Posts Tagged ‘other’

Swimming Pool Safety For Children

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

Owning a swimming pool in your house or garden is a fantastic way to have fun for yourself and indeed your entire family. However, despite that, it can also be very dangerous if you have children around. If you can, you ought to wait until your kids are at least five years old or more before you put a swimming pool in your garden. On the other hand, if you already have a swimming pool, there are ways that you can protect your family.

One thing you should always remember is to never, ever, allow your children to be alone near your pool. Children tend to be attracted to water and all it takes is a second for them to fall into the swimming pool. If you and your children are at your pool side and you have to leave the area for a second, you must always take your children with you.

To be completely safe, you should always ensure that you have loads of safety gear around your pool at all times. Safety items are a necessity to have around, as they could save the life of a child or in fact, anyone else who can’t swim.

You should invest in a shepherd’s hook too, as you can use it to pull someone out of the water. Having a phone at your pool is also a wise investment, as you can quickly call for help in the event of an emergency.

If you don’t already have a sturdy fence around your pool, you should think about getting one right away. A fence is a great way to keep children away from your swimming pool. If you have a protective fence up, you won’t have to worry about small children falling into the water, while you are away from the pool. When you put up your fence, you should always make sure that it’s at least six feet high with a locking gate. In this way, no one can get into the pool without a key, which you should keep on you always.

You should also learn CPR. Even though you may not ever have to use it. However, it is always great to know in the event of someone falling in your pool that is unable to swim. Whenever you have children or people you know can’t swim at your pool, you should always stay within reach of them, so you can react instantly if they fall in. A minute is all it takes to save someone’s life.

Always bear in mind that swimming is fun, although you have to always think in terms of safety first. Once you have finished using your pool for the day, make sure that you lock up the area well – and lock the gate up tight so no one can get in.

If you are concerned about child pool safety or Child Safety in general, just visit our website.

How To Care For Your Koi Carp After A Storm

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

A storm can be stressful for your outdoor fish, especially for large koi carp, which, being large, probably do not have many areas to hide. However, if you have designed your koi fish pond well, you will have taken this into consideration when your constructed the pond. Likewise, the pond must be deep enough for your fish to be able to get well beneath the choppy surface layer.

If you prepared for the storm, you possibly put a net over the fish pond, so the first thing you need to do after the storm is clear up any fallen debris and take away the net, so that you can get a good look at your fish and what occurred to them. They may be a bit stressed, so move unhurriedly and try hard not to frighten them. Stress is a killer in the animal world as well as in ours.

Did you take the additional safeguard of sand-bagging the rim of your pond to stop it over-flowing and the fish swimming away? If so, take away the sand bags, so that you can get a closer look.

Now you can get a good look at the upheaval, if there is any. Use a net to quietly skim off any leaves that have blown under the netting and onto the pond. If any plants have been uprooted, put them back where they should be. In general, put the pond back as it used to be, so that the fish feel at home. Again, move unhurriedly and try not to put your fish under any more stress.

If you have to carry out major structural repairs, you could put your koi in a child’s plastic paddling pool until you can sort the issue out. Put the pool in a shaded area and fold the netting over it several times so that the fish can not get out and cats and birds cannot get in. If you can aerate the pool with a pump so much the better.

Place a few plants in there with them for shelter and feed in moderation. if the repairs will take a long time, you could ask your local pet store to take them away for a week or whatever. You will need to pay board and lodgings, but it is preferable to losing your prized koi carp.

Once any repairs have been carried out, you ought to check the water quality, which could have been changed by debris dropping into the pond or by your repairs. Rain, especially acid rain, can have quite an effect, especially if it rained for a long time.

First check the water for nitrates. If the levels are unacceptable (see the testing kit for details), you ought to normalize them. If the levels are extremely high, first remove the plants from the water.

Then test the KH levels. If they are low, say, below 100, then you could add a cup of baking soda per 1,000 gallons of water and check again. Whatever you do, the quickest way to de-stress your fish is to restore their environment to what it used to be with clean water to swim in.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is now concerned with water garden pumps. If you are interested in a Solar Powered Pond Pump, please go to our web site now for a special deal.