Protect your Pond with Wintertime Maintenance

Although your pond is dormant during the winter months, it’s still important to keep up with routine maintenance. Try these simple pond winterization maintenance activities to save yourself time and money come springtime.

Let Light In

After you shovel your driveway to clear the snow away, get started on the pond. Keeping snow off of the ponds surface can be an important part of winter maintenance. Although your pond is dormant during the winter, there are microscopic aquatic plants that will continue producing oxygen as long as light penetrates the ice. Removing snow to allow light shine onto the pond can be an important step in keeping fish alive during the winter months.

Prepare for the Worst

Winter storms can sometimes result in power outages. Make sure you are prepared to keep de-icers and aerators powered if there is no electricity. If you’ve invested a lot in your pond, and are concerned for the safety of your fish, you may want to invest in a generator for your pond.

If you can, turn off pond pumps and filters in the winter. If a power outage does occur and you are not able to remove water from the filter and pumps, it may freeze, causing major damage.

Minimize Circulation 

If you decide to keep your pump running during the winter months, you will want to minimize the water circulation. During the cold season, even if the top of your pond is frozen, the bottom likely won’t be frozen and will remain around 39 degrees. If you keep the pump running at high circulation, you may actually circulate the frozen water, creating super chilled water.

Some ways to reduce circulation are:

• Turn off bottom drains, if possible
• Place intakes to pumps and filters at mid-water
• Place intakes closer to waterfalls or fountains
• Turn off Surface Skimmers
• Turn your pump down to a lower speed

 If you run into trouble this winter with your pond, or have questions about winter maintenance, contact us for answers. 

Top Five Fall Backyard Pond Purchases

Winter is a time for dormancy for your water garden, but the affects the weather has can be dangerous for the life within your pond.

Luckily, there are ways to protect your pond from the adverse weather winter brings, so in spring your pond will jump back and be better prepared for your enjoyment.

What are some of the purchases you need to make when fall approaches? Use our guide below to help you purchase what you will need to prep your backyard pond for winter:

1. Leaf netting – After you work hard to clean your pond and prepare it for winter, make sure no other debris accumulates in it by using leaf netting.
2. Pond heater – A pond heater or de-icer will help prevent the top of your pond from freezing. This is especially important if you have fish hibernating in your pond during the winter months.
3.  Heated water hose – A heated water hose is important if your area experiences freezing weather during winter. This hose can melt ice and regain its flexibility.
4. Aeration kit – This can help release toxic gases and replenish the fresh oxygen in your pond during the freezing months of winter.

While you can purchase all of these essentials separately, it might make sense to purchase everything in one easy to use pond winterization kit. Not only will this save you money, but it will ensure that you have absolutely everything you will need to keep your pond healthy during the winter season.

Pond winterization kits may differ, but try to find one that includes a heated de-icer, pond netting, aeration kit as well as wheat germ food sticks and spirulina. Purchasing this kit all at once will save you time and money in the future.

Shop for all your winter pond supplies from Pondliner.com to ensure you have everything you need to prep your pond for winter dormancy. 

The Pondliner.com Countdown to Winter

When summer winds down and fall is in full swing, it’s time to start prepping your backyard pond or water garden for the cooler months ahead.

Don’t feel overwhelmed, the fall season gives you enough time to space out your winterization so you can still enjoy the time you have left with your pond.

Use our winter countdown to help guide your fall pond maintenance efforts:

•  Clean-up – In late summer and early fall, it’s important that you start to remove as much debris and material from your backyard pond as possible. To do this, use a skimmer or pond vacuum to remove leaves, twigs and other build-up. Use netting to prevent any further debris from accumulating.
• Repot your plants – In fall, it’s necessary to repot your pond plants to divide and store. Non-hardy plants need to be protected before winter dormancy. Try to repot your plans as soon as you can.
• Bring your fish in – Don’t wait until the snow starts falling to remove your fish from your backyard pond. Your fish can become stressed when exposed to temperature shifts greater than 4 or 5 degrees, so the sooner you relocate them the better.
• Trimming – Prune any overgrown or long-stemmed plants to help promote growth next season. Also, trimming your plants can help you remove any leaves that might end up falling to the bottom of your pond.
•  Feed your pond plants – Late summer and early fall is the best time to start providing your pond plants with the nutrients and supplements they will need as winter approaches.

