As ponds warm, ice thaws, and fish become more active, Spring is around the corner. The question is, is your pond properly prepared for the seasonal change?
The amount of maintenance and spring cleaning required in ponds is largely influenced by the amount of maintenance carried out before and during winter. In-fact, winterization is one of the most important aspects of preparing a pond for spring, and will help ensure your fish and eco-system have the best kick-start to the new year. Keeping your pond healthy over winter when fish are most vulnerable is important so they’re strong come warmer weather when they start eating again. Likewise, cleaning up debris and sludge build-up in early winter keeps harmful substance levels lower over the season as beneficial bacteria slow down in colder conditions. Basically, not much really happens over winter if you have taken steps to winterize your pond, and come spring-time, you should have a fairly easy time with cleaning!
Not winterizing a pond, or leaving a large amount of organic debris though the winter, can lead to problems come spring. Low oxygen content, sick fish (parasites), anerobic bacteria build-up (rotten egg smell), and black sludge, are all issues that can lead to a pretty miserable spring clean-up.
Fortunately, no matter what the condition of your pond is, there are still things you can do to keep the pond healths up again and ready for summer. The following is our quick check-list for ponds in spring to ensure the best start to the season and to promote healthy fish throughout the rest of the season.
When should I start cleaning my pond/water garden?
However, even if you have carried out all winterization steps (or haven’t), there will still be a certain amount of work to be done as temperatures begin to rise. First, and foremost a very important rule to spring care, is to never begin cleaning a pond if there is still ice on the surface water. You should never try to break and remove the ice on the water or try to speed up its thawing process with physical tools. Ice on a pond basically means there is little for you to do but wait until warmer weather arrives. There is no set month for spring cleaning maintenance, and even in mid or late spring some years it may still be too cold to turn on equipment and begin feeding fish. Although everyone does things differently, we personally recommend taking into account two points to determine if winter is truly over for your eco-system:
- Is there still ice on the pond or low temperatures forecast? If so, wait until it thaws naturally before you start any cleaning.
- Is the water temperature below 50ºF ? If so, wait until water temps rise and fish become more active before feeding. This can be monitored with a pond thermometer.
Once ice has thawed and water temperatures begin to rise above 50ºF , you should start to see your fish becoming a bit more active – this is when you should start your spring koi pond maintenance & cleaning. At this point equipment can be started, de-icers removed, sludge & debris mucked out, add beneficial bacteria, and start feeding slowly in relation with temperature.
Spring Koi Pond Maintenance Check-list
If you’ve winterized your koi pond some of these steps may not apply to you, such as cleaning out debris or sludge. The short list below includes everything that should be considered, so you can simply pick and choose the steps that apply to you.
Step 1: Remove Heaters & Turn-On Equipment
KH Pond De-Icer 750watt
If you’ve been running a de-icer or heater over winter you’ll want to remove it to save on electricity and allow the pond to achieve a more native temperature.
De-icers are designed to keep a hole in the surface ice open for gas exchange to take place, so the best time to remove them would be when your pond thaws and temperatures rise.
After removing your de-icer, it’s time to also turn on any pond equipment that was off during the winter. Not everyone will have turned off pumps and filters, but for those in the coldest exposed areas, it’s often best practice to protect equipment from internal damage ice damage. You can safely turn on pond pumps again when your water is free from morning ice, although they can be turned on sooner if the frost is only minor as the flow should keep them from freezing up. Before turning on pumps, you’ll want to drain your filter box of any sludge accumulation and make sure filter media is free of debris. Over winter and without the flow of water (oxygen), beneficial bacteria in filters will die and you’ll end up with smelly muck from anaerobic bacteria which should be cleaned before the pumps are on. Fountains and waterfalls can also be turned on as they will keep surface ice free and provide extra aeration for beneficial bacteria and fish.
Step 2: Clean Out Excess Sludge and Debris
Matala Pond Vac2
for cleaning muck from the pond bottom.
An important aspect of preparing a koi pond for winter is performing a big clean out of debris and sludge which often accumulates in large quantities during autumn. If you managed to get most of your fall leaves & debris from the pond in the previous year, there won’t be much left to clean come spring. In-fact, we highly recommend not cleaning out small amounts of sludge that may have been left behind as they will provide your beneficial bacteria a good source of ammonia (their food source) to begin re-colonization. Once temperatures begin to rise and oxygen and food sources increase, beneficial bacteria will begin to quickly re-colonize in and will keep on top of the waste naturally.
If you missed the fall/winter clean-up, you’ll definitely want to remove some of the muck, especially if it’s black in color. Debris left in the pond over winter will decompose much slower than in warmer months, and if there is also lack of oxygen content, you’ll have a really smelly problem come spring. In low-oxygen conditions anaerobic bacteria thrive and consume sludge at a much slower rate, eventually producing a rotten egg smell of hydrogen sulfide as a by-product. If you have large amounts of muck in spring, or small amounts of black sludge, you’ll want to remove this with a pond vacuum to prevent it mixing with upper layers of water. We recommend a pond vacuum as it’s faster, easier, and much more efficient at removing muck and stopping it moving throughout the pond. As well as removing excess muck, you can start up any skimmer filters you have in place and replace or install your pond netting to prevent fallen debris and springtime predators.
