Making sure your pond is ready for the coming seasons should not take you more then a weekend to complete, and will ensure that you have a successful water garden for the remainder of the year.

The maintenance needed on your pond will largely depend on what happened during the previous winter. If the previous winter was hard, chances are you will need to perform more changes, so it may be a good idea to start as soon as you start noticing the weather changes. However, some spring maintenance will have to be completed every year, no matter how harsh or how mild the previous winter was.

Ascertain the quality of the water.

Although the water in your pond may appear to be clear and clean this does not mean that you do not still need to work on the pond. Very often the water will appear to be clean at the start of spring, however once spring has turned into summer you will find that you now have to handle problems that could have been avoided.

Naturally, leaf letter, silt, and other kinds of debris will land up in your pond during the months of fall and winter and that is unavoidable. But the problem arises when the organic materials actually release nutrients into the water. As the days get warmer and the organic materials decompose, algae starts to grow and the level of oxygen in the water decreases.

Because the water is clear you can use this to your advantage as it will make it much easier for you to remove any of the debris that is in the pond. There is more than one way of accomplishing this and they are:

1.Your first option is to hire the services of a pond professional. He, or she, will have everything they need in order to remove most of the debris in the pond. If your local pet store does not render this service then they might be able to put you in contact with a professional. It is obvious that hiring a pro will not be cheap but it does carry with it the satisfaction of knowing that the job is as close to thorough as possible.

2.For some people hiring the services of a pond professional is not an option. If that is your situation then you might want to try using a fine mesh net. Although it will be helpful in scooping out the larger bits of debris it will not be much good when it comes to getting the silt out. You will find that the net actually does not do much more than stir it up and make the problem worse.

Once you have removed unwanted debris, you must then test your water. Winter seems to cause the pH levels to change. At the start of Spring, your pH level should be an 8. This can be achieved by topping your pond off with treated tap water which is buffered to be slightly alkaline by your local water company.

Caring for your fish.

During the colder months your fish hardly eat and are not very active. Come spring and their immune systems are much weaker. Unfortunately, this makes them susceptible to infections, diseases, etc, which are caused by fungi, parasites, bacteria and a number of other organisms. To prevent your fish from succumbing to illness it is necessary that you treat the water using a number of preventative treatments. As the days get warmer you should repeat the whole array of treatments. By now the fishes will have stronger immune systems to help them fight off any disease causing organisms that might somehow survive your treatments. Provided you put in the required effort your Koi, pond, and water garden will do just fine.