Winterizing Your Garden Pond

Watching as winter transforms your garden pond  from clear crystal waters  and upright green luscious marginal plants to a white opaque  frozen often snow covered expanse of water and brown  frost tumbled plants can cause a little distress or even sadness in the heart of many a garden pond owner , especially if you have become more than a little attached to your pond and pond fish during the summer months, you may be forgiven for  lamenting over the end of a great and productive summer season for both plants and pond fish, and reminiscing  over,  times spent  relaxing by your pond, feeling the days stress just fade away , recalling  balmy  summer evenings with a cold beer or glass of wine in your hand ,watching the goldfish play  and the dragon flies swoop and dive between the water lilies, it all seems too distant a memory now winter is nearly here.. Closing down your garden pond in preparation for the winter months that lie ahead is for certain a bittersweet time.

You can ease the transition that has to take place at  this time of year by looking forward to next year and another season of relaxation and rewards and ease the task of reopening the your garden pond next spring a little for yourself and the pond, by following a few simple steps. of fall pond maintenance for your garden oasis.

Over Wintering of Pond fish

In late fall as temperatures start to get colder and colder you should start to feed your pond fish less and less as the pond water approaches 45deg c do not feed them at all . To help your pond fish successfully come through the hibernation period the winters frozen waters enforce upon them, in early fall you should make it part of your pond maintenance strategy to start to feed your pond fish  a vitamin and mineral enriched fish food or supplement to their diet ,to help the immune system of your pond fish become stronger  and resilient to infection a healthy balanced diet will also help your pond fish to to produce the extra supplies of body fat necessary to sustain them through the winter hibernation period. During Fall months you should monitor the water temperature  of your garden pond very closely if you don’t own a pond thermometer now is the time to acquire one  When the pond water  drops  to around 55 deg only feed your pond fish  when they are actively up at the top of the garden pond on the hunt for food . If they are hanging around at the lower levels or at the bottom of the pond do not feed them at all.

Only feed your pond fish what they will readily consume  in only a few minutes (10 or less) and remove as much of the uneaten food as you can, this is really a sound  pond maintenance practice to follow at all times of year not just in the cooler pre winter months when starting to think about pond closure.

Ammonia build up is the number one fish killer at all times of year not just in the winter and excesses of uneaten fish food will only begin to decay producing the fish killing ammonia. Ammonia is produced in several ways and is in fact  part of the natural biological process, of pond life, known as the nitrogen cycle, when organic matter is introduced into  the pond, by dead plant life, fish waste  un consumed fish food and pond fishes own gill function etc. ammonia is produced ,. .
Even on very warm fall days where the water daytime temperatures may rise above 45deg it is extremely ill advised to feed your pond fish even if they seem a little active as chances are their metabolisms at this temperature a very sluggish the food will not be consumed and that at night time water temperatures will once again fall below 45 and the fish will be unable to metabolize the food.

Winter And The Garden Pond Nitrogen Cycle

During the cold of the winter months the metabolic and circularity systems of the pond fish  slows down ,almost entirely but their respiratory system (their gill function) ie their breathing is still fully functional and despite that their metabolic functions have slowed right down they have not ceased completely and the pond fish still produce bodily waste  and excrete it into the water. So the fish are trapped by the ice in a much smaller body of water than they are used to with a much greater concentration of ammonia  this is why. It is very important to allow dissolved oxygen to pass into that remains unfrozen at the bottom of the garden pond. I t is necessary to take some action to prevent the build up of  ammonia and carbon dioxide  around the fish A deicer (heater) is just  not enough sure it keeps a space on the surface of the garden pond free of ice formation but it does nothing  to  dissolved oxygen to the lower regions of the pond that the fish are actually inhabiting in for this an .Aerator/Circulator (air stone) does a better job  as it  constantly adds dissolved oxygen to the depths of the garden pond as it pumps the air right from the surface  and with each little explosion of bubbles it releases  dissolved oxygen to the  the still liquid areas of pond water below the ice, while pond heater helps to keep a hole open in the surface of the ice  and certainly does allow some of the toxic gases to escape from the garden pond  the combination of air stone and heater do a much better job at protecting your garden pond fish through the winter Even if your winter temperature became too much for the pond heater to handle and the area around the unit froze completely  the aerator in the bottom of the garden pond  would still  continue to work pumping  a fresh supply of oxygen to the fish below the ice .