Pond & Water Garden Articles > Opening Your Pond For Spring
Opening Your Pond For Spring
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With the first nice week of Spring, it's time to enjoy the weather (fingers crossed) and open our ponds! Because of the mild winter we had, you may have some floating algae on the surface of the pond, pull this algae off the water with a clean rake (no chemicals, soaps, etc.) or stick. Clean or replace your filter mats and start your pump. Remember, your filter will be removing smaller bits of algae. Keep an eye on your mat, you may need to clean it more often than normal while reopening your pond. Remove any large debris from the bottom of your pond with a skimmer net. Try not to "stress out" your fish too much, their immune systems don't fully kick in till the water reaches mid 60 degrees in temperature.
Check your pumpand filter connections for leaks.This is also a good time to check your waterfall and/or stream edges forany waterthat may be outside the bounds of your liner,causes include, settling or leaves, twigs or stones damming the water.
Once your pump and filter are back on, it's time to add beneficial bacteria. Depending upon the amount of debris in your pond dictates the type of beneficial bacteria you choose. If your pond has a lot of winter debris on the bottom, choose a bacterial with cleaning power. These include MicrobeLift Sludge Remover, MicrobeLift Spring Bacteria and Proform PC to name a few. If your pond is fairly clean , use MicrobeLift PL. If you have remaining fall bacteria, use that, don't let it go to waste.
Testing your water is a very important step in opening your pond. Check your pH and ammonia. Your pH should ideally be a 7 but higher than a 7 is ok. If your pond is lower than a 7, you need to add small amounts of baking soda and slowly bring your pondback up to 7. If your pond is showing high ammonia levels, add additional beneficial bacteria to help further jump-start the nitrogen cycle.
This is also the best time of the year to start adding barley to your pond. If you are using a barley straw bale, place in running water, as it takes both running water and oxygen to properly break down.
You can start feeding your fish when your water is in the 50 degree range. Start with a cool water or all season formula and gradually (as the water warms) switch to your higher protein summer formulas. It is also a good idea to start your fish with small amounts and gradually build to normal levels. A good rule of thumb: what they can eat in 5 minutes, if after 5 minutes there is a lot of floating food, you fed too much.
The last step in opening your pond this Spring is to clean up your plants. Remove any dead foliage, keepingthe debrisfrom falling into your clean pond. Follow these simple steps and opening your pond will be a breeze.