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In a garden pond, you must recreate an ecosystem that balances aquatic fauna and flora. If it breaks, fish die, and algae proliferate to the detriment of ornamental plants in the pond. Regular maintenance, specific to each season, allows you to maintain this balance and maximize your body of water.
For Quality Water
A well-maintained pool has oxygenated water and pond covers, where fish like it and reproduce, plants develop without becoming invasive, and algae do not abound. To maintain this balance, it is important to monitor these 3 elements:
– The pH: ideally, it is between 5 and 8. If the pH becomes too acidic, this is a sign that the organic matter is in excess: the fish are in excess, or the filter is clogged. And if the pH becomes basic, the water is not sufficiently aerated; it stagnates and lacks oxygen.
– Water hardness: expressed in TH (hydro Timetric titer), it is ideally between 10 and 15 to satisfy both plants and fish.
– Oxygen content: oxygen is vital for fish; ensure the water is sufficiently oxygenated.
How To Have A Well Oxygenated Water?
If your fish are looking for air on the surface, the water in your pond is not sufficiently oxygenated. A pump associated with a jet of water allows you to aerate the water and add so-called oxygenating plants to complete the effect: elodea, water press, water violet, and swimming pondweed… In addition to producing in the supply of oxygen, these plants provide refuge for fry and food for fish.
How To Keep Water Clear?
Your plants and fish must benefit from sunlight; the water should not be soiled by dead leaves or any other waste floating on the surface. The pond water must be completely filtered in less than 3 hours; choose a pond filter accordingly, corresponding to the surface area of your body of water.
Cleaning The Pond Filter Pump
The pond filter pump should be cleaned regularly every season.
– Pour water from a watering can into the outlet mouth, evacuating dirt through the inlet
– Take out the filters and clean them individually. If necessary, replace them with a spare filter kit.
Pool cleaning, season after season
In spring
– Monitor the water temperature daily: as soon as it reaches 10°C, put the pump and filter back into operation.
– Fish come out of hibernation, regularly check pH, dissolved oxygen, and nitrite levels, and correct imbalances (with commercial products). Check that no fish are sick.
– Remove all waste that floats or rests at the bottom of the water with a wide landing net. Prune dry or diseased parts of pond plants (enter the water with fisherman’s waders).
– Suck up some of the slimes.
– Install new bank plants. For aquatic plants, wait until frosts are no longer to be feared.
– Remove algae and duckweed.
– Top up the water level in the basin.
In summer
– Regularly redo the pool’s water level, adding rainwater in small quantities so as not to upset its balance.
– Remove the algae that proliferate at the summer’s end and recycle them in the compost; they are a good source of trace elements.
In autumn
– Stretch a net over the water in the basin to collect the dead leaves that will fall from the surrounding trees and shrubs.
– Correct the water level.
– Feed the fish, which must stock up for the winter. Give them small amounts, always in the same place, so as not to dirty the water.
In winter
– Some pond plants, such as water hyacinth, must be brought in before winter.
– Similarly, certain bank plants must be protected from the cold: mulch generously at the foot of the Gunneras and Cannes de Provence, cut back very short.
– Stop pumps, filters, water jets, and fountains.
– Gradually stop feeding the fish. They will hibernate as soon as the water drops below 10°C. – Install an anti-freeze bell
on the water’s surface, which will ensure that the fish always have oxygenated water.
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