend changing this once a year to ensure its at its maximum efficiency.  We also include replacement filter foams if needed, and a colour matching paint. In general, the finish of the aquarium does not change but the top frame may need a touch up every 12-18 months as it is the area most exposed to  the sun, wind and rain.  Additional chemical treatments that are useful as part of your Spring/Autumn clean are the pond pump cleaner and silt remover.  Simply add the pond pump clean solution to water in a bucket and soak the lights and filter for the recommended time, this will bring them up as good as new with no need to spend hours wiping the units clean of algae.  The silt remover allows you to remove silt from the aquarium without dropping the water, simply add to the aquarium and the silt is removed.

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We also now have AlGo, for great fast algae control, you can add to your pond, that does not harm the fish.

Natural treatments:

Barley

Barley Straw in pack.png

Barley Straw is a 100% safe and natural solution for treating algae and blanketweed in ponds, and will not affect the health or wellbeing of pond life, ornamental fish or aquatic plants, it is also safe for pets and wildlife. Barley straw is proven to be an effective solution to clear blanketweed and algal problems in ponds.

Snails

Pond Snail 500 pixel photo.png

These snails eat pretty much every decayed plant, debris, as well as algae. Ramshorns tend to eat from the sides and Trapdoor snails from the bottom. They can be a perfect pond cleaner, as well as adding more life to your aquarium

Fish...

The centrepiece of any Garden Aquarium are the fish. Our advice on the number of fish is that you don't need many to enjoy  your aquarium.  The fish LOVE looking out of our large windows and you will always see them gliding past, an experience you would not normally have with a traditional pond.  You will find the fish congregate at the window leaving the rest of the aquarium free, and in our experience if you create a nice environment for the fish you will have additions in the coming years.  A range of sizes and colours are always good for variety.

Lotus Garden Aquarium - Green Front Window with plants, fish,pirate ship and airstone  - C

Fish Food

88709-Dynamix-Pellet-Stick-Flake-Mix-1l-002.jpg

Provide your fish with the ideal balanced diet using the Oase range of fish food. Specifically formulated for goldfish and Koi, these premium feeds are tailored to meet the nutritional needs of your aquatic companions residing in your Clear View Garden Aquarium.

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Choose the convenience that suits you best—we offer these products as either a one-time purchase or as part of a hassle-free subscription service. With our subscription option, we'll supply your feed every 3 months, ensuring your fish are always well-fed without the need for repeated orders.

For any further questions you have, please visit our Questions and Answers section.

Grey Lotus Garden Aquarium Customer Photo - Window view with Fish, decor and airstone_edit
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