Keeping the Temperature
Thermometers for Garden Ponds
Pond Thermometers
Your ponds entire ecosystem depends on the temperature of the water. Everything from daily feeding to the immune system of the fish is affected by the variable changes in temperature, during the day and during the four seasons. This can be seen as annoying or another chore, but many pond owners don’t mind. They check the temperature daily or twice daily when they head out to feed the fish. If you don’t feed your fish you’ll just have to make a point to go admire your pond once or twice a day and check the temperature then.
Late fall and spring are the most important times to watch out for your ponds temperature. Fish go dormant when the water temperature drops below 50 Fahrenheit becoming sluggish and not eating. You need to check constantly for this change in water temperature cause once your thermometer hits that mark you should think of the pond as dormant. Stop feeding the fish, you shouldn’t feed them anything during this time and some of the forms of fish food can start to stick together in the colder weather so it’s not appetizing anyway. Don’t run any sort of bacterial treatment through the system after the temperature drops below 50 F. You should run one last treatment to get the fish good and clean for winter when the temperature is say 55 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
Later on when Spring rolls around you should begin checking the temperature again and again watch for that 50 degree mark. After that point you can begin feeding your fish again and treat them for any early spring maladies they may have developed. Fish tend to lose their immune systems when the water gets cold so that period when its starting to heat back up again and when the immune system isn’t quite back to normal can lead to a lot of diseases.
A good pond or even swimming pool thermometer can be of great service. They come in and enclosed plastic case to help prevent the thermometer from breaking. There are different types. You can get a sinking/floating thermometer that will help you to measure the water temperature at different levels. You will find that you pond develops layers of warmer water on the surface, cooler water on the bottom and then a rapidly fluctuating layer of water in between.
There are thermometers with temperature ranges from -20 degrees Fahrenheit all the way up to 120+ degrees. A pond won’t usually change more than plus or minus five degrees in temperature so you may not need such a wide temperature range on your thermometer immediately. Don’t forget to check any thermometer to see if it measures in Fahrenheit or Celsius or both. It can get confusing very quickly if you are measuring with a different system than you thought.
The thermometer can be left in the water and is usually attached to a thin rope so it’s easy to reel in and check the current temperature of the pond. When you are done just toss it back in. You may want to start recording the daily temperature of your pond in a log book along with other necessary pond information.