For pond owners who experience all seasons, utilizing the fall months to clean and prep for winter will help set you up for year-round success!
If you have or are considering an aeration system be sure to keep it running to prevent the pond from fully freezing over. If you turn the pump off for any amount of time the water could freeze around the unit and damage the machine. By having an open section in the ice, you are also preventing natural gasses from being trapped under the ice.
You will also want to introduce high doses of pond bacteria. The bacteria will remain very active until the water temperatures drop below 50F. Doing a high dose of bacteria before your water temperature drops too low will allow the bacteria to start breaking down the vegetation that you killed off all through the summer. Once the water temperatures drop below 50F the bacteria are much less active and below 32F they will most likely die off.
Colder months is a great time to for cleanup! This can look like brush and dead vegetation removal, cleaning equipment