Velda, the Dutch pond product manufacturer, has produced a range of enticing items to tempt the British Pond Keeper

Heron deterrants, new fountain and pressure-filter pumps, floating 'plant islands' and a complete range of cassette style bio-filters are all part of an innovative collection of pond products launched this year by the big Dutch company Velda with a view to breaking into the competitive but lucrative pond and aquatics market in the UK. Other products that are particularly welcome are state of the art pond thermometer and a truly professional range of pond testing products that will even test for things like Iron, Copper and (hooray!) Phosphates.

Velda are hoping to make a big impression on the UK market by coming hand-in-hand with R.Moerings B.V. , the huge Dutch waterplant nursery. With the obvious quality of the plant material and the legendary Netherlandish clockwork efficiency of service, Moerings will be lending Velda considerable credibility to daring invasion of the UK - especially at a time when there are such gloomy prospects for the aquatic retailers.

Velda have been building up their portfolio of interesting products for the last couple of years. The first product that made me aware of them was several years ago with the I-Tronic algae deterrant that released positively charged ions of copper from a copper electrode that were so called 'natural killers' of string and slime algae. When I pointed out that this was just adding toxic copper to the water, they replied that  it was a small and very controlled dose. They pointed out that many liquid algaecides are based on copper compounds and that the dose is so much more easily mis-managed. They also pointed out that copper is an essential in pond water and one often added to fish food in minute quantities.

They followed that with a little floating skimmer that although would struggle with a real Autumnal fall, served a useful purpose in ponds that were plagued with a combination of a variable depth and persitent showers of debris floated on the pond surface. 

Soon their catalogue was bulging with a cross section of pond products to solve all the problems and suit all the requirements of the modern pond keeper: Pressure Filters, aerators, pond heater, UVCs and even an electric fence to keep Herons at bay, the Pond Protector(RRP £60). there is special substrate for oxygeantors and and special CO2 tabs to get them going whilst they are getting established. There is a fish feeder that not only gauges the fod quantity as per the volume of fish, but it can also be set for a particular number of feeds per day (RRP £50).

This year the onslaught keeps unabated:

POND GUARD

The Pond Guard in actionThe Pond Guard packagingThe electric fence, Pond Protector, is supplemented with flashing and 'singing' Pondguard. It has a movement sensor that will detect the heron and emit glaring flashes of light and the sound of an eagle, the natural enemy of herons. This causes so much stress by the waterside that the heron will fly away. It operates over a distance of 25metres and senses movement within an adjustable arc of up to 120 degrees. The retail price guide was £130. 

 FLOATING THERMOMETER

This is a wireless pond themometer that floats in the pond like a swimming pool thermometer giving an easy-to-read digital readout of the water temperature. The thing with this is that you can have a remote readout in you living room or bathroom telling you what the temperature is out there. You can even have it alarmed so that a warning signal occurs at critical temperatures to tell you to take action or no actiohn as in feeding at 7C or to change the fee to Wheatgerm at 10C.

FLOATING PLANT ISLAND

Floating plant islandsFloating plant islands in action Now you can soften up your hard formal landscape pond that may be lacking in plants and foliage. These are floating planting baskets that can be linked together to form an island of plants. They are particulalry useful for pond that dont have marginal plant shelves or fish that are continually knocking plants off the shelves. Koi ponds often need that added bit of shade that a group of plants could provide and the pond may be too deep to provide any supports for traditional planting baskets. It seems a pathetic invention, but in fact it fills a niche and solves an irritating problem for many pond keepers.

FOUNTAIN PRO PUMPS

Fountain Pro pond pumpIt's in the box!These low energy consumption but large output pumps have been specifically designed as fountain pumps and for a long life. They come with foam, bubble and fountain nozzles and come with a control valve with a 't' for a possible filter. The adjustable base is designed to cope with any rough,uneven or sloping terrain at the bottom of a pond.  The Fountain Pro pumps are available in three capacities: 1500, 2000 and 2500 l/h.

HIGH STREAM POND PUMPS

High-Stream Pon Pump from VeldaAccording to Velda these pumps are manufactured according to the latest advances in technology to enable them to run so economically and for so long. Due to their high capacity, Velda claim, they make perfect pressure filter pumps. The economic asynchronous motors are equipped with a thermal security device and
are entirely sealed watertight. Combined with ceramic bearings this
guarantees longevity. They can operate inside and out of the pond and are capable of handling dirt particles of up to 6mm across. reducing maintenance to a minimum. According to their literature there are apparently 8 types availble but only 5 are listed on the their website at the time of writing:
            3,000 l/h, 4,500 l/h, 6,000 l/h, 8,000 l/h, 12,000 l/h

GIANT BIOFILL XL pond filters

Cut away showing the interior of the Giant Biofill XLThe Giant Biofill XL biological pond filterThe Giant Biofill XL is a large filter based on the cross-flow principle with the water to be filtered will be flowing up and down through cassettes filled with filter materials. The filter is supplied along are bio filter balls which encourage the growth of micro-organisms and Japanese matting which remove even the finest dirt particles. The removable cassettes can be simply rinsed. The Giant Biofill XL can be extended by 1 or 2 built-in UV-C Units, Pond Heater and air pump. Included in the package is Bacterial Filterstart and Mineral Filterstart tablets.
Besides the basic filter, three Giant Biofill XL Sets are available including UV-C Unit, air pump and High-Stream pond pump.

X-Flow Biofill

X-Flow Biofill multi-chamber flow filterThese are described as having "several advantages compared to different filter systems. Both its
cleaning capacity and its biological action are larger than that of
current filters. This property, combined with its simple installation,
slight maintenance and ultimate water filtration makes this filter
universally usable. The X-Flow Biofill ensures that pond water remains
crystal clear and healthy." It can also be supplied as a complete set with a UVC unit and a High Stream Pump."  it is claimed to be suitable for ponds up to 10,000litres. Apart from that we have very little information to go on. Its a tough old market out there and people are very wary unless they have all the infromation they need on a products performance.

PROFESSIONAL AQUA TEST

The nifty little "Professional Aqua Test" kit from VeldaHere is a product I've been waiting for for a long time. Its a water test kit that puts everything a pond keeper needs to know at his disposal and I hope it works. The key to many pond problems is in the water or you can tell what the problem is by testing the water. Everything in the pond depends on the quality of the water right down to the microbes in the mud at the bottom. If you know what the the balance of the chemicals is in your water you can be aware of any problems often before they manifest themselves in a visible problems like green water or fish disease.

This kit can  test for all the various forms of hardness like GH, KH and pH, and also does that commonly available tests of Nitrate, Nitrite and Ammonia. But it also can be used to test for Phosphates (PO4- hooray!), Copper and Iron. These are latter three are all essential ingredients for plant health but if they are present in any quantity, you've got real problems.