We offer a full pond maintenance and pond clean out service (Click Here). If you want to look after your pond yourself the following advice sheet offers a guide to the basics.
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There shouldn't be very much pond maintenance that needs doing on a weekly basis.
Feeding is one of the least well understood subjects in pond keeping. Overfeeding will quickly lead to disease and death in the pond. If you don't feed your fish the fish may not have enough food reserves to get safely through the winter. This can lead to disease and death in the late winter, early spring period as they begin to starve to death. A good feeding regime during the summer months will allow them to build up the body reserves needed for the winter months when they stop eating. A warm winter can in fact be worse for your fish than a cold one. The warmer weather can lead to increased activity in the fish. The increased activity leads to them using up stored reserves of food more quickly but the weather is still to cold for them to have any appetite.
How often you feed the fish is a question of appetite verses pollution. Most fish will be happy to be fed several times a day during the summer months. If you feed them what they want as often as they want it you will probably kill them. More food equals more pollution after it has been through the fishes bodies. The feeding frequency will be strictly restricted by your ponds capacity to deal with the waste produced by the fish. In practice this is likely to be somewhere between twice a week and twice a day. If you have a large pond relative to the number of fish that you have, you will be able to feed them more often. If you have a good filtration system you will be able to feed them more often. The best way to find out what is sensible for your pond is to start low and slowly increase, testing the water regularly. Once you begin to reach the safe feeding limit for your pond you will start to see a rise in pollution when you test the water. Reduce your feeding immediately allowing a good safe margin.
For each meal you should give them no more than can be quickly consumed. If there is food still floating on the water after 20 minutes then you should reduce the amount.
Don't feed the fish if the temperature of the water is below 10 degrees Celsius. If the water temperature is above 10 degrees Celsius but the weather forecasters are predicting a cold spell within the next three days don't feed the fish. A pond thermometer is a really useful thing to have for deciding when to feed. In practice most people stop feeding when the weather gets cold and then don't feed again until the Spring.
It is a good idea to skim the surface of the pond with a net to remove debris that may fall in. This will mostly be leaves but in some places it can be apples or other fruit in the autumn and litter if the pond is in a public place.
Monthly is a good interval of time in which carry out the main pond maintenance tasks that are needed to keep the pond looking good during the year. The monthly pond maintenance is when the most important work is done.
If you have a canister filter this may mean carrying out a back wash. If you have a conventional filter it will probably mean cleaning the filter foams and brushes.
Never use tap water to do this. Tap water contains chlorine which will kill the bacteria living on the filter media. These bacteria are the active ingredient which allows the filter to work. If all the bacteria die the filter will no longer be able to digest the bodily waste produced by the fish. This could lead to dangerous levels of pollution in the pond.
To clean a filter foam or brush, fill a large bucket with water taken from the pond. Squeeze out the foam sheet or rinse the brush thoroughly in this water. If the filter media is very muddy you may need to repeat this using fresh water also taken from the pond. Remember, you don't have to get the foams/brushes as clean as if you were washing clothes. The purpose of cleaning the filter foams/brushes is to prevent the mud from clogging the media. Clogging can reduce the flow of water through the media and cause a reduction in efficiency and a reduction in the beneficial bacterial by suffocation. Fairly clean is clean enough.
Fish food once it has passed through the body of the fish will be excreted into the water along with the fishes urine. These bodily wastes are toxic to the fish but will be largely broken down by beneficial bacteria living in the pond. If you have a filter, the filter will contribute to this breaking down of harmful waste. If you have too many fish or if you feed them too much or too often the amount of waste products produced by the fish can overwhelm the ponds capacity to break it down into harmless by products. If this should happen it will lead to the water becoming polluted perhaps to dangerous levels.
