article: Spring Cleaning

Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning is more than just for your house, but also a task that must be done for the water garden plants and fish to thrive all summer long. Spring-cleaning consists of various things, that really don’t take too long, but you do need to remember to do them.

If you have a water garden that is just plants, draining, rinsing and vacuuming out the water garden is a good idea but only for the smaller ponds. Actually the larger water gardens will balance their environment over the spring months so you may only need to scoop out the debris on the bottom of the water garden and not drain it. Draining the water garden can be quite costly in time.

Before you do anything you most likely are going to want to test the water in the water garden. With the wind, snow, rain, debris and the fish in the water garden sometimes the environment can get a little out of control so you should test it to find out if you need any additives to kill bacteria or for the water to ‘clear’ itself.

Bringing your container plants and plants around the water garden back to life with a little bit of fertilizer and new spring soil may be needed. For the areas of the country where you get the heavy rains and the soil becomes washed away, additional soil could be just what your plants need to liven them up again.

If you have fish in the water garden, you should study them for a few hours, taking them out of the water garden and examining them if possible. Check your fish for any signs of disease, fungus, bacteria, broken fins, major discoloration or bleeding. If you find that your fish have any types of different look to their scales or fins, be sure to look up their conditions in case they have a disease. Some diseases can be treated if caught fast enough.

Filling your pond with additional water in the spring months when it has evaporated a bit in the previous year is a good idea. Be sure to check the chlorine in the water if you live in an area where you are using city water that could be high in chlorine.

Be sure to check the paths and the exterior details of your water garden in case the cold winter months has caused movement or cracking so you can repair it in the spring months instead of waiting until the problem gets to be too large to fix. Cleaning and changing water filters is important in the spring months as well as checking to make sure the filtration system is working properly.

If you need to add bacteria to balance your water garden this should be done in the spring months when you are testing the water. Testing the uv filtration system during the spring months for the balanced water garden is a necessity as well.