March is an exciting month for your pond. Soon, you’ll get to watch your fish and plants wake up from dormancy and spring back to their gorgeous selves.
Thinking about cleaning your pond? March is a great time to do it. During this time of year, the Beneficial Bacteria colonies that keep algae away haven’t established themselves yet for the season – giving you a chance to clean without disrupting the pond’s ecosystem.
Check out our monthly deep dive below to learn how to clean your pond yourself, or click here to schedule a Pond Clean-Out by Splash.
3 Tips for March Pond Care
1. Do NOT feed fish until water is at least 50-55 degrees
Fish go into a semi-dormant state called torpor during the cold months. While in torpor, their bodies’ systems slow to a crawl, letting them survive the winter with minimal food and activity.
Your finned friends might seem more active this month with spring on the horizon, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to start eating again. Wait until the water is consistently warmer than 55 degrees to resume feedings.
Feeding your fish too soon could make them sick or create an unnecessary mess of uneaten food in your pond. When you do resume feedings, start with a Cold Water or Probiotic formula to help ease them into the season.
> Find fish food at our Online Store
2. Add a weekly dose of Cold Water Beneficial Bacteria
Cold Water Beneficial Bacteria helps keep water clear and fish happy and healthy when the pond is too cold for regular bacteria to work efficiently.
Adding a weekly dose to your pond will help reduce ammonia, nitrite and organic waste in the pond, as well as give your fish a health boost thanks to marigold and vitamin B included in the formula.
Treating your water is easy. Cold Water Bacteria is a liquid that comes in a pump-top container. If you buy an 8 oz, 16 oz or 32 oz bottle, simply add one pump of bacteria per 100 gallons of water in your pond once a week while water temperatures are below 50 degrees. If you buy a gallon bottle, use one pump per 600 gallons.
To Calculate Pond Size in US Gallons: Length (in feet) x Width (in feet) x Average Depth (in feet) x 7.48
Cold Water Bacteria is completely safe for fish and plants.
> Find Cold Water Bacteria at our Online Store
3. Schedule or Complete a Spring Pond Clean-Out
Our Spring Pond Clean-Out schedule fills up quickly. If you haven’t reached out to our team yet for Spring Service, you’ll want to do so ASAP to get on our schedule.
> Fill out a Clean-Out Request Form
More of a do-it-yourselfer? Keep reading below.
March Deep Dive
How to Clean a Pond in 7 Steps
A well-built pond – one with a skimmer, biological filtration and plenty of plants – will develop an ecosystem that more or less cleans itself.
Sometimes, though, manmade ponds need help flushing out excess muck and debris. That’s where a pond clean-out comes in.
Cleaning a backyard pond takes a little time and elbow grease, but, with the right tools, you can knock out the clean-out in a few hours and get back to enjoying your crystal-clear water and happy, healthy fish.
(Don’t want to clean your pond yourself? Click here to have us do the dirty work for you.)