Will a heat wave hurt my fish?

With the weather as hot as it has been in the last few days, I’ve been getting this question a lot (and dealing with customers’ whose fish are dying as a result of the heat).

Here’s the one thing we need to remember about hot weather - warm water does not hold nearly as much oxygen as cold water. So, if your pond does not have adequate aeration, either via a waterfall or an added on pond aerator, your fish could be in danger when it gets really hot. If your fish are constantly coming up to the surface, gulping for air, this is one of the main signs that they are not getting enough oxygen and is something that should be remedied immediately if you want your scaly friends to make it through the hot spells.

Remedies include adding a quality waterfall with water crashing over rocks to create a natural source for more oxygen, and adding and external aerator with aeration discs dropped into the pond. Even if you have a waterfall, it is never a bad idea to add an aerator as well.

Happy Ponding and enjoy the warm weather!!!!

Don’t feed your fish when it’s cold

As a general rule, I don’t feed my fish when the water level is below sixty degrees. This is because the fish need warmth in order to process and digest their food.

There are some cold water foods made of wheat germ that can be used between 50 and 60 degrees, but in the spring time when it’s just going to be cold for a few days I simply choose not to feed them instead of bothering with changing foods. Your fish will be fine for a few days without food, and your pond will stay a lot cleaner without that undigested food being put out by your fish!

The joy of a pond skimmer

If someone were to ask me what the most valued part of my pond setup is, I would tell them hands down that it’s my skimmers. I would never build a pond without a skimmer, and I would certainly never want to have a pond without one. There are so many advantages to having a skimmer, it’s hard to come up with anything more valuable to my pond ecosystem and to making the pond lower maintenance.

The pond skimmer provides several advantages over having a pump sitting on the bottom of your pond, so let’s just look at a few in no particular order;

#1. Protecting the pump

Ever had your pump clogged with leaves and barely passing water? Ever had your pump die after sitting in the muck or mud on the bottom of your pond? Not with a skimmer. The skimmer sits along the edge of the pond connected to the liner and houses the pump inside. But before the water is pulled into the pump chamber, it passes through a debris basket and a filter mat. The basket captures large items that are floating on the surface, like leaves, and the filter mat captures smaller particulates before they reach the pump. The combination of these two ensure that your pump is always clear of debris so it will not clog up. It also protects the pump from early burnout due to the overwork of pumping while partially clogged.

#2. Keeping the pond clean

The skimmer pulls water from the surface of the pond into the debris basket, where it can be easily removed. Without a skimmer, leaves and other items that fall into the pond will eventually sink to the bottom creating muck and detritus. Not only is this unsightly, but it will feed algae blooms and can turn the water brown or green. The skimmer mat also provides mechanical filtration, removing those hard to get small particles that pass through your normal hand skimmer net. The also aids in better water quality.

#3 Reducing Maintenance

We’ve all spent time with a hand net trying to scoop leaves out of our pond, and we know how frustrating and ineffective the process is. This is one the the truly beautiful things about having a skimmer - the leaves are pulled into an easy to empty basket which can be emptied one a week or so, depending on the season and amount of leaves falling into the pond. In two minutes, I can empty both of my skimmer baskets and be on my way to more important things (my pond has two skimmers - that’s how much I love them!).

As you can see, I’m a big fan of the pond skimmer! It is one of the most exciting inventions in the pond industry in the last 50 years, and is installed in thousands and thousands of ponds across the world. If your pond does not have a skimmer, you are definitely missing out on this great innovation and are spending more time than you should be maintaining your pond.

HELP! I have algae in my pond!!!

I hear this one a lot. There may be several reasons for this…

#1 is something “they” call New Pond Syndrome - loosely defined this is an over abundance of algae in the first season or two after a pond is built. The theory is that until the pond has the right amount of natural bacteria and mature plants to help break down muck and detritus, algae has a lot of nutrients to feed on and hence, thrive.

#2 is an over abundance of external nutrients in the pond. This can come in many ways; it could be fertilizer runoff from the yard getting into the pond, or dirt and mulch getting into the pond. A well designed pond should not receive any ground water runoff, but some ponds are not constructed with this in mind.

#3 is too high of a fish load. Fish load is the amount of fish waste that must be processed by the filters and the natural helpers in your pond. If there are too many fish for the amount of filtration, this causes a huge spike in nutrient on which algae thrives. I’ve see ponds with so many fish in them they couldn’t swim in a straight line or they’re ram into each other! That much fish waste simply could not be processed by the filtration at hand, and resulted in many algae blooms throughout the season. If you have more than one koi per hundred gallons of water in a well designed pond, you may need to get rid of some fish. The easiest way to do this is to list free pond fish on craigslist or facebook market, and they will usually all be gone in a day!

#4 is simply a dirty pond. Even a highly effective ecosystem pond needs to be cleaned out once in a while to remove any muck and detritus that have collected on the bottom. Filters need to be cleaned as well to ensure optimal efficiency.

#5 is a lack of copper ions in the water. Copper is the mortal enemy of string algae, and having a copper Ionizer in your pond can greatly reduce or sometimes completely eliminate string algae from your pond. We would not have a pond without one.

#6 is a lack of, or not enough plants. Plants assist in the processing of waste and are a natural part of the Nitrogen Cycle.

This is by no means a complete list of things that can exacerbate algae problems so it goes without saying that there may be many different reasons for algae, and different solutions depending on the root cause. MetroPonds can help with your algae problem. Give me a call to discuss your needs.