Prepping for Closing Your Pond
When cooler weather arrives, it’s time to get your pond ready to close. What you do now depends on your region and how cold your winters get. This checklist covers prepping your pond and equipment in areas that expect freezing temperatures.
Ready for the next step? Follow our guide to closing your pond for winter.
1. Remove and Clean Your Equipment
Freezing weather can damage your pump and other items in your pond, like filtration and decor.
- Take everything out: Remove all equipment from the pond and clean it thoroughly.
- Do your maintenance now: Inspect for damage and replace worn parts. See our product maintenance tips, and shop replacement filter pads and UV bulbs.
- Store plugged items indoors: Anything with a plug should spend winter inside.
- Keep decor dry: Store it in a dry location.
2. Protect Your Pond Pump
- Bring pumps inside: This includes any equipment that contains a pump.
- Keep them in water: Place the pump in a bucket of water, unless you’re using it in an indoor fish holding tank. Keep the bucket where it won’t freeze.
- Expecting a quick freeze? You can move your pump to the bottom of the pond and disconnect it from any waterfalls. See what to do with your pond during a short freeze.
3. Adjust for Your Pond Fish
Pond fish adapt naturally as the water cools. They slow down to conserve energy, so their feeding schedule needs to change too. Our water temperature feeding guide shows how to feed in changing temperatures.
- If your pond will freeze solid: Move your fish to an indoor tank. A tank with a regulated temperature lets you continue regular feedings.
- If your pond will freeze only at the surface: Plan to keep an opening in the ice with a pond aerator or de-icer.
More tips: How to Care for Pond Fish in Winter.
4. Trim and Move Your Plants
- Trim before winter: Remove brown or dying leaves. Fewer decaying leaves in the water means lower nutrient loads.
- Tropical plants: Remove them early and store them indoors, or dispose of them properly.
- Hardy plants: Trim them down and move them to the deepest part of the pond to overwinter.
Keep Checking as the Water Cools
As water temperatures drop, check back on your pump, fish, and plants to see if anything else needs attention. When you’re ready to close up, follow our step-by-step guide to closing your pond for winter.
