With the longer daylight hours and warmer temperatures, summertime brings the outdoors to life. Now is the time to be making sure the pond is prepared for all that summer brings, and to ensure health and vitality in your fish, plants and wildlife.
There is plenty of preparation needed for ponds to thrive during the summer months. A good maintenance routine will help prevent water quality issues and health related problems in your fish.
Water quality issues after winter:
Ammonia and nitrite levels are also often found to be higher this time of year. This usually occurs once the fish begin feeding again, before the bacterial colonies in the filter have re-established after winter. Adding cultured bacteria into the filter early on will help prevent any sudden ammonia or nitrite spikes.
Filter Maintenance:
Many pond filters rely on layers of foam to act as both mechanical and biological filtration. Foam needs manual cleaning to remove trapped dirt but without killing off the bacteria inside. To clean filter foams, use a bucket of water from the pond itself or untreated rainwater. Do not use tap water near filter foams as any chlorine and chloramine present will kill off the biological filtration. Many pond keepers believe having thoroughly clean filter foams is ideal. They are unaware of the duality foam possesses in also growing the bacteria that performs the nitrogen cycle. Over time foam loses its efficiency and will need replacing. Most filters contain multiple layers of foam or different media for growing bacteria. It’s recommended to change the media in stages to prevent complete removal of biological filtration.
Green water issues:
A common maintenance task that is too often left until it is too late is the changing of the UV clarifier bulbs. These ultraviolet bulbs need changing every spring before the sun gets too much of a chance to shine. Once summer arrives, the sun will proliferate free floating, single-cell algae until the clarity of the pond is lost to a pea-green soup effect.
Ensure adequate oxygenation of the water, a minimum carbonate hardness level of 6 dKH and a pH above 7.0. If the pond is very green, it is recommended to change 50% of the water before treating. This will help prevent severe oxygen depletion that could occur when using the treatment to combat green water algae.
As temperatures increase, saturated oxygen levels in water depletes. Water rarely exceeds 10ppm dissolved oxygen, whereas atmospheric air contains on average 200,000ppm. It is important to increase and maintain adequate surface agitation to allow as much oxygen into the pond as possible. Fountains, waterfalls and air pumps all help in keeping oxygen levels high during the summer months and these should be running 24 hours a day. A muggy, stormy night will reduce atmospheric oxygen levels. Plants (and algae) absorb oxygen at night (reverse photosynthesis), contributing to hypoxic conditions. Many pond keepers wake up to a pond full of dead fish because they turn off their ‘noisy’ pond at night.
Changing temperatures alters feeding habits:
With the rising temperatures of summer, pond fish find their metabolisms increasing too.
A higher metabolism will stimulate their appetite, so their diet should be modified to cater for their changing needs.
Adding fish to the pond:
A trip to your local specialist aquatics retailer to add new fish to your pond should always be a pleasurable and enjoyable experience. Whether it’s a small selection of goldfish or gigantic koi carp, care should be taken to ensure the fish you’ve chosen are of good condition.
Healthy livestock – what to look out for
Any reputable aquatic store will have plenty of quality livestock for sale. It is important to ensure that the fish offered are healthy and in good condition.
Look out for any of the following to avoid purchasing ill fish:
- Listless / Diseased fish – look out for any fish with obvious diseases – white spot, fungus, tail or fin rot. Fish that are not swimming with the others is often a sign of illness.
- Emaciated / Skinny fish – a fish that has been deprived of food will have a weakened immune system, making it more susceptible to disease.
- Dirty enclosures – a dirty enclosure would suggest a lack of upkeep and care of duty towards the livestock. Many pathogens thrive in dirty conditions and the water quality may also be less than ideal.
Once the new fish have been chosen and taken home, it’s important to introduce them safely to their new environment.
- Temperature acclimatisation: Float the fish bag on the surface of the pond for 20 minutes to allow for the water temperature inside the bag to equalise to the ponds temperature. More often than not, this will be a cooling process as fish bags usually warm up during transport.
- Equilibrium of water parameters: After the initial floating period, open the bag and roll down the sides to create a floating ring. Slowly add water into the bag over the next 20-30 minutes. This will mix the pond water with the transport water and allow the fish to adjust to any differing water parameters gradually.
In exceptionally hot conditions, many aquatic stores will add oxygen to the fish bag before transport. Once the fish bag has been opened at home, it is advisable to acclimatise the fish faster than recommended to prevent oxygen depletion in the bag.
