When to begin pond cleanup?

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I want to start removing some old weeds and debris that have settled to the bottom of the pond but its still fairly cold in New England and I don't want to stress the fish out. Ice finally melted off the pond today and everything is alive and well.

When do you guys start your pond cleanup?
 
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I wait till water is warm enough to not hurt my hands. What kind of clean up are you needing to do? If you have any floaters, ie fish and frogs that didn’t survive winter, net them out now. Otherwise, I’d leave it for now, wait till water is warm enough to not be a painful chore, fish are back to normal and eating, then start netting out any solids. This gives frogs and any other critters in there time to wake up and come out.
 
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I concur; fish are the most vulnerable coming out of winter hibernation. Wait until they're swimming and eating normally, imo; plenty of time to tidy up.
 
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I usually do mine when I see my lilies start to come up. I net out debris at the bottom, I clean out the bio filter and do a water change.
 
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My lilies are growing, a bit early, ice just melted. Water temp 43f

Same here! We just came out of a deep freeze, record snow pack, and a few warm days have melted all the snow off the pond and lo and behold, not only is there no ice. - we have lily pads almost hitting the surface! That snow is quite the insulator.
 

callingcolleen1

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My koi ponds run all winter from pond to pond so they don't get too dirty and I only do minimal cleaning, like just next bottom if there is any pond sludge but it's usually not much as every runs down to yellow flag marsh where yellow flag eats waste. Then I will clean filters on next nice warm day as they run non stop all winter so ponds are always crystal clear and clean with my set up. Be gentle in spring with fish.
 

cas

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I still have a little ice on my pond. Best time I feel to start spring cleaning is when the pond water is consistently greater than 45 degrees (March for me) because tap water is 46-48 degrees so topping off the pond will not change the temperature of the water and the fish start to move about more when water temp is at 45 degrees.
 

addy1

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My pond is at 44f. Going to watch our temperature, might turn it on early. We do have 28 f's coming up
 
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If your dead plants are at the surface or leaning in. I don't see the harm it taking a pair of scissors and cutting them out. Would a shaking them as I removed them naaaa . But I would do my best not to add to the floating debris in the water.
 

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