Ben Helm is a qualified marine biologist, and since he was a teenager was fascinated by the aquatic world. His passion led him to work at the local aquatic store on an unpaid voluntary basis, eventually becoming the assistant manager.
Later, he farmed koi for a living on an innovative koi farm in the UK. Ben was then appointed head of a brand new fish farming and aquatics department at Brooksby College, teaching and training students to make a living in the commercial aquatic world.
Ben was marketing and product manager with Nishikoi for six years developing their range of market-leading pond and koi foods and water treatments. As head of the Nishikoi InfoCentre, he gave many pond and koi talks and presentations in UK, Europe and USA – which also led to some BBC TV and radio work. Over his career, Ben has written and had published nearly 300 pond and koi articles in the specialist aquatic publications around the world, with many articles being translated into Italian and Dutch. Ben still works in animal nutrition, for a global pet nutrition business – Premier Pet Nutrition.
More recently, Ben has written a top-selling pond book – The Water Gardener’s Bible (Rodale) for which Kelly Billing wrote the chapter on pond plants (which has now also been translated into English and French editions). Ben Helm’s website dedicated to pond and koi keeping advice and information shares its name with his book: http://www.watergardenersbible.co.uk
Dissolved Oxygen Concentration (DOC) is a critical element in every healthy pond. Here you will learn how it effects fish, how to detect low levels, what immediate actions to take if needed and how to prevent low DOC. Did you know plants can cause the DOC to significantly drop during the night? Oxygen levels are often overlooked in pond design and troubleshooting, but they are a critical element that pond pros must understand.
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