First pond clean help

[michaelsf90]

It's a box filter. It's hard to say how cold it will get. The last few winters have been fairly mild. At present the air temperature is around 12 to 14C in the day and 7 to 9C at night. By the time I'm ready to add fish its showing it as around 10 to 11 in the day and 7 to 8 at night. The key is finding fish being sold outside which are already use to the temperature. The shop I would rather go is indoors

 

[michaelsf90]

If I did get fish now would I need to feed them a winter wheat germ?

 

[addy1]

Their are small pea gravel stones in on the shelves.

I have spilled pea gravel here and there, I would leave it.

Will the uv on the filter be ok being on without water running through.

It should not harm it.

If I did get fish now would I need to feed them a winter wheat germ?

It depends on how clean you make your pond, plant algae wise. Mine get fed nothing, but I have a lot of plants that stay in the pond over winter.

 

[Lisak1]

If it's warm enough for you to be cleaning the pond, when you clean the sludge from the bottom, just put it in a garden bed - if there's anybody living in the muck, they'll figure it out. These wild critters aren't as dependent on us as we like to think they are - I mean, they found there way to you on their own, they'll figure out what to do next. That's always been my approach anyway. I kind of keep my needs on at least an equal footing with the frogs - if I have the time to get a job done, I'm going to do my best to impact them as little as possible, but I'm still going to do what I need to do. And quite honestly , every spring we find a couple of frogs that stayed in the pond and didn't survive the winter, so there's no guarantees that they will make it even if you leave them be. Nature has a way of balancing this stuff out. Ultimately they would most likely prefer you leave the whole pond as is, but you get a say too!

We'd love to see pictures of your pond! Show us before and after so we can OOOOOHHH and AHHHHH at your hard work!

 

[michaelsf90]

I've spent the past six months building the decking wall and painting and doing the rockery and tidying the garden up. Been doing it on and off. Now I just need to clean the water, trim the plants and install the pump

 

[brokensword]

If I did get fish now would I need to feed them a winter wheat germ?

no, that's more a holdover from koi keeping lore. Nature doesn't suddenly switch what type of food a fish eats just because it's a new season, though of course, you shouldn't feed if the fish aren't active. I stop when the water temps get about 50 deg F and just let them eat what is growing in the pond. And none of that is made of wheat...

 

[brokensword]

It's a box filter. It's hard to say how cold it will get. The last few winters have been fairly mild. At present the air temperature is around 12 to 14C in the day and 7 to 9C at night. By the time I'm ready to add fish its showing it as around 10 to 11 in the day and 7 to 8 at night. The key is finding fish being sold outside which are already use to the temperature. The shop I would rather go is indoors

I'd not leave anything with water in it if you get lower than freezing temps as I'd not risk something cracking/expanding/breaking. You know your temps better, just realize ice expands whatever it's in.