Water Garden Winterization

Fall is a great time to clean your pond and prepare it for winter. With the lower water temperature it is much easier to catch your fish and there is much less stress on the fish because they are at their healthiest. With proper fall maintenance you will be able to leave your fish and plants in your pond thru the winter with minimum risk. If your pond depth is at least 18" deep and circulating, and if you have to empty the pond to clean it, take these important steps:

Fill a tub or large bucket with pond water.

Add a small pump or bubbler for aeration.

Empty your pond, then catch the fish and put them into the tub.

Cut back all the plants and remove the debris.

Clean your pond of all debris, particularly the organic matter.

Put all plant containers in the deepest part of the pond.

Fill pond, add chlorine destabilizer and let the temperature stabilize.

Add fish.

If you have a biofilter, the filter media should be removed and cleaned or replaced. Ponds with falls can be left on all winter if your pump is delivering 200 g per hour or more. If you have frogs in the pond and you wish to over winter them you need to take some extra precautions:

When you remove the organic matter from the pond bottom you remove the frogs over wintering home, so take a planting tray and fill it with topsoil. Set this in the pond so the frogs have something to burrow into.

Those of you with shallow ponds that don't have any fish or waterfalls should remove your pumps. Clean the pump and then store it in a bucket of clean water making sure that the water will not freeze. By storing it in water the pump seals won't dry out. The main reason fish die is improper gas exchange. They suffocate from lack of oxygen because decaying organic matter has depleted the oxygen in the water. Two ways to prevent this are to:

Remove the decaying matter

Supply oxygen

Submerge a pump to prevent surface freezing

Add a floating heater

Keep a waterfall running

2000 g will not freeze if left to run continuously. If you leave your fish in the pond make sure to leave your pump running. It is very important to provide adequate aeration for the fish. Don't feed fish when water temperature goes below 50 degrees. Fish go dormant, their metabolism slows down and they don't digest the food, which could kill them.

Time to clean your filter mat or mats

The interval between mat cleaning will vary considerable depending on how much debris your filter is removing. The best sign we have observed is that when the mats get excessively dirty, the water level in the pump chamber will drop compared to the water level in the filter chamber. When the water level in the pump chamber is approximately one-inch to three-inches lower, the top filter mat should be cleaned. The bigger the pump, the larger the water level difference between the filter chamber and the pump chamber.

During the first week or two of skimmer operation, leave the optional skimmer lid off the skimmer. Monitor the water level difference that will eventually occur between the water level in the filter chamber and the water level in the pump chamber, once the mats need cleaning. If your pond is particularly dirty, or you are using a larger pump, or using our special "SuperMat" lime green filter, the water level in the pump chamber will drop faster once the mats get dirty and water flow is restricted. On small pumps (ex. 500gph) this difference may not become noticeable, but on the Little Giant No. 10, the standard white mats may benefit from a cleaning after 1-week. On our test pond the optional lime green "SuperMat" needed cleaning after only 24 hours when using the Nautilus 60 pump. After 24 hours the water level in the pump chamber had dropped three inches below the water level in the forward filter chamber. Cleaning of the filter with a garden hose immediately restored the water level in the pump chamber.

Closing the bellows latch to drain the skimmer box

Simply raising the bellows assembly against the face of the skimmer box can easily drain the skimmer box. The bellows latch can then be lowered into place against the back of the weir float pocket, to hold the bellows closed. Within seconds the pump will drain the skimmer box, allowing the mats and/or debris net to be easily lifted free. Be prepared to pull the pump plug or have someone help you so the pump does not completely drain the box. Important note - watch the water level in the box carefully, as it is best to unplug the pump leaving about five-inches of water still in the box. This leaves the water level low enough to easily clean the box, but high enough so an air bubble is not introduced into the pump chamber. Air in the pump chamber can cause the pump to "lose its prime." If the pump spins but does not move water, the most likely cause is air in the pump chamber. To remedy this, be sure the box is filled, and with the pump unplugged, lift the pump to a horizontal position in the water while leaving it attached to the horizontal discharge line. This allows the pump chamber to "burp," allowing the air to escape and water to fill the chamber. Problem solved!

After cleaning the skimmer box, dirt tray and mat or mats, replace the mat tray. It should only take a few minutes to perform skimmer maintenance, which is ideal so the bacteria in the PuriFalls are not deprived of oxygen for too long.

Inserting the debris net

The net frame with net installed rests of the two lower corner aluminum angle brackets supplied in the net kit, and the back of the frame rests on the filter mats. This net may be easily removed, flipped inside out to empty and clean, and replace in the skimmer.

Pond Winterizing Checklist

Remove leaves, rotting lily pads and other decaying material from the pond.

Stop feeding fish when the water temperature sinks below 50 degrees.

If you leave your pump running, move it up near the surface. In freezing weather check frequently to make sure that the water is flowing into the pond and not on top of the ice. This can drain your pond.

If you remove your pump, install a deicer, bubbler or pond heater. It is only necessary to run a pond heater during freezing temperatures and only long enough to keep a hole in the ice.

After the first or second hard frost, cut hardy marginal plants to an inch or two above their pots. If the water does not freeze solid above the plant shelf they can be left there. Otherwise drop them to the bottom of the pond. Hollow plants like rushes should be over wintered with their stems above the waterline. Pinch mature pads from hardy lilies, leaving only the small new leaves growing at the surface of the pot. Remove tropical lilies from the pond. They can be stored by placing the tubers in wet sand in a plastic bag and storing in a cool place. Or, let them dry out in their pots and then bring inside and keep warm until spring.

Discard tropical floaters like water hyacinths and lettuce. Bring marginal tropical plants indoors.

Cut back oxygenating plants to 6 inches and sink to the bottom of the pond.

Spend the cold months planning all new additions that you will make to your water garden next spring.