Fall/Winter Pond Maintenance Tips
1. Before winter arrives, make sure your pond and filtering system are clean to ensure good water quality throughout the winter months. Adding pond salt at this time will improve the slime coating of fish, to help them ward off disease and parasites.
2. Before the leaves begin to fall, cover your pond with one of our pond nets. The goal is to keep the pond as clean as possible for the winter months. After the first frost, take out any floating plants and trim back hardy lilies and bog plants and place below the freeze line.
3. Microbe-Lift Autumn/Winter Prep helps accelerate the decomposition of leaves, scum, sediment and other organic matter during the fall and throughout the winter months.
4. We recommend switching to a wheat germ based fish food formulated for fall and spring feeding. Both Tetra-Pond Spring/Fall and Microbe-Lift Cold Weather fish food are highly digestible cool weather diets and contain higher levels of fat, which help your fish survive their winter hibernation. When water temperatures reach 50 degrees, stop feeding your fish completely. Feeding at water temperatures below 50 degrees can possibly kill your fish. A pond thermometer is a must have. This will help you to determine when to stop feeding your fish and will also let you know when to begin feeding your fish in the spring.
5. Adding Microbe-Lift Barley Straw Extract will help control string algae throughout the fall and winter months. Barley Straw Extract is an effective and eco-friendly way to reduce algae. Unlike algaecides, which are ineffective in water temperatures below 50 degrees, Microbe-Lift Barley Straw Extract will continue to control algae throughout the winter months. 6.Before freezing temperatures begin, install a pond de-icer. Ponds covered with ice do not allow toxic gases to escape causing fish loss. A pond de-icer will keep a section of your pond open to allow oxygen and gas exchange.