Today I want to discuss maintenance on ecosystem ponds!
I get asked a ton, “Josh, I see beautiful ponds in shows and in pictures, but it does not look like that all the time. What do I have to do to keep my water clear?”
I want to touch on that little bit but first off, we like to say that ecosystem ponds are low maintenance: nothing outside of nature is no maintenance. That includes plants & living things you have to take care of, and the same thing goes with the pond. With that being said they’ve come a long way in the types of systems that are built in ponds to help keep that maintenance as minimal as possible.
We want you outside enjoying the water lifestyle, not taking care of the pond on weekends. Weekends are for sipping wine and drinking coffee….not cleaning filters. Let’s talk a little bit about ecosystem ponds and what you have to do to maintain it.
- Number 1. It is pretty critical that every year you go through a major spring cleanup, we have videos on YouTube that tell you what that entails. You definitely want to make sure that all of the waste from the wintertime is cleaned out best as possible. Make sure all of the gravel is rinsed out all the sludge comes out of the system. A thorough rinse is going to help you with keeping the algae out of water, it’s also going to help you with overall fish and their health.
- Number 2. Depending on the location, how many plants you have in your pond, it’s next to the woods, -it will all factor in how much maintenance you have to do and how often you need to clean out that skimmer and skimmer basket. Depending on how many leaves drop…even in the summer after a storm, you’re going to at least clean out the skimmer box depending on location of the pond up. Let’s say summertime could be once a week or every other day depending on where it’s at and weather.
- Number 3. You just want to keep an eye on your water level and the clarity of your water. If you start to feed your fish heavy, I highly recommend water changes once a week. There’s are products you can put into your pond that will do it automatically for you and that keeps the maintenance even lower.
If you do those few things, that’ll drastically increase your happiness with the pond and how much you get to enjoy making those memories around it.
