Though I said I would be taking a sabatical to look after my beautiful wife Val until we can get her knee froblems fixed we are first and foremost fish keepers .
The time to think about prepping your pond for winter should have been put to good use the pond bottom and your filters cleaned.
For those of you with raised ponds now is the time for those policarbonate roofing sheets to go on , we should be switching to Wheatgerm and garlic until th pond temperature reaches 10c then we should stop feeding till the spring.
However by using policarbonate roofing sheets we can gain some control over water temperature still at night our outside airtemperature is now in the low 8c temperature range at night , but with the covers on we are maintaining a temperature of 15.4c which proves this, admittedly the pond temperature will lower with time until by December we should be down to between 7c-9c pond temperture wise .
But we are not out to warm the pond we are allowing it to cool but the covers can contol this temperature loss throughout the winter months through till spring again .
I wouldnt think about adding anymore fish either leave that until you have the warmer summer temperatures next year , if you have bought any fish recently move them indoors .
If you have a fresh water pond filter you can continue to do water changes on your pond , but to do this I would recomend the trickle method where water is trickled into the pond at a slow rate allowing the ambient temperature of the pond to take up the slack on the colder water entering the pond and warm it to that of our ambient pond temperature.
If done correctly then you should note no loss of water temperature .
Remember to keep an eye on your water perameters and drop your feed down amount wise as the temperature drops towards 10c then stop till next spring .
However dont neglect your fishes upkeep just because its winter doesnt mean you should quit .
Dave
The time to think about prepping your pond for winter should have been put to good use the pond bottom and your filters cleaned.
For those of you with raised ponds now is the time for those policarbonate roofing sheets to go on , we should be switching to Wheatgerm and garlic until th pond temperature reaches 10c then we should stop feeding till the spring.
However by using policarbonate roofing sheets we can gain some control over water temperature still at night our outside airtemperature is now in the low 8c temperature range at night , but with the covers on we are maintaining a temperature of 15.4c which proves this, admittedly the pond temperature will lower with time until by December we should be down to between 7c-9c pond temperture wise .
But we are not out to warm the pond we are allowing it to cool but the covers can contol this temperature loss throughout the winter months through till spring again .
I wouldnt think about adding anymore fish either leave that until you have the warmer summer temperatures next year , if you have bought any fish recently move them indoors .
If you have a fresh water pond filter you can continue to do water changes on your pond , but to do this I would recomend the trickle method where water is trickled into the pond at a slow rate allowing the ambient temperature of the pond to take up the slack on the colder water entering the pond and warm it to that of our ambient pond temperature.
If done correctly then you should note no loss of water temperature .
Remember to keep an eye on your water perameters and drop your feed down amount wise as the temperature drops towards 10c then stop till next spring .
However dont neglect your fishes upkeep just because its winter doesnt mean you should quit .
Dave