Everyone loves that brand new look that pressure washing can give an old pond. But nobody wants to wake up to floating fish, which can be a side affect of this approach to pond cleaning. Here are few pros and cons to pressure washing.
Pros:
Cons:
- Loss of healthy bio bed in rocks
- Ammonia spike causing loss of fish
- Excessive stress on fish
- moving fish can cause abrasions leading to infections
- poorly ventilated holding containers can lead to suffocation
- small holding containers can over heat in the summer causing heat stroke
- holding containers tend to be poorly filtered and over crowded which can cause ammonia burn leading to death
- Stress of any kind can lead to weakened immune system and vulnerability to parasites and infections (bacterial and fungal)
The safest approach to pond maintenance is keeping the water quality low in nitrates and having a healthy bio bed. The low nitrates will prevent algae growth. Having water plants like lilies will help keep nitrates low along with water changes. There are a few cold water algae eaters too that will help keep algae on rocks short and not overgrown.
That's why, before we start cleaning our old pond, we should consult or get some help from the experts first, to know what are some of the things that we need to do in order to succeed it a new lease on life. Giving your pond good maintenance is vital for the life of our fishes. We should start monitoring the algae in our pond so that we can prevent possible fish death caused by algae. But how can we get rid of pond algae without killing fish? Based on what I've read online, putting free-floating and anchored plants in the water absorbs excess nutrients and shade out the algae.
ReplyDeleteThat's right plants do a great job of shading and out competing algae. Cana lilies are a great nutrient absorber and so are cat tails. Water lilies are good for shade, usually want at least 60% of surface covered for this method to be effective. Another natural way to help reduce the nutrients algae needs to grow is barley pellets. When you use barley pellets they need to be in an area of high water flow, waterfalls work best but any area of flow will do. Some good news is algae is not harmful to fish, it's usually the mass die off from algacide causing a spike in toxic waste and an unsafe drop in oxygen levels that kills the fish. It's also good to note that some algae on rocks and other surfaces can be a sign of a healthy eco system, as long as it isn't clogging filters.
ReplyDeleteI believe that everyone will get good things from this article and can be used again.
ReplyDeleteBellevue Pressure Washing