What maintenance should be done to your fish/koi pond or water feature during the summer?

July is hot, humid, full of sunshine, and fireworks here in New Jersey.   It's also the month we mark on our calendars to perform our Mid-Summer Pond/Water Feature Visits.   July marks the middle of our ponding season and the time has come to perform some important maintenance tasks to keep our fish ponds and water features running strong for the remainder of the season.  

What should I be doing? 

You may be thinking to yourself, I've been performing my typical weekly maintenance, what in the world should I be doing now?  While the tasks may differ slightly for a pond vs a fountain or waterfall, a thorough check of the feature will help in keeping it running strong for the remainder of the season.  By now your feature has endured all the spring rain, pollen, and the spring flower and other organic material form the trees in the spring.  It's time to clean it up a bit and do a once over of the system.  

Here's what we do during our Mid-Summer Check Visits:

1.  We clean all filtration systems!  We don't just backwash them, but throughly clean them.  This is one of the 3 times per year we thoroughly clean the filters.   (Ponds Only)
2. Pull the pump and clean all debris from impeller, we will also pull pump apart and clean impeller mechanism if a magnetic drive pump. 
3. Prune all aquatic plants and apply fertilizer if needed.  
4. Check all underwater lights, replace if necessary.   We certainly don't want these going out, they are just beautiful. 
5. Check all edges to make sure there are no low edges and address if necessary.  
6. Visual inspection of Fish.  By this time your fish may have been through their yearly spawning ritual,  if we see any sores etc... we will let you know.  
7. In addition to the above, any other parts of the water feature or fish pond will be inspected, including auto fills, scarecrows, etc... to make sure they are functioning well.  

Why should I be doing Mid-Summer Maintenance? 

Performing the above maintenance tasks to your pond or water feature is equivalent to having a tune-up for your car.   Any maintenance is a performed to reduce any unexpected frustrations down the road, performing Mid-Summer Pond Maintenance is no different.   Preventative maintenance will help you enjoy the beautiful water feature you have in your backyard.  

Our Mid Summer Check Visits are part of our Maintenance Memberships, and an essential maintenance task during the year.  
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So mark you calendars every July to remind yourself to perform the above preventative maintenance tasks on your pond or water feature,  you'll be happy you did!  

Related Links:

• Is your fish pond or water feature really leaking?
• String Algae??!!!!  How do I get rid of Pond Algae?
• ​​​What is a Maintenance Membership?

A Frog’s Dream Aquatic Services is offering this pond blog as a personal information source to our website visitors. Pond services are performed in Morris County New Jersey (NJ) Hunterdon County New Jersey (NJ) Somerset County (NJ) and Warren County (NJ).Waterfall ponds, Streams, and Fountains are all in our wheelhouse of talent. Explore our website for more ideas. Like our Facebook page for daily inspiration. Receive our newsletter for weekly pond tip