Winterizing Your Pond
5 easy steps to prepare your pond for winter

Author: Martine Pawlowski |

Blog by H2O Logics Inc.

In just a few easy steps you can prepare your pond for winter which will make for a great spring start up of the pond and help fish survive the winter in stocked ponds.  

 

Remove tree and plant leaves

Try to trim and remove dead foliage if trees and shrubs are close to the water, this will help remove excessive organic debris that would otherwise decompose in the water. Remove tree and plant leaves from the pond as much as possible. For those of you having a small garden pond putting a net over the pond by early fall will facilitate the leave removal. Leaves and other organic matter will continue to decompose through the winter months taking up the available oxygen in the pond and adding ammonia and nitrite (nutrients load) in the pond responsible of poor water quality and possibly even fish kills.

 

Trim the pond buffer

Internal nutrients load come from decomposing plant matter within the pond, but large amounts of nutrients can also be swept into your pond during rainstorms. Maintaining a beneficial vegetative buffer around your pond is key to preventing nutrient-rich runoff from negatively affecting the waterbody, but as winter approaches the buffer plants die in the cold and they too will contribute to the nutrient load. Before the winter start your routine plant buffer trimming down to about 18 inches. And remember a good buffer zone extends 3 to 5 feet from the shoreline. Remove and dispose of the trimmings properly away from the shoreline. 

 

Add beneficial cold-water bacteria

Give your pond it’s winter vitamins boost! Add the specific cold water blend beneficial bacteria that will produce enzymes capable of biodegrading excess nutrients, residual sludge and organic matter to help maintain good water quality through the winter months. This will also make your pond spring start up easier with higher water quality.          

 

Oxygen is key!

Summer or winter it is critical to maintain high oxygen levels in your pond. Aeration is the most reliable and efficient way to introduce and maintain high dissolved oxygen (DO) levels in the pond.

Organic matter in the pond requires oxygen to decompose and can rapidly deplete the available oxygen and in turn create anoxic bottom water and this can result in fish kills. This is especially critical when ice covers the pond. Oxygenated water creates favorable water quality conditions that help reduce the nutrient load responsible for algae growth and invasive aquatic weed growth.   

 Blog by H2O Logics Inc.

 

Aeration, circulation, and de-icing

As stated above oxygen levels are critical in any pond in summer and even more so in winter during ice cover. Aeration system will maintain that critical DO level within a pond and provide circulation maintaining good water quality. Aeration options are available for any pond shape, size and depth whether grid powered or solar powered. In some instances, they will keep an opening within the ice cover.

Keeping an opening in the ice can also provide relief to the pond during winter. This can be achieved by using

de-icers which will keep an opening in the ice and help getting oxygen into the water and let toxic gases from decomposing matters escape the water.

 

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 Blog by H2O Logics Inc.



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