How do I prepare my pond for the winter?

Below you will find an explanation of how you can best prepare your pond for the winter.

1. Cleaning your pond

How logical it sounds, but cleaning your pond is one of the most important things. Especially the dead leaves and plants in the pond have to be removed. This can be done by removing the dead plants, branches and leaves from the soil with a soil vacuum cleaner, or by using a landing net from the surface. The dead leaves and plants pollute the water, which is not good for the fish.

2. Maintenance to the water plants

Like most plants, aquatic plants (under and above water) die at the beginning of autumn. It can therefore be smart to remove most plants in the beginning of the fall, with a dedicated pond scar. You can leave a small area in the winter so that fish can hide and sleep between them. It is important that this old leaf green is removed in the beginning of spring. Otherwise he will never grow beautiful again.

3. Hang up a catch net

Leaf fall in autumn can cause a lot of inconvenience. It is annoying to have to fish all leaves from the pond every day with a scoop net. A solution to this is the tensioning of a collection net above the pond. So you can easily remove all the leaves in 1x and the net also offers protection against hungry herons. When fish sleep, they are easy prey! For tricky ponds, there are of course special rodent hunters.

4. Take care of the wintering fish

Many cold water fish can do well at lower temperatures. Fish often go to the deeper part of the pond, because there are fewer temperature fluctuations. Note that smaller fish often sit at 80 centimeters depth. With koi carp this can be up to 1.50 meters. Koi carps are less able to withstand fluctuations in temperature. A solution for monitoring the water temperature is a pond thermometer.

5. What if it is freezing?

If it is freezing, you can use an ice-free container. An ice-free person does what the name says: he keeps your pond free of ice. Due to fluctuations and movement he ensures that the pond does not freeze and there is always a hole in the ice. It is also possible to put an aeration set in your pond. That should be 20 centimeters deep. In addition, an aeration set ensures that the oxygen level remains at the correct height. If your pond is completely frozen, never chop the ice, but warm it up for example! Cutting can be very harmful for the fish: especially for koi carps. Removing snow is important, otherwise sunlight can not reach the fish.