Testing the water will help you to monitor the levels of pollution produced by the fish and identify a problem. If you feed regular amounts at regular intervals and you have experienced no previous problems then you are likely to continue to have no problems. Those who feed erratically are more likely to experience a crisis. Whichever the case testing the water will help you to monitor the situation and hopefully give you enough warning so that you can act before the pollution reaches a dangerous level. Testing weekly is recommended. Testing monthly is a minimum. If you have a problem then you should test daily until the pond has returned to normal. Remember, the shorter the period between tests the more likely you are to uncover a developing problem in time to correct it. A month between tests is plenty of time for things to go seriously wrong. Of course many people look after their pond successfully without ever testing the water. However, if those people were to experience an unusual crisis, it is likely that the first warning that they would have that things had gone seriously wrong would be dead or diseased fish in the pond. Many people start off with good intentions to test the water regularly but eventually give up because the water never seems to have a problem. This is very understandable but I would urge you to keep testing the water. It is the best preventative pond keeping that you can do. Once disease is in a pond it is can be very distressing and difficult to stop.
In pond keeping the most important things to test for are Ammonia, Nitrite and PH. Fish produce Ammonia. Ammonia is toxic even in low concentrations. Ammonia is broken down by nitrosomonous bacteria into Nitrite. Nitrite is much less toxic than Ammonia but still very toxic. Nitrite is broken down into Nitrate by Nitrobacter bacteria. Nitrate is also toxic but not in the levels that are likely to be reached in a pond under normal circumstances. Fresh water pond keepers are not usually expected to test for Nitrate.
If when you test the pond you discover that there is too much Ammonia or Nitrite what should you do? This partly depends on how bad the problem is. If the pollution shows a minor low risk increase in Ammonia or Nitrite, reduce the amount of food you give the fish and/or the frequency of feeding. If the problem is more serious you may want to stop feeding altogether for a short time and carry out water changes. This involves partially draining down the pond and replacing the lost water with water from the tap. Ten percent is fairly moderate. 25 percent is a big one. You replace the water with tap water making sure that you add chemicals to neutralise the chlorine at the same time. This will dilute the concentration of pollutants. Do this daily until the problem is under control. If you need to do this more frequently than daily then you are really in deep trouble. There are also chemicals that you can add to the pond that will neutralise Ammonia directly.
It is recommended that you test the PH of the water. PH is a measure of how acid or alkaline the water is. In most parts of the country it will usually be alkaline. In my experience the plants seem to be more sensitive to a high PH than the fish. PH is a less serious issue than Ammonia or Nitrite. Fish will often tolerate water with a poor PH reading. If the Ammonia or Nitrite levels are bad fish will often become diseased in a matter of two or three days. PH is much harder to change if the levels are outside the healthy limits. If the pond becomes too alkaline you will need to add an acid. If the water becomes too acidic you will need to add an alkaline substance. You should take advice on what to add, how often and in what quantities. Obviously adding strong chemicals such as acid to a pond should be done with great care and with the confidence that comes with having researched the subject thoroughly. Small daily doses with tests in between is the way to go.
Examine the pumps. If they are blocked or covered in debris then clean them. One way to judge if a pump needs cleaning is simply to compare the flow now with what it should be. The water flowing through a pump will often be important in keeping the pump cool. If a pump becomes very blocked it may overheat or cause excessive strain This may reduce its lifespan or cause it to fail. It is probably a good guide to say that your pump should not be allowed to run at below half its maximum flow.
Many of the pumps available today are truly low maintenance. Many of you will own pumps that go on successfully working month after month with little or no maintenance. If you are one of these people then congratulations. Waterfall, streams and filters will often require a large flow of water but not necessarily a high pressure flow of water. This type of situation is ideal for a low maintenance pump. Situations where a high pressure is needed or if you want a fountain then usually a low maintenance pump will not be suitable. Fountains are easily blocked by even small debris, so a fountain pump will usually contain a foam to stop any debris. These foams will usually need frequent cleaning. Higher pressure pumps will usually need more attention than their low pressure equivalents.
Blanketweed also known as filamentous algae or angel hair is an unsightly green fibrous growth which commonly grows freely in the pond. Blanketweed prefers clear water where it will soon fill the pond, wrapping itself around the other plants and growing on hard surfaces in the pond.
