Conclusion

The way nature works in the pond season is this:

During the summer months, your pond water will be warmer at the top and cooler at the bottom of the pond. The warmer water has less oxygen than cooler water. In the mean time, your garden pond plants are starting to look good. Your fish are becoming more active when the water reaches 50 degrees or more. Bacteria in the pond is more active also when the temperature reaches 50 degrees or more.

In the Fall, as the temperatures decline, it reaches a point where the bacterial activity slows down. The antibiotic production decreases, thus removing control over the bloom of algae which is still active. The result is a Fall green water until the temperature drops below the bloom algae high activity range.

Over the Winter months your pond will not be attractive, but Spring will coming. Winter care involves providing a hole in the ice through a winter pump or heater to maintain dissolved oxygen levels and allow waste gases to escape. Never feed the fish when temperatures fall below degrees. Avoid disturbing the water at the bottom of the pond where it is the warmest, usually around 37 degrees.

As we get into Spring you will notice that your pond is more active. The fish will start to be more active and your plants will change to their more normal colors.  The invisible bacteria will start to work better when the temperature warms the water. This is also the time of the year when your pond water makes the turnover to being warmer at the top and cooler on the bottom. You may also notice the water is greener and that is because your bacteria has not produced enough antibiotics yet to control the green water.

In due time, as a pond matures more antibiotics from bacteria will control the green water. So you won't have to add bacteria forever. The common sense of all this is - how did all the lakes, streams or other ponds develop before man was here? NATURALLY, OF COURSE!!

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John Adams, Pond Consultant, has been helping "Do-It-Yourselfers" and the occasional landscaper plan, build and maintain over 600 ponds. All of them naturally, meaning no UV system and /or chemicals. In addition to teaching pond classes, he is also available to many pond owners who had some other company build there ponds.