While there is more you will need to do to completely prep your pond for the harsh winter ahead, it’s important to start slowly and make the adjustment for your plants and fish a smooth one.

Find all the fall pond maintenance and pond winterization kits you need to help your pond stay strong at Pondliner.com.

Can My Fish Survive the Winter?

If you live in a climate that endures harsher winters, you’re probably wondering whether your fish can survive the cold. While deeper ponds are better for fish than shallow water gardens, there are some precautions you can take to keep your fish alive in the winter. Protect your fish with these pond winterization techniques:

Make Sure Your Pond is Deep Enough

Fish are made to survive in cold temperatures, and even frozen water. However, there needs to be enough unfrozen water under the ice for your fish to live healthily. Your pond should have an area that is at least 18 inches deep in case it freezes over completely. This can give the fish enough room to create a warmer living space under the ice.

Add a Pump or Heater

If you want to avoid a frozen pond, you need to invest in a pond heater or pump. Heaters are made for cold temperatures, so installing one could be a good option for keeping a small area of your pond warm. Heaters can also create holes in the ice to allow more oxygen to enter the water for your fish.

While a pond pump is more likely to be internally damaged by cold weather, a pump with a fountain can also add oxygen to your pond. The area of water surrounding the fountain stays unfrozen, creating a large hole in the ice through which oxygen can enter the water.

Leave Some Dirt

Because your pond will be more sealed off from nutrients in the winter than in other seasons, it’s important to not over-clean your pond before it gets cold. You don’t need your pond to look perfect in the winter, so leave some dirt, bacteria, and debris in the water. This will provide natural nutrients for your fish to consume.

Limit Food

When the temperature drops, so does a fish’s metabolism. Feeding them more than they need to eat will cause extra waste products, so be wary of feeding in the winter. As the temperature gradually decreases in the fall, scale down the amount of food you give them. When the weather drops to under 45˚F, you can stop feeding your fish altogether. The above precautions can keep them alive throughout the winter without requiring food.

When you’re ready to start preparing your pond for winter, check out the from Pondliner.com. Contact us for answers to your pond and water garden questions.

Simplify Pond Winterization by Purchasing a Pond Kit

In my last three posts I gave you lots of tips and tricks for how to get your pond ready for winter. I talked about the benefits of pond heaters, pond pumps and pond netting, and I described why a certain amount of debris is a good thing. I also went over the basics of caring for your fish and pond plant during cold temperatures.

If you are a new pond owner, you may have found yourself a bit overwhelmed. There's a lot to remember, and your pond life is really relying on you to get it right.

If you want to make the pond winterization process as easy as possible, you may want to consider purchasing a complete winterizing kit. Similar to a standard pond kit, these comprehensive winterization tools can help make sure you have everything you need to maintain a healthy aquatic environment - even in the coldest temperatures.

Pondliner carries the Laguna complete winterization kit . It comes with the following parts:

• 315W PowerHeat De-icer
• 15' x 20' Black Protective Pond Netting
• Pond Aeration Kit
• Premium Spirulina & Wheat Germ Food Sticks

Its purpose is to keep an area of your pond thawed in order to encourage the proper exchange of gases throughout the winter. Even if you pond freezes over, this winterization kit will keep a small area open to allow oxygen to get in and toxic gases to be released.

When you purchase the Laguna complete winterization kit, you will receive all the supplies mentioned above in one easy-to-manage box. The kits come with simple instructions that are designed to make the pond winterizing process as easy and straightforward as possible.

In addition to winterization kits, Pondliner also carries a variety of other pond supplies that can make sure your pond is winter-ready this season. Browse our complete selection today and get ready to get bundled up, because the cold is on its way!