DreamscapesWatergardens.com
  • Home
  • About
    • FAQ's
    • The Pond Squad
  • Services
    • Fish & Koi Pond Installation
    • Disappearing Pondless Waterfalls
    • Landscape Fountains
    • Landscape Lighting
  • Maintenance
    • Pond Maintenance >
      • Pond Cleaning Waiver
    • Pond Cleaning
    • Pond Repairs
    • Spring & Summer Maintenance
    • Fall Maintenance
    • Winter Maintenance
  • Contact
    • Consult Form
  • Retail Center
  • Blog

Summer Pond Maintenance Strategies

5/7/2018

4 Comments

 
Summertime—the most beautiful time of year and the best chance to truly enjoy the pond.

By Summer, the majority of your pond maintenance should be behind you if you properly performed a Spring Clean-out on your water feature. There are some summer maintenance items that still need to be addressed in order to have a season of clean, clear water to enjoy. By keeping up on these tasks PROACTIVELY, you should have a healthy pond all season long.
Picture

Keep Your Pond “Topped off”:

Picture


You can lose up to an inch of evaporation a day if it’s really really hot outside so you need to make sure the water level stays where it should be. Maintaining the correct water level will ensure that the pump and/or skimmer are able to operate properly which will help keep your pond free of debris. Whether you're topping off your pond with a garden hose or you're filling with an auto-fill valve, the correct operation of your skimmer box provides oxygenated water for your fish, which is important when considering that the summer heat can be tough on oxygen levels.

Add More Plants:

The more the merrier (though there IS  a fine line)! If at all possible, try to cover at least a third of the pond’s surface area with water lilies. Ideally during the summer, 40-60 percent of your water surface should have coverage.

Trim Those Plants:

Keep your plants looking good by trimming them when necessary==same as you would with any regular landscape or house plant. Routine maintenance, including removal of spent blooms, yellowing leaves, and excess growth will get rid of nutrients in the pond (nutrients come from the decomposition of those spent/yellowing leaves), reducing the possibility of algae blooms.

Appropriate Fish Feeding

Picture
In the extreme heat of the summer, over feeding can lead to oxygen depletion and possible algae blooms (the more they eat, the more they poop!). It’s important to remember that fish can eat and eat until they over eat. Ours ALWAYS pretend like they’re starving. It’s possible that they’re just being friendly when they greet you and not begging for food. A good rule of thumb is not to feed your fish more than they can eat in a period of two to three minutes at a time.

Don't Clean Filter Pads

If you have a biological filtration system (also known as a biofalls or “top box” , cleaning off the filter pads will destroy the algae-fighting bacteria that live there, resulting in excess algae growth. It will also disturb the “biomedia” that live up in that box, causing them to either die, or wash down into the pond creating a murky look for a while.

Fertilize Lilies

If your lilies are potted, use fertilizer tabs near the base of the plant to encourage more blooms. Lilies planted into the pond, however, pull the nutrients they need right from the pond. There are a lot of benefits to having lilies in your pond: from shade and protection, to reducing the water temperature and of course the sheer beauty of them.

Add Beneficial Bacteria:

Bacteria sounds bad, but it’s not! Not the beneficial kind anyways. Follow the dosage instructions on the label and add bacteria weekly to compete with the algae for excess nutrients in the water, helping reduce the growth of algae

Control Runoff:

Avoid using fertilizer in areas that may drain into your pond. Fertilizer will cause a surge of excess nutrients in your pond and actually encourage algae blooms. Similarly, runoff from mulch can cause tanins (tea colored water) from making their way into the pond.

So Now What??

Remember, your water garden is there for you to ENJOY and it’s much easier to do so if you’re maintainancing it proactively instead of reactively.

Located in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, Dreamscapes Watergardens installs koi fish ponds and pondless waterfalls (disappearing waterfalls) all over the Central Pennsylvania area. For more information on koi ponds and waterfeature installations, please contact us directly!

Dreamscapes also carries a full line of pond supplies from water treatments and fish medications to pond pumps, heaters, fountains, plants and fish! Tadpoles and snails are also available at our Aquatic Retail Center in Lebanon, Pennsylvania seasonally while supplies last from May-August.  If you think you need it, we have it!

Retail Hours:  April 5th-October 27th 2018:
                           Monday-Wednesday: By Appt
                           Thursday-Friday: 10am-5pm
                           Saturday: 9am-12pm
                     October 28th-April 2019: HOURS BY APPT


Contact Us
2155 State Route 343, Lebanon Pa | 717-272-6555 | info@dreamscapeswatergardens.com

Dreamscapes Watergardens services the city of Lebanon, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, Cleona, Cornwall, Fredericksburg, Indiantown Gap, Jonestown, Kleinfeltersville, Mount Gretna, Myerstown, Newmanstown Palmyra, Quentin, Reistville, Richland, Schaefferstown of Pennsylvania,
4 Comments
Nehal link
5/18/2018 04:45:11 am

Nice article. Last to last year, my parents got an artificial pond. It is of moderate size and we have grown lilies in it. There are some tiny fishes too. Six months back we had an algae bloom. Now I realise it could possibly be because of the fertilizer runoff from the plants near by.

Reply
kate hansen link
10/6/2021 01:12:42 pm

IT's good to know that you will destroy good algae when cleaning the filters. My husband and I recently got a pond built for our landscape a couple of weeks ago, and we plan on hiring a professional for pond maintenance, but I wanted to know some tips on my own in case I need to take care of the pond on my own. I'll make sure to keep these tips if I will ever need to take care of my pond in the future.

Reply
Dan Addams link
2/3/2023 10:07:38 pm

I like that this post reminded us that when looking for pond maintenance, we need to ensure that our ponds are maintained properly. In doing so, it will extend its longevity. I will definitely be mire mindful of the maintenance.

Reply
Charlotte Fleet link
3/16/2023 04:42:54 pm

Thanks for explaining how adding beneficial bacteria to your bond can help reduce algae growth. In my opinion, it would also be smart to dredge your pond every so often to remove harmful materials like algae from the bottom. My grandparents have a large pond on their property, so I'll suggest that they rent quality dredging equipment this month.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Archives

    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016

    Categories

    All
    Backyard Ponds
    Fall Waterfeature Shutdown
    Fish Predators
    Fountain Installation
    Installation Projects
    Leak Troubleshooting
    Pond And Waterfall Maintenance
    Pond Fish
    Pond Installation
    Pondless Waterfall Installation
    Pond Maintenance
    Pond Plants
    Pond Retail Store
    Pond Tents
    Pool Waterfall
    Renovations
    Renovation-work
    Spring Maintenance
    Spring-maintenance
    Watergarden Maintenance
    Watergarden-maintenance

    RSS Feed

Construction Services

  • Ponds
  • Pondless Waterfalls
  • Fountainscapes
  • Landscaping
Outdoor Network Services
  • ONS - Dreamscapes

Maintenance Services


  • Pond Cleaning
  • Pond Repair
  • Pond Maintenance
  • Spring Maintenance 
  • Fall Maintenance 
  • Winter Maintenance 

Picture

Social Media

SEARCH GOOGLE FOR ANYTHING PONDS

Copyright © Dreamscapes Watergardens All rights reserved. - - Powered by Outdoor Network Services