Pond care through the California year
What a healthy pond needs in each season on the Central Coast, and what you can safely ignore.
Ponds on the Central Coast are easier than ponds almost anywhere else in the country. We don't freeze, the growing season is long, and a well-built pond here mostly wants attention four times a year rather than every weekend.
Spring: the one appointment that matters
The spring cleanout is the anchor of the whole year: drain down, rinse the accumulated organic load out of the gravel, clean the filter media, inspect the pump and plumbing, restart the bacteria, and divide plants that have outgrown their pots. A pond that gets a proper spring cleanout is markedly less trouble for the following eleven months.
Summer: oxygen and evaporation
- Warm water holds less oxygen exactly when fish are most active. Aeration matters most in August.
- Top off with a hose slowly, and be aware of chlorine and chloramine in municipal water if the pond is stocked.
- Watch feeding. Overfeeding in warm water is the most common self-inflicted water quality problem we see.
- String algae on the waterfall in early summer is normal and cosmetic. It is not a system failure.
Fall: get ahead of the leaves
Every leaf you remove dry is a nutrient that never dissolves into the pond. Netting a pond under heavy leaf drop for six weeks does more for next summer's clarity than any treatment you can buy. Remove accumulated debris regularly.
Winter: mostly leave it alone
Our winters are mild enough that ponds keep running. Reduce or stop feeding as water temperatures drop, since fish metabolism slows and uneaten food fouls the water. Keep the circulation going, clear accumulated debris during storms, and check the pond after heavy rain for runoff intrusion from the surrounding grade.
What you can safely ignore
- A little algae film on submerged stone. That is a working biological surface, not neglect.
- Tannin staining after a storm. It clears.
- Frogs. They arrived because you built something correct.