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Top 10 Tips For Emptying and Cleaning Your Garden Fish Pond
There may come a time when you'll need to empty and clean your
garden fish pond. For example, your pond may develop a crack or
other leak, and you'll need to empty it in order to make repairs.
This can be handled with no problem if you plan ahead. Some people
choose to have their fish kept in someone else's pond, but this can
be a bad situation for both parties, and should be avoided if you
can.
When emptying and cleaning a garden pond, here are some tips to
help the operation run smoothly and efficiently:
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Always stop feeding your fish
about one week before you empty your pond.
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Arrange to get as large a
temporary pond as you can (one possibility is a vinyl
above-ground children's swimming pool).
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When you clean out the pond, use
pond water.
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Arrange to rent or buy as large as
air pump as you can find, preferably one that has a mechanism
for distributing the air. Air stones work well for this.
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On the day you plan on emptying
the pond, fill the temporary pond or swimming pool with water
and start pumping air into it.
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Keep in mind that if the fish are
going to remain in this temporary pond for any length of time,
you'll need to replace about 50% of the water every day with
fresh water. And two changes per day of 25% are better than a
single change of 50%.
-
Be careful not to overfill the
pond. When stressed, fish tend to jump, and you don't want them
leaping out of the pool or temporary pond.
-
Keep a close eye on your fish in
this situation. If you notice any signs of unusual behavior,
change a portion of the water right away and check your air pump
to make sure it's working.
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If you're a serious koi keeper,
you might also want to keep an ammonia remover like Amquel
around just in case.
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Then, upon refilling your main
pond, just add the chlorine-removing agent to the fresh tap
water. This will help evaporate the chlorine.
And finally, bear in mind that there
is no biofilter attached to your temporary pond. Ammonia and
nitrates will build up quickly in such an arrangement, that's why
you need to stop feeding your fish to minimize the possibility of a
toxic chemical build-up.
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