As spring time approaches, there are a few things that you can do to prepare your pond for this amazing time. Remember that spring is the best time to perform pond maintenance and prepare for a fruitful summer for your fish, plants, and yourself.
First of all, in order to avoid disturbing the life that is already in your pond, try to do your spring chores before the water gets warmer than 10 degrees C. This will allow you to have the pond ready for the time when the fish, plants and frogs begin to emerge again.
The amount of work that you will need to do in your pond in order to prepare for spring will depend on what the winter was like. Be sure to keep this in mind as you begin to prepare your pond for spring and summer. Although your pond’s water will look it’s cleanest and clearest just before spring starts, don’t assume that this means it actually is at its cleanest.
Leaf matter and other organic materials will have fallen into your pond in the winter, and will have caused nutrient levels to grow. This can lead to more algae as the summer begins. Therefore, remove any debris that has fallen into the pond, so that the oxygen can continue to be at its peak level. Use a pond vac from your aquatic store. This will allow you to actually get all of the debris out of the bottom of the pond.
You should also test your pond water in the weeks before full spring. This will give you a good idea of how the pond water might have changed, and what you should put into it before summer. Remember that the ph level should be around 8, so make adjustments if needed. If you haven’t run your pump in the winter, it is time to fine tune your pump. Make sure it is clean and in good working order. You can also use this time to change bulbs and filters, so that you can rest easy all summer long.
Remember that your fish will have been governed by the temperature of the pond. As long as the water temperature remains low, they will not have needed to eat all winter.
However, moving into the spring, as the water warms up, this will be crucial. As the temperature of the water gets between 8 and 10 degrees C, begin to feed them small amounts of food, and remove whatever they don’t eat in 5 minutes. You can gradually go back to feeding them regular amounts as the temperature warms up completely. During this time as well, you want to provide your fish with a little bit of preventative care. Remember that they’ll not be able to ward of bacteria as well while they are coming out of their wintertime slumber.
Therefore, provide them with some extra help, and you can be sure that your fish will arrive in summer thriving and happy.
About the Author: Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who represents a number of UK businesses. For garden ponds, he recommends Seapets, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of pond supplies(Permanent Link).
Source: www.isnare.com
For more on pond maintenance, check out:
Pond Maintenance - The first day of Spring is March 20th and it’s time to do some maintenance on my pond again. Change out the filter pads and vacuum the bottom to get up all the gunk that has settled. I subscribe to “Splash” a Pond and Water Garden news …
Pond Maintenance – How To Prepare A Pond For Spring - In any event, let’s talk about pond maintenance and preparation for spring. Some of you might not be ready for this, like up in the North East, but others may already be rolling up their sleeves and girding themselves for the pleasures …
The Top 6 Maintenance FAQs, and Answers to Them - A – the one maintenance event of the year for most pond lovers, is spring clean out. And whether you’re a died in the wool do it yourselfer, or you hire it done, a properly done spring cleanout that includes draining the pond, …
This is a great series of 19 photos showing the process of creating a raised garden bed and retaining wall against the back wall of a house. […] Continue Reading…
patio