Hamilton pond builders

Pond Maintenance cleaning and upkeep

keeping your pond a paradise

pond maintenance service

Ponds are extremely self sufficient eco systems. And when built properly they don’t need much cleanup as the biology will take care of it. However, we are not here to pretend they never need some help. Even natural lakes and ponds need our stewardship.

There are a number of areas that might need to be repaired, replaced, or cleaned. There are pumps, wetland filters, overgrown plants, algae, mechanical filters, bubblers, lighting, and for some ponds, tools to prevent predation. 

Pondering Paradise can perform any of the pond maintenance you need to have done.

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Pond Maintenance explained

Let’s talk about some common problems a pond can have, and how to prevent pond maintenance from being a big deal. The biggest and most common pond maintenance people ask about would be algae. 

Some algae is normal and healthy for a water garden. Others though, not so much. Algae is a plant in the end. It functions the same, uses sunlight and nutrients to grow. 

If your having big problems with green water in your pond go ahead and check out our blog that covers 8 things you can do to clear green pond water up.

The reason algae dominates a pond is because there is an imbalance in the water. Simply put there is to much plant food and not enough plants. So algae blooms occur.

Filamentous Algae or string algae often will show up in falls and on the perimeter of the pond. This algae is not necessary bad and can be be removed by hand. 

Then there is the dreaded green algae, blach! This algae turns the water a green or brown color and prevents fish from being seen. If left to long it can consume all the oxygen and harm fish. Its a common problem in newly constructed ponds, improperly built ones as well! 

You will know it’s getting bad when fish come to the surface for air! A properly constructed pond will prevent this, but unfortunately not all water gardens are built right. So there are a number of solutions from a reconstruction job, adding additional filtration, or a UV light. 

Another point of pond maintenance that can happen in ponds is over grown plants, this is relatively easy to solve by simply cutting them back on occasion.

However there are some plants that if not kept back regularly might need a more aggressive approach. You want to keep care of your liners when using tools in a pond!

Then every pond requires pumps and bubblers. They can fail over time and need to be replaced. Pump options are endless, from cheaper hardware store pumps to specialty pumps bought through a dealer. Some last longer than others. feel free to contact us and we can help with finding you the right pump.

Mechanical filters are also a point of pond maintenance, they also come with endless options to chose from. Over time these filters will breakdown and need to be replaced or cleaned to bring them back to a functional state. 

Ill put a point of encouragement in here, so you don’t lose site of how awesome water features are! One area ponds have an advantage is in thier biology. Its like hiring billions of workers who will go and breakdown organics and turn them into food for your plants. So filters should be designed to be a home for them causing less need for cleaning. 

Also depending on how the pond was built some may need to be drained and power washed annually or every few years. Other ponds can be built so that they rarely need this.

The biological makeup and filters allow the pond to clean itself with occasional manual cleaning without draining. I have seen ponds 20 years in, that have never been drained because of how well they were built and maintained by their owners. 

There are a number of other aspects to ponds that may need to be maintained like lights and motion sensor sprinklers that keep predators away. These are not always found in ponds. But if they are they will need to be maintained or closed down for winter. 

Okay so after listing all these pond maintenance points I want to stress that none of these problems should be all but occasional on a professionally built water garden. 

Our water feature we built 5 years ago has only been drained once and that was to expand its size. We do not have algae problems, and the pumps are going strong. The only regular work is to pull the debris basket and empty it. net out any leaves the skimmer couldn’t take out in the fall and add lots of health bacteria and enzymes in teh form of water treatments.  Then there is annual work like shutdown and opening, a few hours of work and its done. 

want to learn more about ponds and water gardens?

contact us and we would love to help!

Is Pond Maintenance DIY?

This depends on how handy and determined you want to be. Nothing a properly built pond presents is very difficult to do. Pond Maintenance cleaning and upkeep are very straightforward. 

There are smaller jobs and bigger ones. Where the line is on what the pond owner wants to DIY is up to them. 

One thing is 100% sure though. We will take your calls and offer free advice and even teach you in detail on how to do it yourself. We want these beautiful gardens to be a point of enjoyment for everyone. So we will help keep it that way at no expense to you when it comes to advice!

What will we do for you?

We have a wide range of pond maintenance options for you! Starting with free advice, we want pond owners to feel confident in their knowledge of what is happening so that they can implement solutions.

We also do Yearly closing to reconstruction to function properly. We will install UV lights or more biology to bring your water garden to a point of less maintenance. 

We will also setup predation prevention. Building a defense that has results in keeping predators away. Allowing you to rest comfortably knowing there is a system in place to keep your fish safe. 

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