Step 3: Treat Fish for Parasites & Possible Infections
Microbe-lift Broad Spectrum Disease Treatment
If you have goldfish or koi in your pond, especially koi, you can and should treat the pond for both parasites and external bacterial infections in winter and spring. During colder weather a fishs bodily functions slow down, including their metabolism and immune system. This is why pond fish eat less during winter, and also why they’re the most vulnerable to parasites and infection during this time. To prevent parasites making your fish sick, you should treat your pond before winter as part of the winterization process, and then again in spring to help make sure they are parasite free as they come out of “hibernation”.
The most common parasites are often flukes (skin/gill) and can easily be treated with a broad spectrum parasite treatment. There are other parasites that can infect your fish, such as chillodonella, oodinium, costia, and many more. In most cases, we usually recommend Microbelift Broad Spectrum and/or praziquantel, which can be found in Aqua Meds Aqua Prazi treatment for ponds. This parasite treatment is safe for fish and the eco-system when dosed correctly, and will quickly eliminate both internal and external parasites. It can be dosed as part of your winter maintenance routine in late autumn, and again in spring when fish start to become more active and begin feeding. Ask us for more information on our recommended dosage and combination of the two products specifically for flukes.
Although less common, bacterial infections can also be treated if you notice any wounds or injuries on your fish. External parasites, such as flukes, can cause nasty sores on the skin of fish which easily become a breeding ground for bacteria. Likewise, a pond which has been iced over all season can lead to fish becoming injured on broken jagged ice; especially around heaters. Since the pond water is normally very clear in colder months, you should be able to see injuries relatively easy. If some of your fish are showing signs of problems or injury, we recommend treating the pond with a natural healing agent and anti-bacterial product to prevent infection. For this, API Pond Melafix or pond salt is a good choice, but never both at the same time.
Step 4: Install a UV Clarifier for green water control
The best time to start combating algae is early spring, as this is when the nuisance weeds likes to get a foothold in preparation for summer. Algae requires two things to grow – sunlight and nutrients. By cleaning out any excess sludge in winter and spring algae will have less nutrients to establish itself, but it will still be able to grow slowly in the presence of sunlight. To prevent full algae blooms in summer and to get better water clarity year-round can start by installing a UV clarifier as part of your spring maintenance routine. Installing or turning on a clarifier early ensures that less unicellular algae aren’t able to lay dormant and bloom in the warmer months to come. Clarifiers are 100% safe for fish, and destroy algae at the cellular level as its slowly pumped past through the specialized UV chamber of the equipment. They are especially useful for koi ponds as they will also reduce the amount of free swimming harmful bacteria and parasites which can lead to fish sickness (useful in colder weather), but won’t harm beneficial bacteria as the majority lives on the surface of the pond liner and attached to the filter media.
For the best results a UV clairifer can be installed or turned on as soon as you turn on your pump after winter, and can be combined with a natural algae deterrent for maximum algae prevention.
Step 5: Supplement with Beneficial Bacteria (And Oxygen)
Microbe-lift PL
Once things are in order, you can add a concentrated beneficial bacteria product, such as Microbelift PL, to the pond to help kick-start the spring population and improve biological filtration. As beneficial bacteria work better in warmer temperatures, we recommend adding them when pond temperatures start to rise above 50ºF (10°c). To further improve their efficiency, you can also add a pond aerator to provide direct oxygen to the eco-system. Not only will this ensure beneficial bacteria have plenty of oxygen to breakdown harmful substances, it also makes fish (especially koi) more comfortable and less stressed.
After cleaning out excess muck and making sure filters and equipment are in good order, you can consider topping up the pond system with extra beneficial bacteria. This step should only be carried out when you have water flow from your pump and waste is under control, as beneficial bacteria require high oxygen conditions to thrive. Adding bacteria too early in the year, especially if there is still ice on the pond, would likely kill most of the population as there is little aeration and gas exchange taking place. You also should not add bacteria when you have problems with excess waste, as they’re likely only going to worsen the problems and contribute to the waste levels themselves.
Airmax Koi Air1 Aerator
Step 6: Slowly Increase Fish Feeding
Microbe-lift Variety Mix Goldfish & Koi Food
Finally, as water temperatures rise, koi and goldfish will start to become more active as their metabolisms start to boot up after winter. Although it can be temping to start feeding as soon as ice thaws, you should wait until your fish are active and you’ve finished the rest of the spring chores. This isn’t because food will rot in the stomachs of a hibernating fish (an untrue myth!), but because providing food which goes uneaten contributes to waste and spikes in ammonia; especially in low oxygen conditions. It’s important to get your water filtration and waste levels balanced before adding more waste to the ecosystem.
Monitoring water temperature can be useful in determining when to start feeding fish. Koi are smart animals and will only eat when they’re ready, which usually shows in their behaviour as they start swimming slowly along the pond liner. This behaviour is a good indicator of when to begin feeding, as they’re now likely searching for food on the bottom of their environment. Once you notice koi are more active, we recommend feeding small portions and monitoring daily feeding to ensure all food is being taken. If some is going to waste, reduce the amount until temperatures rise. If all food is gone, increase the dosage until there is a little to no waste.
If you’ve been feeding wheatgerm food until now, you can continue that until mid-spring when temperatures rise further. If you want to pack on extra weight early in the year, switching to a high quality summer feed is also a fine option. The type of feed is personal preference so long as it’s high in protein, healthy fats, and has a wide vitamin & mineral profile.
I don’t know about you but I don’t like eating the same thing all the time. Changing types or brands of foods isn’t a necessity if you’re using a good quality food but we like to switch it up every once in a while. I like to switch up my pets foods from time to time so long as they aren’t adversely affected by it. Afterall, Variety is the spice of life!
Dail Hong