You should remove as much of this as you can by hand. Twirling a rough stick in the pond can be a very good way to gather in the blanketweed. You need to be a little careful. If this is working well, as well as the blanketweed it can gather in other things such as water lily leaves and pump cables. The very silky form of blanketweed is not easily removed by this method.
Chemical treatments are still the most effective way of controlling blanketweed. There are three main type of chemical. 1) algaecide – the chemical poisons the algae causing it to die. 2) The chemical locks up minerals vital for the growth of the algae causing it to starve. 3) Bacteria hostile to algae are used to control it.
The chemicals in group one will often cause harm to the other plants in the pond. Repeated doses may cause plants to die and others to struggle. These chemicals can often be identified by their recommended infrequent dosing. I have had the best results with chemicals in group two. My own personal experience with the chemicals in group three is that they are not as effective as those in group two. I haven't noticed any damaging side effects from the use of the chemicals in group two.
Blanketweed growing on surfaces covered by thin flowing water (such as waterfalls, streams and fountain statues) seems largely unharmed by the previous methods of control. Brushing the water feature down is also fairly ineffective with the blanketweed often returning to previous levels within about seven days. However, switching off the pump and allowing the waterfeature to dry out works really well. The blanketweed can only survive in wet or at least damp conditions. Drying out will effectively sterilise the water feature. The water feature is likely be blanketweed free for weeks to come. Warning: it is only safe to turn off a pump if the pump is not also supplying a filter or if the fish are relying on it for oxygen. If you are not sure about the importance of the pump in supplying oxygen for the fish you can provide an alternative form of oxygen by purchasing a suitable air pump from a pond shop. These are very inexpensive to buy.
The growing season in a pond is not a long one. The pond is completely bare over the winter. Growth starts in the spring and the pond will continue to look a little bare until late spring early summer. The pond is at is most vigorous during the summer. Usually by early September more leaves are dying back than are being renewed. Removing the dead and dying leaves from the plants in the pond will make the pond seem fresh and youthful looking.
A short period of ice is usually harmless. Once the ice is fully covering the surface of the water the pond is sealed in. The oxygen in the water will be slowly used up. The noxious gases produced by the mud and rotting leaves will slowly build up in the water. How long your pond can continue like this without harm coming to the pond life will depend on how dirty the pond is and how many fish you have. Low numbers of fish in a clean pond will survive for much longer than lots of fish is a very muddy pond or one that has lots of dead leaves decomposing at the bottom.
If you think that you are in for an extended period of ice then the best solution is a pond heater or if you have a large pond more than one. The purpose of a pond heater is not to make the pond warm it is to raise the temperature of a small area of water close by the device so that it doesn't freeze. This allows oxygen in and the noxious gases produced by organic matter decomposing to escape. These devices consume a fairly low amount of electricity and are cheap to buy. 150 watts is a common consumption. It is best to buy one of these in the summer as they quickly sell out during a cold spell. Do buy a pond heater with a long cable length. Don't forget to turn them off when the cold snap is over. Don't leave them on when they are out of the water. Otherwise it may overheat and meltdown.
Most ponds will benefit from an annual clean out. Very few ponds can get away with never being cleaned out. Monthly maintenance is important but it is rarely enough on its own to keep the pond looking good and under your control indefinitely. You can of course stretch this time interval if you can't face cleaning out the pond every year but most ponds will be looking very tired if they have gone longer that 3 years without a clean out.
This work is best undertaken during the off season between September and March.
