I have been often asked about what plants are most beneficial to a pond. That really is a loaded question and answers can vary according to pond size.

I always recommend Water Hyacinths as a starter plant, it provides the best nitrate removal of all the pond plants I have tested. Nitrates are caused  many from fish waste . They also are raised however  with debris from leaves and bird droppings and the like. A low nitrate level also causes algae to not want to grow well in your pond , high nitrate levels will cause green water and string algaes.

As far as how many plants are needed , that varies  with pond size. Surface area is more important than gallons .  One  water hyacinth can occupy up to 1.0 sure feet of surface area. Thats full grown of course. Water Hyacinths can group together up to 200 plants within 6 square feet. Thier root system is built to remove sediments and to remove other harmful  things in your pond.

The next plant that I recommend to any pond owner, is Parrots Feather, this plant however can be very invasive. If you live in  a area that the water does not freeze on the top of your pond AND you have a soil bottom pond , do not use this plant!  Once it is put in a soil bottomed pond it will be there forever.  You will never get ride of it, unless your climate is cold enough for the water on top of your pond to freeze. That will kill it. 

Duckweed  and or Fairy Moss are good plants as well unless you have a skimmer system, they will plug up a skimmer.

Elephants Ear is a great choice as well , especially the free floating variety.  It can float free in your pond, and had no need to be potted.

Penny wort is also a good choice it floats free in the pond as well.

 I will never sell , or recommend any under water oxygenators like Hydrilla or Hornwort, Anacharis or any other underwater oxygenator, as the are all very difficult to remove from any soil bottom pond and most of them are very invasive. You have to understand that once they are put in your pond and they root to the bottom , you will never get rid of them and they are a maintainace nightmare.

 I have a customer that has a soil bottomed pond and he curses that day he put those plants in it.  The Anacharis has now grown from side to side and he manually removes several hundred pounds of it every month from his pond.

He is now even considering copper treating his pond to serialize it, and to start over. I DO NOT recommend this  at all,  copper products are  toxic to everything in your pond and the residuals left behind can cause problems for years.

I hope that some of this information was helpful and remember to vote yes at the bottom , if it was!

Happy Ponding