April To Do's for Your Water Garden

Here's What to Do in Your
Water Garden in April...

April is an exciting time in your water garden! I don't know about you, but I never tire of seeing plants peek up from the earth, fish starting to become active (can you believe how much they seem to grow over the winter?), and everything blooming each spring!

But a little work now before everything really gets going with summer heat and sunshine could save you a lot of work later in the year.

Here's what you need to do...

Consider a Cleaning

Our techs are super busy in April cleaning your ponds!

Decide if you need a cleaning here. Not every water feature needs cleaned. But if your water feature does need a cleaning, then April is a great time to do so!

Start Your Weekly Treatments (Hopefully You already Have) and Use the Right Treatments

We use Remove Away Plus weekly to keep string algae at bay.

Adding weekly treatments is a no-brainer.  Believe me, there are a lot of ponds that we clean each year that if the pond owner just used our treatments, they wouldn't need it cleaned! Adding treatments keeps your water looking great rather than fighting it once it looks bad. Proactive instead or reactive is always better for your water feature.

But remember that all treatments are not the same!!! There are many treatments on the market that are ineffective, create a "chemically addicted pond," or are quite frankly scary -- meaning they can harm the fish and other critters living in your water feature. Please don't use these.

The treatments we recommend are not the only good treatments on the market today but I can assure you we have found them to be the best on the market for treating your pond in an effective, ecological manner with no harsh chemicals and are completely safe for you, your critters, and the environment.

We can help set up a treatment regimen for you, but the two main treatments to remember for ponds are BioClear and Clean and Remove Away Plus. Buy them exclusively at Cool Ponds or our online store.

Divide Aquatic Plants

Keep water lilies happy by dividing them every 1 - 2 years.

Before they really get going, now is a great time to divide your aquatic plants. While dividing your water lilies, fertilize them with year long fertilizer and plant them in a fabric drawstring bag for best results. They will reward you all season with beautiful blooms without any additional work on your part.

Clean Your Filters and Pump 

On the left is the filter before cleaning. Wow!

Even if you aren't going to clean your pond completely, you should take the time to clean any filters and filter media you have in your pond. If you have a waterfall filter and skimmer set up on your pond, this should be the only time you clean these this year. Once the water temperatures start to stay warm, you should not clean your filters... If you clean them, you run the risk of destroying all the good stuff (beneficial bacteria) in them that you try so hard to establish with water treatments.

Start Feeding Fish? Maybe, read on...

Did you know the most common cause of pond water quality issues is fish feeding? Did you also know that you don't have to feed your fish? What? Yes! There are plenty of insects, algae, invertebrates that we can't see that your fish feast on. I promise they won't starve.

Consider this: your pond is a closed system...until you add fish food --then you contaminate it. So, we all know that feeding fish is fun! But realize you do it for you, not them. If you decide to feed the fish, feed sparingly, two or three days a week at most only what they will eat in a minute or two. Plus, only use high protein food and nothing that has a grain as the first ingredient. Grain means more waste -- yuck. Or just buy our fish food!

Shop at Cool Ponds

Fish and plants begin arriving at Cool Ponds at the very end of April.  Late Spring is a great time to shop at Cool Ponds. That's when you will find our best selection of fish and plants, and the gardens look beautiful and inspiring!

What About Pond-Free or Pondless Waterfalls?

If your water feature is a pond-free waterfall, you have very little to do for spring! Remove any debris that has accumulated over the winter on top of the rocks on the top of the basin and give it a good rinsing. Trim back any aquatic plants that may not have been trimmed in the fall and you are good to go! (Most pond-free waterfalls can benefit from being be completely drained and refilled every 4-5 years.)

Get Outside and Enjoy Your Water Feature

You installed it to enjoy it... Now quit reading and get outside!