Garden Pond Care Advice | Prepare Your Garden Fish Ponds For Spring

Get Your Garden Fish Ponds In Order By Doing Your Prep Work

It's been a long cold Winter, especially here in the UK and Spring is finally in the air.

Get the season off to a good start & make summer maintenance a walk in the park.

To help you achieve that goal here is some good garden pond care advice to get you off to a good start...

Use the Pond Spring Start-Up hints and tips below to ensure that you give your pond a good workout and get it in shape for the hotter and enjoyable months ahead in the northern hemisphere.

For those of you living in the southern hemisphere take a look at the Fall (Autumn) Pond Preparation tips which will help you with how to take care of a garden pond in Autumn, in preparation for the winter ahead.

Spring Garden Pond Care Guide...

  • Spring is the time of year in which to give your garden fish pond a complete make over. If you decide to give your pond a good clean out then rescue as much aquatic pond life as you can. Leave any debris draining away next to the pond edge, overnight. This will allow any bugs and beasties to find their way back home. Once you have cleaned out the pond make sure that you treat any fresh municipal tap water, used to fill the pond with a chlorine and chloramine reducing product, such as Jungle Pond Ammonia Chloramine Remover.
  • Remove Pond Netting or Winter Cover.
  • Now is the time to place the UVC sterilizer Or UVC clarifier back into the pond, from its storage place; there is very little biological activity in the cold Northern hemisphere winters. This often necessitates the UV light being removed from the fish pond, to prevent the quartz tube from being damaged should the pond freeze.
  • Inspect your UV Clarifier and replace the UV Light Bulbs if they have been in full use the previous season. A typical UV lamps last about 8000 hours; less than 1 year and although they still shine, will not emit sufficient enough UV rays to control the build up of green pond algae. The increase of green pond water is a direct result of increased natural sunlight, increased fish feeding and the resulting rise in the levels of nitrates and phosphates found in the fish pond. This is all part of a natural cycle taking place in your pond called the Nitrogen Cycle.
  • Remove pond debris, leaves uneaten fish food etc from the bottom of the pond using an economical and reliable Pond Skimmer, Manual Pond Vac or Powered Pond Vac - Decaying leaves, grass, uneaten fish food and other vegetation gives off ammonia, which puts more of a strain on your pond filter.
  • Skim leaves and floating debris off the surface of the pond before it falls to the pond floor, decays and becomes pond sludge.
  • Ensure that the pH of your pond is normal and make any necessary adjustments if needed.
  • In ponds with no bottom drains there is an excellent UK product which, when added to pond water, will do the "muck" digestion job on an ongoing basis. The product is called Viresco. It is natural, and effective in clearing algae and organic debris build up in ponds (pond sludge) and is available for shipping worldwide. Click here to read the Interview with John McLauchlan the developer of Viresco algae and blanketweed solutions.
  • Replace existing plastic coil or other filter media with a far superior and low cost alternative... Fishmate Supra Biofilter Media in the USA is an excellent product and low cost too! Supra biomedia is a low cost ceramic filter media that is up to 100 times more efficient at storing large colonies of nitrifying bacteria than plastic coils.
  • Test your pond water ammonia levels using a suitable Pond Water Test Kit. As fish start to feed at an increased rate so does the level of ammonia. This increase in ammonia (NH3) places a high strain on your biological pond filter. Beneficial bacteria take their time to colonize your pond filter at this time of year … Now is the time to keep an eye on your pond filter by regularly checking the ammonia levels in your pond, using a reliable ammonia testing kit. The ammonia concentration within your pond will be higher than it has been during the preceding months, but should not spiral out of control, providing your pond filter is working correctly. It may take a while for your biofilter to gain control once again. To aid your pond filter don’t overfeed and ensure that there is a plentiful supply of oxygen as the process of converting ammonia requires plenty of oxygen.
  • Visually inspect Pond Fish for Disease & Parasites. Certain parasitic infestations can be treated using Pond Salt. It is during spring time that many pond keepers start to experience the hassles and joys of fish pond keeping. As pond water temperatures increase many pond keepers experience fish health problems, particularly with bacterial ulcer disease, manifesting itself in the form of sores and lesions on your fish's body. Fish parasites thrive in cold water and take advantage of the slightly weakened immune system of your fish, carried over from the winter spell. It will take a while for your fish to increase their immune system, which makes them more susceptible to infection. Treatment can be a painstaking affair, costly and often leads to other hassles, due to the use of Antibiotic Fish Treatment remedies.
  • Inspect Pond Equipment for worn, damaged or unsafe Parts.
  • Add Viresco Aqua or Viresco Koi to prevent the growth of blanketweed, string algae and green water as well reducing bacterial ulcer problems; alternatively Barley Straw has been known to inhibit string algae growth. Personally I would highly recommend Viresco as it does what it says it will do.
  • If you have aquatic pond plants then prepare your aquatic pond plants by throwing away any potted plants if they haven’t started to sprout by mid April. If you lowered your aquatic plants to the bottom of the pond for the winter now is the time to raise them. Fertilize each marginal plant species with 1 plant grow tablet. For hardy water lilies use 2 tablets. If you have lotus then fertilize with 5 fertilizer tablets (Aquatic Plant Fertilizer) ... Click here to see full list of Aquatic Pond Plant Articles on this site.
  • Feed a high quality Pond Fish Food to increase the health and vitality of your pond fish. The higher the quality, the less waste. Cheap fish food is often false economy due to the amount of nutrient deficient filler used.  A high quality winter fish food contains the required balance of minerals and vitamins, so as to keep your fish healthy and active and maintain their immune system … CAUTION: check the ash content of the fish food. Easily digestible protein fish foods don’t have more than 5% ash content.
  • THE MYTH OF WHEAT GERM FISH FOOD - Wheat germ is advertised as the “best winter fish food” because it is easily digestible. This is not strictly true and is a marketing myth used to increase the sales of wheat germ in addition to normal fish food. Wheat germ doesn’t contain the required balance of protein, minerals and vitamins. Some people believe that feeding should stop at around 10 C but if the fish are still swimming around then by all means feed them, but only small amounts of fish food. It doesn’t make sense to starve the fish over the winter months to leave them in a weakened state in spring, which in turn makes them more susceptible to fish diseases and possible death. It is not only cruel to starve them but is also financially inept as ornamental Koi and fancy gold fish varieties can be quite expensive to replace.

Spring Garden Pond Care Articles ...