As a pond owner in autumn you not only have to deal with getting the pond ready for winter (which we will discuss in one of the next blog posts), you also have to struggle with heavy and frequent rainfalls. Autumn can mean weeks of cool and rainy weather.
Since rainwater doesn’t contain any hardeners it has a carbonate hardness of 0° dKH. Heavy rainfalls strongly dilute the water of your garden pond and thus decrease the carbonate hardness. In a range below 4° dKH the pH value starts to fluctuate greatly in the course of the day. The water is no longer stable. The fish still can cope with small, non-critical fluctuations. But when the fluctuations increase greatly, this can lead to a lot of stress for your fish. The stress results in a weakening of the immune system and therefore to a higher susceptibility to diseases.
If the carbonate hardness drops to 0° dKH this can cause a sudden drop of acidity. Please therefore check weekly, especially in winter, the stability of you garden pond water with the JBL PROAQUATEST POND Check pH/KH .
If there is no stability you just can add the minerals and hardeners which are lacking by means of JBL StabiloPond Basis or JBL StabiloPond KH to the water again.
A small tip: The same effect occurs when the garden pond gets re-filled with rainwater. Therefore always use mains water or well water (please check the hardness and the nutrients before use).
To activate the immune system you can increase the vitality of your pond fish with valuable plant extracts and vitamins ( JBL AccliPond ). It is also time to make sure you are using the right winter food, such as JBL PROPOND WINTER S and JBL PROPOND WINTER M , so that your fish can start the winter fit and well. JBL PROPOND WINTER L damit Ihre Fische gut konditioniert in den Winter starten können.