Pond weeds and algae thrive on hot summer days. The good thing is that during summer you usually have more time to spare for your pond than during any other season of the year. Use that time wisely and you’ll make the fish and the plants happy. Follow the tips below.
- Keep your pond aerator clean. Summer parties can get dirty. Make sure that your guests don’t throw their plastic bottles and beer cans into the pond, or worse, pee in it. Drunken people are notoriously irresponsible. Organic debris like decaying leaves and twigs are bad enough, but plastic bottles and bags and the like are just terrible. And if you let them sink to the bottom of the pond they will dramatically lower the quality of the water.
- Avoid overfeeding your fish. Pond fish are very active during summer, but you must resist the temptation to feed them more than once a day. Else they will grow faster than usual and produce more waste, which will further lower the water quality.
- Increase the water aeration. Ponds tend to retain less and less oxygen as their water temperature increases. If you experience particularly hot summer days and notice that the fish look unwell and keep swimming at the surface, you will have to install a more powerful aerator. Living Water Aeration has a wide selection of affordable water aeration systems for all kinds of ponds.
- Add beneficial bacteria. Summer is the best season for you to add beneficial bacteria to your pond; most products are most effective in warm water, breaking down the muck and removing excessive nutrients and bad odors more quickly than during colder seasons.
- Improve your filtration system. Bad chemicals and bacteria thrive in warm, stagnant water, so your pond filter will have a lot of work to do during summer. It’s good to clean it before summer arrives, and once the heat settles, to make its task easier by adding beneficial bacteria to the water and cleaning any floating debris. If your filter is old and has become ineffective consider changing it. Biological filters are the new trend.
- Enlarge your pond. It has been already said that during summer fish are more active and the oxygen levels in the pond tend to be lower than usual; to cope with these, you can expand your pond. Larger ponds have healthier water than small ones and provide more surface oxygen and more room for the fish. You can also consider adding a waterfall to your expanded pond, to improve the water circulation.
- Build a fountain. Pond fountains aren’t only exquisitely beautiful, but they also add more oxygen to the water. Summer is probably the best season to build a pond fountain, not only because you have more free time, but also because your energy costs are lower. Invest in a pond fountain with a good pump, like the ones provided by Living Water Aeration.
Look after your pond well and it will look great during hot summers. It will be your oasis in the suburban desert.
