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Contributed by Derek Rogers
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 Maintain Your Pond
First of all, in order to avoid disturbing the life that is already in your pond, try to do your spring chores before the water gets warmer than 10 degrees C. This will allow you to have the pond ready for the time when the fish, plants and frogs begin to emerge again.
The amount of work that you will need to do in your pond in order to prepare for spring will depend on what the winter was like. Be sure to keep this in mind as you begin to prepare your pond for spring and summer. Although your pond's water will look it's cleanest and clearest just before spring starts, don't assume that this means it actually is at its cleanest.
Leaf matter and other organic materials will have fallen into your pond in the winter, and will have caused nutrient levels to grow. This can lead to more algae as the summer begins. Therefore, remove any debris that has fallen into the pond, so that the oxygen can continue to be at its peak level. Use a pond vac from your aquatic store. This will allow you to actually get all of the debris out of the bottom of the pond.
You should also test your pond water in the weeks before full spring. This will give you a good idea of how the pond water might have changed, and what you should put into it before summer. Remember that the ph level should be around 8, so make adjustments if needed. If you haven't run your pump in the winter, it is time to fine tune your pump. Make sure it is clean and in good working order. You can also use this time to change bulbs and filters, so that you can rest easy all summer long.
Remember that your fish will have been governed by the temperature of the pond. As long as the water temperature remains low, they will not have needed to eat all winter.
However, moving into the spring, as the water warms up, this will be crucial. As the temperature of the water gets between 8 and 10 degrees C, begin to feed them small amounts of food, and remove whatever they don't eat in 5 minutes. You can gradually go back to feeding them regular amounts as the temperature warms up completely. During this time as well, you want to provide your fish with a little bit of preventative care. Remember that they'll not be able to ward of bacteria as well while they are coming out of their wintertime slumber.
Therefore, provide them with some extra help, and you can be sure that your fish will arrive in summer thriving and happy.
Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who represents a number of UK businesses. For garden ponds, he recommends Seapets, one of the UK's leading suppliers of pond supplies.
Article Source: Ponds and Spring Time |
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