How to Get Your Pond Ready for Winter: Part 3

In my final post on pond winterization, I will be discussing how to properly prepare your fish and plant life for the cold months ahead.

Getting Your Fish Ready for Winter

Many people are concerned about their fish not making it through the winter. However, if you follow these simple rules, you shouldn't have any problem:

Don't overfeed your fish. The metabolism of fish is controlled primarily by water temperature. This means that as your water gets colder, your fish need smaller amounts of food and less protein. Protein is harder to digest, so if you feed your fish high-protein food in cold water, they are going to excrete the extra as ammonia. A build-up of ammonia in the water stresses your fish and reduces their ability to survive.

How do you solve this problem? Once the water temperature drops to about 65 degrees Fahrenheit, start feeding your fish Spring & Autumn fish food. Then stop feeding your fish altogether once the temperature drops to about 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Their metabolism will be completely slowed down at that point, and they can survive without food until spring.

Make sure a section of your pond is at least 18 inches deep. As the weather gets colder, your fish will migrate to the deepest part of your pond to stay warm. Water that is at least 18 inches deep will provide them with a "warm" home for the winter.

How to Get Your Pond Plants Ready for the Cold

If you wait too long to take care of your pond plants, you will end up with a pond full of rotting leaves and buds. Follow the tips below to make sure your pond's plant life is ready for the cold months ahead:

1. Trim bog and marsh plants before frost hits
2. Pull out water lilies and trim off ALL their leaves
3. Move all potted plants into the deepest area of your pond to prevent them from freezing
4. Save any tropical lilies by storing them in peat moss, or just discard them

Don't Worry, Your Pond Life Will Return

Remember, winter does not mark the death of your water garden. Instead, it is a time for your fish and plant life to rest up and get ready for yet another lively spring. If you follow the winterization tips outlined in my "How to Get Your Pond Ready for Winter" posts, you will be prepared to get your pond ready for the winter months ahead.

Make sure you check out all the winterization pond supplies Pondliner has to help you get your pond through the cold winter months.

*Image provided by CaptPiper on Flickr

How to Get Your Pond Ready for Winter: Part 2

In my last post on pond winterization, I stressed the importance of leaving some debris in your pond during the cold winter months. I also pointed out how pond netting can help you achieve the perfect level of debris.

Today I'm going to be talking about the role of pond filters and pond pumps during the winter. If you're lucky enough to live in an area that doesn't get freezing temperatures, this won't apply much to you. But then again if you're one of those people, you probably aren't reading this post at all.

Rule #1: Remove your pond filter

For those of you who have a pond filter, now is the time to remove it. You don't need to filter the water during the cold winter months, and by leaving it in the water you are just putting it at risk for damage when your pond water freezes.

Rule #2: Utilize your pond pump as an oxygen provider

Even though your pond life goes into hibernation during the winter, it still needs oxygen to survive. The best way to provide this oxygen is by keeping your pond water moving. But how do you do this when the temperatures are cold enough to freeze your pond solid? Use a pond pump with a fountain.

The Benefits of Pond Pumps with Fountains

Submerged pond pumps with fountains provide a steady stream of oxygen to your pond life while keeping a portion of your pond water from freezing. Set the pump on bricks about a foot below the water to prevent it from getting clogged by any debris that's floating around.

A clogged pond pump can be incredibly disturbing to hibernating pond life, so you want to avoid this if at all possible. A clogged pump will also decrease the amount of output from the fountain - which in turn decreases the amount of oxygen being pushed through the water - so you definitely want to prevent that from happening.

If you don't have excessive freezing in your area, a pond pump with fountain may be a bit of overkill. In these cases, it might be better to use a floating pond heater.

Why You May Want to Consider a Floating Pond Heater

Pond heaters, also known as pond de-icers, create a small hole in frozen pond water that allows any toxic chemicals in the water to escape. These pond products don't remove an entire sheet of ice from your pond, but they provide a big enough hole that fresh, healthy oxygen can reach your pond life.

Stay tuned...

As you can see, pond pumps play an important role in keeping your pond healthy throughout the cold winter months. In my next post I'll be talking about how to get your fish, plants and and other pond life ready for freezing temperatures. In the meantime, browse our website to make sure you have all the pond supplies you need for the rapidly approaching cold.

*Image provided by Muffet on Flickr

How to Get Your Pond Ready for Winter: Part 1

Whether we like to admit it or not, winter is rapidly approaching. Days are shorter and darker and temperatures are inevitably dropping. Most homeowners know how to get their yards ready for the cold months ahead, but they sometimes struggle to achieve the same level of preparation for their ponds.

Either they don't have the right pond supplies on hand or they use the right products at the wrong time. They may even do too much winter preparation which can be just as damaging as not doing enough.

This is going to be the first of several posts in which I share helpful tips on how to properly winterize your pond and ensure that the life within it emerges healthy and happy in the spring. For starters, I'm going to share some information that seem like a bit of a contradiction.

You want to leave some debris, dirt and mud in your pond when preparing it for winter.

Yes, you read that correctly. Some pond owners go a tad overboard with their pond cleaning. They drain out all the water, scrub the pond liner and refill the pond with fresh water. This is detrimental if winter is on the way. Frogs, snails and microscopic pond life rely on the mud at the bottom of your pond to keep them warm during winter. And your fish are counting on there being a cozy bed of leaves and disintegrated muck for them to hibernate in during the coldest days.

How Much Debris Should You Leave in Your Pond?

It's good practice to remove about 90% of the leaves and other debris that have accumulated in your pond throughout the fall. Leave the rest for your fish and other pond life to enjoy. You may be surprised at the diversity of life that emerges in spring if you leave a few natural resources in your pond to help new life flourish.

How Pond Netting Can Help

Keep in mind that trees are going to continue to dispel leaves, sticks and other miscellaneous debris all throughout the winter. If your pond isn't frozen, you don't want all this excess debris to build up and become overwhelming. Prevent this problem by covering your pond with some nearly invisible black pond netting. (We're currently running a special offering 15% off our premium pond netting, so now is a great time to stock up on this important pond product.)

Stay tuned for more helpful pond winterization tips coming your way this month, and be sure to browse our website to find all the pond supplies you need to get your pond ready for the season's coldest temperatures.




*Image provided by foto3116 on Flickr