The fish should be carefully stored in roomy holding tanks with air provided by an air pump or fountain pump. The tanks should be netted to stop predators from taking the fish and to reduce the chances of fish jumping out of the pond. Koi and other carp, and golden orfe are particularly likely to try and jump out of the holding tanks. If this is what you have in your pond it can be difficult to stop this happening. In my own tanks a double layer of netting is stretched tightly across the tanks and secured firmly at 6 inch intervals around the tank. There are polystyrene sheets floating on the water held tightly in place by the netting. The polystyrene is to stop the larger fish from jumping and tearing straight through the netting. The force of a jumping fish will be dissipated widely across the netting by the polystyrene sheet. I then tie down the netting with fishing line to make everything extra secure. If you are using polystyrene sheets it is doubly important to provide additional oxygen as there can be no natural way for oxygen to enter the tank. If the weather is warm when you are cleaning out the pond or if the fish are going to be held in the storage tanks for a long time then it is important to test the water frequently. The potential for the fish to pollute their own water is an important consideration.
If the pond water is clear and sweet then by all means use the pond water to fill your holding tanks. Otherwise using tap water is fine so long as you treat the water with a de-chlorinating chemical to remove the chlorine before putting the fish into it. Very few people have the facilities to keep all the pond water safely put by during the clean out and to refill the pond with the original pond water after the work has been completed. In nearly every case once the pond has been cleaned out it will be re-filled with tap water. As the fish will almost inevitably be put into tap water at some stage during the proceedings it seems to me to make no difference if this happens when the fish are put into the holding tanks.
Are the fish at risk during a clean out. Yes of course they are. Risk cannot be completely eliminated in a project of this kind. At the same time pond clean outs are necessary and must be faced. With care, knowledge and good equipment the risks can be kept to a minimum. Most pond clean outs are completed without incident. Koi, particularly large koi are at a higher risk during and following a clean out than ordinary goldfish.
Draining the pond will allow you to remove all the mud and rotting debris that has accumulated at the bottom of the pond.
Cleaning the pond out gives you the opportunity to take on the big tasks like re-potting the plants. Water plants grow fast and quickly become overgrown. Once the pond has been drained down overgrown plants can be taken out of the pond, removed from their baskets, divided into a smaller more manageable size and then re-potted in new soil. Lining the planting baskets with a thin clear or black polythene sheet will help to prevent the soil from leaking out of the baskets over time. Remember to puncture the polythene liner in a few places near the bottom of the basket to allow the water in easily and to let the air out.
Covering the top of the baskets with pebbles will help stop the fish digging out the soil from the newly planted baskets. When choosing the size of the pebbles for the baskets you must choose round smooth pebbles that are no threat to the pond liner. Large pebbles will make it harder for the plants to grow. Therefore the pebbles should be large enough that your fish cannot easily move them but no larger. If you have large fish larger pebbles will be needed. Smooth round pebbles 20-30mm in diameter are a good size if your pond contains only goldfish or similar sized fish. Larger pebbles about the size of a potato are better for large fish. Drive gravel should never be used. Drive gravel is easily moved by even small goldfish and it is sharp and jagged. Once out of the basket and onto the floor of your pond, drive gravel is a threat to the liner, particularly on those occasions when you need to get into the pond and walk around such as during a clean out. If you step on a sharp piece of gravel there is always the risk that the sharp stone may puncture the pond liner.
I will often pressure wash the sides of the pond and also waterfalls, fountain statues or streams to blast away the dirt and slime and lift the ponds appearance. Obviously you should only do this if you are confident that the liner, stone and concrete is in good condition and able to withstand the force of the water without damage. PVC pond liner is much more fragile and vulnerable to damage from a pressure washer.
While the pond is empty the pumps can be checked and serviced.
Now would be a good time to drain and clean the filter and to change the bulb in the ultra violet clarifier. The ultra violet clarifier is part of the filtration system. It kills the algae that turn the water green. The principle reason that people install filters on their ponds is to stop them going green. If you do not have a filter, be aware the the pond will quickly go green after the pond is refilled after the clean out. Many ponds will clear again a few weeks later but many don't.
When you have refilled the pond it is important to treat the new tap water with a de-chlorinator to remove the chlorine from the water before you put the fish back.
It is very important to test the water frequently at least for the first three weeks following a clean out. This is doubly true if the pond contains koi. The bacteria that break down the bodily waste produced by the fish in to harmless by products will have been largely removed from the pond during the clean out. These important bacteria will take a while to fully recover.