Cleaning pond ready for winter

[George&Ade]

Hi.
Had the pond for about 3 months now and stocked it with 11 goldfish (unfortunatly one died...swim bladder probs)
Apart from the normal problems with blanket weed,its seems to be fine.
The waters crystal clear,both pump and filters seem to be doing their jobs,and having checked levels,they are ok too.
Have 3 or 4 fish with ulcer problems,but a friend of mine (an experienced koi fanatic) has very kindly been taking them out of the pond to treat them and they seem to be improving now.
He seems to think that now would be a good time to take all the fish out,then remove about 75% of the water and completly clean the pond ready for the winter.
Im definitly not an expert,but i feel that while everything seems to be ok,it would be best to leave this until the spring.
Any comments please??

 

[The-Wolf]

If is not broke then why fix it?

I think you should leave it alone.

 

[George&Ade]

Yep.....thats what i thought too.....thanks

 

[ryan]

If everything is ok I would also leave it until spring. Any change would stress the fish and may make things worth with the cold weather fast approaching. Through the winter the fishes metabolism will slow down and they will not be as active producing less waste etc meaning your filter and pumps should be able to keep everything ticking over fine until the spring clean.

Good Luck

 

[George&Ade]

I reckon that confirms it then.
Ill leave it till spring......thanks for the help

 

[Da_Oz]

If your not houseing the fish in the pond. I would be sure to clean out all plants, leaves and other trash. Pull the pumps and if can the hoses. If you live where the water will frezze it can bust your pumps and hoses. If you don't take out the trash it will break down into a black blob. Not a real bad thing for fish seeing how that is what "black water" is. But it is not nice looking. And over time (year after year) this will build up to a bad point. Then cover with plastic. Where do I get this from. Well every spring and every fall I spend about a 30 hours a week for a month doing nothing but cleaning ponds. The average pond takes about 2 hours to winter and 3 hours to summer if both done. If only done in the spring it takes about 9 to 12 hours to prep. And is also more stressfull on the fish. Ponds are not that much different from fish tanks they also need stuff done to them.

 

[bribones]

ill give my vote to spring cleaning ,i just make sure the nettings on before the leaves drop,as soon as the first frost comes round on goes the plastic sheeting and filters off and pump features dropped below the surface,i do this year in and out and have never lost a fish

 

[George&Ade]

Many thanks for the replies.Just one thing to "Bribones" please.......
You say you turn your filter off for the winter........you obviously know more than me about this subject,but i thought it would be best to leave the filter running (slowly).
I understand the point about dropping the fountain below the water surface,but the water from my pump also runs through the filter,then onto the waterfall(i thought i read somewhere that i should attatch a piece of hose from the top of the waterfall,and run it down to "just under the surface of the water level"
I was told that this would not create a great deal of surface "aggitation" and also allow the lower levels of water to remain reasonably warmer and still.
Also to rest a bucket on its side on the bottom of the pond where the fish could seek shelter.

 

[bribones]

i turn my filter off and remove the hose from the filter and place it so it runs underwater ,im in the north east and it tends to freeze a lot more up here ,its a personal thing really ,i find that water droplets freeze inside the filter and build up like icicles so i er on the side of caution and disconnect it just in cast i get a blockage and it overflows ,the pump is still running but below the surface and well off the bottom allowing the fish to get down into the deepest part of the pond,ill be adding an airstone running from a small pump this year as well as the fish are a lot bigger,its the only time of year my filter gets a proper clean out and stored