It’s Fall! And just like the name implies, things are falling from the sky. Not Cats or Dogs or even money (unfortunately) but LEAVES! You have likely had to rake up leaves from the yard but what do you do when they start falling in your pond? After this article you will know if you need to net your koi pond for the fall.
You can of course manually net out these leaves. If you do not have a lot of trees or leaves fall around your pond, then manually netting out the leaves may be a satisfactory solution. Doing that plus the assistance of a skimmer box (if you have one) could be sufficient in keeping your pond cleansed of most leaves. If you go this route just be sure to stay consistent based on your leaf fall. If your skimmer box gets too full of leaves it will begin to clog and keep water from getting to the pump. You also want to limit the leaves that fall to the bottom and begin to break down in the water. This will usually compromise your water quality.
Do I need to net my Pond?
It is not a necessity to net you pond during the fall, however, it is suggested to do so especially if your pond is in a location that gets heavy leaf fall.
What’s the Benefit?
The main benefit is obviously that it will keep leaves from falling in your pond. It will also keep you from having to consistently manually remove leaves from your pond and skimmer box. Pond netting is more of a “set & forget” system. Once it’s up any physical assistance will be minimal until you take the net back down once all the leaves have fallen.
What’s the drawback?
Depending on your personal preferences you may not like the appearance of a net covering your beautiful pond, however, you likely won’t like the look of a pond covered in leaves either. This really depends on your own personal aesthetic preferences. Another potential drawback is if you have a Pond that draws in a lot of wildlife (i.e. frogs, birds, etc..) they likely will not be able to come to enjoy your pond as normal until the pond net is removed.