How to Cool Pond Water in Summer: A Guide For Keeping Your Pond Fresh

Summer is a wonderful time to truly enjoy the beauty of your pond. There's nothing better than sitting in the garden and watching the sunlight sparkle atop the crystal clear waters or observing the fish swim beneath the surface.

However, summer can also bring on a whole range of problems for your pond. Hotter water temperatures can mean that organic matter decays faster, oxygen levels deplete, algae takes over, and your fish gets stressed out. If you don't keep up with your pond management, you can say goodbye to beautiful crystal waters and hello to old, murky water, a tangled web of plants, and horrible odors.

That said, there are lots of things pond owners can do to keep their ponds looking beautiful and fresh during those warmer months. Here are some of our top tips for keeping your pond cool in the summer.

Maintaining Your Pond Water in the Summer

Ideally, you should be looking after your pond all year round, no matter the season. However, your pond water may need extra love and care during the warmer months. Here's why.

• Hotter Temperatures Harm Your Aquatic Life - Fish, other creatures, and aquatic plants all need the right water temperature to live and thrive. Summer can make this tricky, with sweltering temperatures that cause oxygen levels within the pond to drop. This makes it hard for fish, especially koi and goldfish, to breathe.
• Algae Grows More in Summer - Algae love warmer water and direct sun. Although a bit of algae is okay, too much lowers your dissolved oxygen levels and even releases harmful toxins that hurt the life in your pond. Not to mention, it makes your pond look untidy.
• Summer Heat Can Harm Your Water Quality - This is because higher temperatures make organic matter decompose much quicker, filling your pond up with harmful toxins like ammonia and throwing the ecosystem out of balance. This also means less oxygen.

How to Keep Your Pond Cool in Summer

It's all well and good knowing why you need to maintain your pond in the summer, but how do you actually keep the water looking fresh? Here are some tips to keep your pond water looking clear when temperatures soar.

Aerate Your Pond

Every pond owner should be aerating their pond all year round, not just in the summer. However, proper aeration is even more important during those warmer months. If you do one thing on our list, make sure it's this.

Aeration will help improve oxygen levels in warm water, which can have a whole host of benefits for your pond. Pond aerators work by circulating the water, bringing more oxygen into your pond, and keeping it fresh. This stops your water from becoming stale, reduces algae, and creates an environment where your fish can thrive. You can get pond fountains that aerate your pond's surface (and look pretty while doing it) or aerators that you can place at the bottom of your pond for better aeration in deeper water.

Here at Your Pond Pros, we have a huge range of pond aerators to suit your needs, whether you're looking to aerate a small residential pond or a large one. We offer lots of different aerating options, from wind-powered aerators to solar pond fountains, to help you find the right choice for your pond.

Provide Plenty of Shade

Direct sunlight can negatively affect your pond, especially during warm weather. However, providing shade is an easy way to fix this problem and help keep your pond cool in summer.

Consider adding floating plants to the surface of your pond, such as water lilies and lotus blooms. Aquatic plants also produce oxygen, which is great news for the health of your pond life.

You could also strategically plant trees and shrubs around the edge of the pond, which will help block out some of that direct light. Just make sure to keep on top of leaf management - decaying leaves can do more harm than good, releasing toxins into the water and taking you right back to square one.

Install a Pond Chiller

Pond chillers might not be right for everyone, but if you live in a particularly warm area prone to extreme heat and house expensive fish like koi, these machines are worth considering. They can keep your water cool and your pond fish healthy and happy.

Change the Water

Changing some of your hot water to fresh, cool water can help lower the overall temperature of the pond. However, don't add water that's too cold, as this can actually shock the ecosystem and might be harmful to the life that lives there. Additionally, make sure your water volume stays the same.

Be Careful Not to Overfeed Your Fish

If you feed your fish too much in the summer, all that wasted, uneaten food will soon start to decay, which can bump up ammonia levels in your pond and create a toxic environment. If your ammonia levels get too high, this can be detrimental to the health of your fish, and they may eventually die.

Install a Pond Pump

A pond air pump can do wonders for your pond, particularly during the summer. This piece of equipment diffuses oxygen into the water, which is essential for the health of your fish and pond plants.

Cover the Pond With a Mat

If you have a small garden pond, covering your pond temporarily with a shade mat during the hottest part of the day can lessen exposure to UV light and regulate water temps.

Monitoring Your Water Quality

You might be asking yourself the question, "How hot is too hot?" Fish and pond life struggle to survive in temperatures over 80 degrees, so any temperatures above that will need immediate intervention.

Another way to test the quality of your pond is by seeing if the water is safe for your fish and plants. Check things such as ammonia and nitrate levels, as high levels can cause your fish stress, oxygen levels, and pH levels. These parameters will give you an indication of whether you need to take measures, such as extra aeration and introducing beneficial bacteria.

Conclusion

Looking after your pond's health is important, but it’s even more important during the summer months when temperatures rise and your pond's oxygen starts to deplete. Our tips and tricks above can all help you maintain your pond, creating a happy and safe environment where fish can live and thrive. Not to mention, when you have a clean and beautiful pond to be proud of, you can truly show it off in the summer months.