How about this nice warm weather? Some think it UN bearable while others are soaking it up, too bad we couldn’t save it for February when the digits on the thermometer are single or negative and the pond is iced over with white stuff piling up all around.
No rain, no wind, high humidity and soaring temperatures really play havoc on the ponds.
With the intense sunlight beating down on the pond all day long the water keeps warming up and depending on the size of pond could reach bath water temps. With the warmer water temperatures combined with the photosynthesis accelerating the weed and algae growth. No wind so no ripples or waves to help break the surface of the water leaving the ponds very stagnant and not much chance of any oxygen exchange from air to water. Then with no rain the pond is evaporating, or simply leaking out leaving the pond with less water. Believe it or not the rain does aerate the pond but in a small way and only an inch or two deep. But does help to break the smooth glossy surface of the water, make a little movement on the water to help break up the formation of algae.
There are a few steps that can be taken to help our ponds in these extreme days, some permanent some a short term fix. With no rain and evaporation taking place and you’re running a fountain it would be a good idea to limit the hours of run time during the day and run more in the evening. This will help keep water in the pond rather than shooting it in the air, exposing more water to evaporate.
With no wind our ponds are stagnant, no movement leaves the nutrients in the water a chance to grow and mature eventually turning into algae even weeds. As for current weed growth we can help slow the process down and remove weeds manually with a weed cutter and rake. After piling up the cut weeds take them to the garden or for composting. Once the weeds have been removed this will allow more sunlight into the pond and the remaining weeds can grow again due to, remaining roots and sunlight. One way to help retard weed even algae growth is to use Pond Dye to minimize the sunlight penetration and photosynthesis, just like putting sunglasses on the pond.
With the above weather situations there is an invisible culprit that we can only feel if we are swimming. Where there is colder water at our feet and warm up by our shoulders. This is called thermal stratification where in the colder water there is much less oxygen and the slow bacteria’s(anaerobic bacteria) feeding on the muck are creating bad gasses such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide even ammonia, which is toxic to the fish and could create a fish kill.
The main work horse for the pond is bottom diffused aeration where the diffusers are on the bottom of the pond, releasing tiny bubbles which break this thermal layer and releasing these bad gasses to the atmosphere.
Bottom diffused aeration allows the bacteria that thrives in oxygen (aerobic bacteria) to the bottom of the pond to help 
reduce muck at a faster rate. Pond aeration can help with all the problems above, no rain no problem at we are aerating from the bottom to the top of the water column. No wind or movement is also taken care of with aeration as the bubble are moving up to 4500 gallons per minute keeping the entire water column moving and essentially turning over the pond volume at minimum twice a day. Quick Tip: If your pond is getting too warm, run your aeration system at night to help cool the pond water temperature.
Learn more tips and tricks about Pond Management.
