G'day LalaWeb, Thank you for your question. My Dad has a water feature and the most important thing is to clean it regularly. The best times are autumn when falling leaves tend to get into it and spring. If you have a bottom drain, you can fairly easily change 10% of the water per week without too much effort. You can use a swimming pool net to clean out the debris but you need to remove the fish if there are a lot of fish in there. You can also vacuum the bottom of the pond but you have to be careful using this technique. You will also need to clean the pond filter periodically. Smaller ponds need to be cleaned out every four to five years with larger ponds needing 10 years. This is a more intensive operation but the guide from the Royal Horticultural Society gives you some tips. I have attached sources for your reference. Regards Gardenweb FAQ http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/ponds/2002050739023501.html Cleaning your pond filters http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=16&cat=1917&articleid=2848 Royal Horticultural Society http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0302/pond_clean.asp BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bluepeter/content/articles/2006/03/17/dyk_pond_feature.shtml

well, i read about an article in the internet saying we should not wash our filter as good bacteria is building up in the filter. washing the filter will be washing all the bacteria away. and it says that we should just be lazy....haha...here is the link: http://www.skippysstuff.com/biofiltr.htm