Your pond will need to be placed on a flat even surface. Your pond will need to get sun and some shade at some point in the day, particularly if it is hot, the water temperature will be much lower if the pond is located in constant shade. In the shade plants will also find it hard to oxygenate the water, sunlight keeps the plants oxygenated and stops turning the water stagnant, creating a healthy environment for both fish and plants. Try not to locate your pond near dense trees or shrubs that lose their leaves as these can fall into the pond and rot.

Goldfish are ideally suited to our range of ponds, they are harmless to plants and are very pretty. There are many varieties of goldfish available, depending on the variety you are getting we recommend each goldfish should have around 15 litres for every inch they grow, this would give them plenty of space. So for example if your goldfish grow to 4 inches you can put up to 8-10 goldfish in our Lotus and Lily Garden Aquarium. We find this is more than enough fish to constantly have something to look at and enjoy through the clear view window or from the top of your Garden Aquarium. The fish have a tendency to come to the window to have a look out of the window so you will always have a great view of your fish.

The sound of running water in your garden is tranquil and relaxing, a major reason our customers love our ponds. As well as acting as a wonderful feature fountains are also very practical, keeping water flowing in your pond is great for aquatic life and keeps the water clean so you can see everything that happens in your pond. Simply run the cable from the pump when setting up your pond, up the side of the liner, then down between the liner and the frame, the cable then runs out from the bottom of the pond to your power source. There are a wide variety of fountains and pumps on the market, we supply three optons the - Oase Filtral 3,000, which filters the whole aquarium twice an hour - Oase Filtral 6000, which filters the whole aquarium three and a half times an hour - Biopress 4000 with PondoVario 2500, this is an external filter with a small internal pump for easier cleaning with a handle you pump to clean the filter and a more descreet pump inside the aquarium which is less visible. All three have fountain attachments for different style fountains and UV filtration to keep your pond crystal clear. Our ponds are designed to enable you to add these discreetly, so you see no cables leading out of the pond. You place the whole unit in the centre of your Garden Aquarium, simply run the 10m cable from the pump when setting up your pond, up the side of the liner, it then just fits between the liner and the frame and runs out from the base of the pond to your power source. For maintenance simply turn the power off, pick the unit out of the pond, and hose down the filter and place back in the pond. All outdoor electrical equipment is supplied without a plug, so you have the option to wire it to a designated outdoor connection or if the cable reaches inside you can put a traditional plug on it and use a household socket.

Adding plant life to your pond can be fun and rewarding and if you do have fish they will love them. Underwater plants can simply be placed at the bottom of the pond, plants that grow on the surface of the pond can simply be hung around the surface of the garden aquarium with our own range of aquatic planters available in our shop, making it really easy to maintain and giving your fish great places to shelter and swim. We recommend choosing native plants. A big favourite is the water Lilly, not only does this look fantastic but also provides some shade if you are putting fish in your pond. Place this at the bottom of the pond and it will grow shoots and unfold at the top of the pond, these are in season during May and produce magnificant flowers, a must for your Garden Aquarium. Elodea crispa, a great oxygenator, simply place a bunch into the pond and it will float and grow, looks great and adds something for your fish to swim amongst. If you have stone at the bottom of your aquarium a great tip is to bury the weight of the oxygenator in the stone and it floats upwards giving the appearance of growing out of the ground, it looks fantastic. Callitriche verna is an oxygenating plant, forming attractive mats of foliage that provide surface cover for ponds and a shelter for tadpoles. It appears in March and dies back in winter. It will partially disappear in very hot conditions, but will grow again when temperatures fall.

The Garden Aquarium would just need a flat surface free from sharp objects. It may help with maintenance that you do not have grass growing around the base as this may be difficult to cut without damaging the wooden base. We often get asked for the base measurments so customers can make preparations before their Garden Aquarium arrives, so to help with this we have attached the dimensions below.

The Clear View range of Garden Aquariums have windows integrated into their liners, so all you need to do is drop the liner into the base of the pond and fix it to the top of the frame. The Lily Clear View Garden Aquarium is the hexagon and this has two windows, the Lotus Clear View Garden Aquarium is square and this has two large windows and the Iris Clear View Garden Aquarium has the one large window. We have developed our window technonolgy over many years and use a unique bonding technology to produce a waterproof seal, giving you the largest mainstream pond window on the market. All our liners come with a 12 month guarantee.

If you are keeping fish in your pond you will need a pump with a UV filter to keep the water crystal clean. The green colour water you sometimes see in stagnant ponds is single cell algae, a UV filter is 100% successful in removing this from your pond. We supply the Oase Filtral 3000 UV pump/fountain, which does come with a clear water guarantee. See the question on which pump and filter to use for more information.

It is if course optional but our Garden Aquariums really do come to life in the night with some lighting, creating a fantastic spectacle in the garden. We supply two range of lights, the natural white light, which has three lights that you can submerge at the bottom of your Garden Aquarium, they have weights to ensure they stay at the bottom. Or the new out RGB Multicolour lights that come with a remote control to allow you not only to turn it off and on from up to 20m away but also change the colour of the lights with a wide range of colours.

We supply aquatic planters to plant plants on the waters surface, we would recommend planting up to 6 at water height, there are many plants available at that depth, flowers/grasys/leaf plants, the plants in aquatic centers clearly mark the zone (depth) the grow in. We would recommend some floating water lettuce and floating oxygenating plants. A must have is some water lily on the floor of the pond, they look particularly effective in our ponds, place them away from the fountain/waterfall and they will thrive, they also add good coverage from the sun for the fish.

All our prices at checkout include the full cost you need to pay, there is nothing extra to pay. We take care of taxes, delivery costs and if applicable customs and duties.