Spring Cleaning a Water Garden Koi Fish Pond

Like any spring cleaning project cleaning your water garden koi fish pond or water feature is going to be messy, but so worth it in the end.  The best time to do the cleanout and opening of your pond or water feature is in early spring before your water temperature reaches 55° Fahrenheit (12° Celsius).  After all of the frosts are gone but before the weather is too warm, most especially before any spawn enter the water.  Doing a proper cleaning of your pond at this time ensures that algae blooms will not take over your pond and keep the water clear though the summer months.

Pond Spring Cleaning Supplies Needed

• Long Arm Pond Gloves
• Fine Mesh Skimming net
• Containers for fish and plants
• Extra pond filter and pond pump parts, including new filter media, UV Bulbs
• Pond Vacuum or collection bucket for the waste
• Old clothes and shoes
• Water Clarifier, Beneficial Bacteria, declorinators, water test kits, plant fertilizer, Barley Straw

Simple Spring Cleaning Check List

1. Remove as much debris as possible. Trim/deadhead your plants, flowers or grass to remove dead growth, divide plants and repot if needed.  PondH2o has great pond forceps and pond scissors to help cut back pond plants. Replace and repair any broken pond plant baskets.
2. Remove the pond fish by putting them in a holding tank with some of your pond water.  Our Koi transfer kits are great.
3. Use your pond pump or a clean out pump to empty about half of the water out of the pond. It is always better to leave half the water in the pond because it contains the beneficial bacteria necessary for clear pond water.  Not all pond bacteria are bad.
4. Use a pond scrubbing brush to clean any rocks or décor items within the pond water.
5. Using a fine mesh Pond Skimming Net, remove the pond sludge and pond muck from the bottom of the pond. A pond vacuum is great, but not needed for smaller ponds and sometimes can vacuum the gravel off of the bottom.  If using a pond vacuum a quick tip is to use the nozzle upside down (facing the water not the bottom of the pond) so that just the silt will be removed, not your gravel. Place the pond muck and small debris in buckets or garbage bags.  This is great for a compost pile.
6. Now that your water is clean it’s time to look at the mechanical parts of the pond. Your pond filters and pumps.  Ensure that there are no particles in the pump that would block the impeller. For the pond filter, it would be a great time to clean or replace the filter media.  Replace your UV bulb if your unit contains the UV clarifier, cleaning the quartz tube to ensure that the unit is effective.
7. Check all of your hoses and fittings. If it was a cold winter you may have some splits in your pond hose tubing.  Make any repairs or replace the hosing, even a small leak will reduce the water level in your pond and eventually get worse.  Ensure that water features or pond lights are all working with no wiring issues.
8. Start to refill the pond with fresh water. Once the water garden koi fish pond is filled, test the water, add any necessary chemicals such as a spring prep of Beneficial Bacteria per guidelines and place the fish back in the pond.
9. Add fertilizer to any plants. Pond Plant fertilizer comes in the form of plant tabs placed in the soil or a liquid fertilizer.
10. Check the pH levels to ensure that your fish and plants are going to thrive. A good pH range is between 7 and 8.

Now that you are done spring cleaning your water garden koi fish pond it’s time to enjoy it.  Now sit, relax and watch your pond come back to life with spring blooms and the relaxing sound of the water flowing.  PondH2o carries all of the necessary products for your pond spring clean out and start up.

Check out our Pond H2o Facebook Page for latest news and updates…