Pond is a nightmare

[fIsHy13]

I'm new to ponds, and, unfortnately, I have kinda been neglecting mine :( I set it up in the summer, you see, now it's winter and it's a total nightmare!! There is a ton of debris at the bottom and another ton of algea on the sides, plus the plants are just failing completely...so, my plan is to do a MAJOR clean out, and then actually get a cleaning routine so it won't ever get thgis bad. But I need help doing both of these things, so if ne1 could give me some advice on cleaning my pond out and making a cleaning routine, I would be very very grateful. Thanx!

[blitzen25bm]

where do you live? how big is the pond? depth? whats in it? filtration? fish? what kind of plants? more info needed. but around now most plants will start dying off. i have a water garden but it is filled with plants, only a few mosquitofish and some snails. there is some leaves at the bottom but with all the plants i just mostly do water top offs. need more info before we can really help

[fIsHy13]

Oh yeah, sorry. The pond size in gallons is 40, with 3 goldies in. I know that I should probaly only have just the two in there due to the small size, but the other goldfish is a friend's that won it at a fair. She didn't have anywhere suitable to house it, so I told her that it would do fine in my pond. Filteration? At the moment there is none! can't dig up the pario nad

[fIsHy13]

AND put a power supply under the ground, which would mess thw whole garden up. I have been looking for a solor power pump thingy, but I can't find any at all. Please reply back!!!!

[blitzen25bm]

where do you live? if you live where it gets pretty cold i would just leave it until everything wamrs back up. the entire pond should slow down enough to let it be ok until spring. you can use an extension cord connected to a gfci and the weatherproof boxes to connect to a skippy filter setup. you will need some plants too. the solar pump wont move water to power a filter.

[fIsHy13]

Where I live is quite cold in winter, but are you sure I can leave the pond till the spring? It's only just the begginning of winter!

[blitzen25bm]

ive never lived in cold weather. i figure things will slow down a lot inthe pond and almost everything will go dormant. so i wouldnt do anything till spring when everything comes back to life. since your going to need to do a spring maintenace when it warms up again anyways, you might want to talk to someone that lives in your region for their winter prep though, or go get something like a big rubbermaid tote box and overwinter them inside until spring and get everything out of the pond and just fill it with clean water until then.

[fIsHy13]

So your saying I should bring the fish inside during winter? I've read that it's okay to leave fish in the pond, as long as there is a a hole in the ice to let the build up of toxins and stuff escape.

[blitzen25bm]

you can leave them in the pond. i would just take them inside, personally i would set up a skippy filter for them in a big tub or ruubermaid and drain the pond so when spring comes along my filter would be up and ready to move outdoors so the pond wouldnt have to get all mucked up again.

[uhohagain]

I'm no expert on ponds, but have had one for about 7 years. Where I live we have problems with herons. Therefore, I have to cover my pond with fruit tree netting to keep them out...the added bonus is it also keeps leaves out. I just get the leaves off the top once a week or so as needed to keep from piling up.

I have a power box wired from garage nearby to my pond. I use a double filtration system that I designed and that keeps majority of smaller particles out of the pond. My water is generally clear, less a little bit of algea on the sides. Some algea is good, my fish love to eat it. Some would argue you need to feed them, but I don't feed regularly with all that natural food.

As far as freezing, the climate here never has frozen more than a thin layer on some of the pond. But in the case you do get a solid sheet of ice, melt it with warm water, don't break it, to allow the toxic gasses from decayed leaves etc. escape. The heat and water movement produced by the pump in my pond helps too. I also got some cheap tubed outdoor lights from Wal-mart and siliconed the end closed to keep the water out, that serves as cheap lighting and heat. I never remove my fish in the winter, they just go to the bottom and stay dormant until warmer weather.

I usually do about three big cleanings a year 1) Spring: to get rid of any die off of plants in and around the pond from the winter, 2) Summer: to cut back on the overgrowth from some of my fast growing plants, 3) Fall: usually just before it gets cold, I get rid of the plant material already showing signs of die off. At each of these times I also use a silt net to get any left behind sludge out of the bottom.

It is a ~250 gallon pond. In the pond are a bullfog, goldfish, koi, shubunkins, lots of plants. Not sure what is left after a baby garter decided to grab some dinner a couple weeks ago. I don't like snakes and don't wanna stick my hand in there.

[Celeste]

i have a 150 gallon pond. we built our own filter out of a 5 gallon bucket. make sure you have a way to bypass the filter for the winter, so the water goes straight from the pump to your water feature.

for winter, we dont do much of anything. we cover the pond with mesh all year long to keep debris out (some inevitably gets in, but it helps) and then when the trees are really dropping everything, we cover it completely with a plastic drop cloth that is hung from the porch railing and falls down over the pond, held in place by rocks so the leaves from the tree just slide off. once the leaves are all off the trees, we uncover it, and put a floating trough heater in it, which keeps it about 40 degrees. we gave up on floating plants. they die every winter.

then at night we cover it with chunks of styrofoam insolation. we dont bother cleaning it until spring. every spring we totally empy it out, scrub the sides, churn up all the gravel and just clean it ALL out (we leave the filter alone, havent even rinsed it out in 4 years) then fill it back up, get it to the same temp as the water we're keeping the fish in temporarily, add dechlorinator, etc. and put the fish back. the good bacteria in the filter survive every winter and keep the pond from going through a cycle, the pond is clean and clear, and everyone is happy.

even during the winter, the pond is ugly, but all the water perameters are perfect. the fish arent eating (their metabolisms slow down so much from the cold they dont need to eat, would actually kill them if they DID eat) so they're also not producing waste, so everything stays really stable over the winter.

i say just leave it alone for now and wait until spring to give it a thorough cleaning. so long as your water perameters stay stable, theres no need to mess with it right now.

[Dangerdoll]

if you're living in a cold climate, I would suggest getting a rubbermaid container and bringing the fish in over the winter. 40 gallons sounds small enough for a freeze over..... generally, if there is less than 3 or 4 feet (I would say 4 to be on the safe side) anywhere in the pond (left, right, top, bottom) you risk the chance of that freezing over unless you have a heater for it.

[Harry Tolen]

I would tend to agree with Dangerdoll. A 40 gallon pond is on the small side, and it may freeze completely, which stands a good chance of killing the goldfish.

They should do fine in a Rubbermaid container or even another rigid pond container kept inside (say, in your basement) over the winter, although I would recommend that you get a filter (sponge filter/air pump combo will work fine) for while they are indoors with no plants growing.

[Gold]

I can not believe this! You Do Not Have To remove the fish from the pond.
I have a 25 gallon Barrel pond, with no filtration, no heating, and just one common goldfish and some snails.
Also may i mention i live in England!
I have left that fish out all through winter in his little pond, i just leave three corks floating in the water, so when it freezes up, i pull them out in the morning and he has a little air whole.
In winter, the whole pond ecosystem will slow down as the weather gets colder. The plants will stop growing, and you fish will move around less and eat less. Hence feed him less than in summer.
And, i do not know your cleaning routine for your pond, but i do a 20% water change each week what ever the weather.
Also always ensure your pond has some surface area available to the air, but even if it does completely ice over, the fish could probably survive on the oxygen in the water for a day.

All in all, obviously I do not know where you are from, but not many places get colder in winter than in England. Also it may help that I have a common goldfish, which are exceptionally hardy, you may have a fancy variety that are less tolerant of temperature.
But I have kept my common Goldie in -5 C in the winter; he just goes into semi-hibernation mode, where he slows down his movement.
While I think you should be okay with no filtration, as long as you are religious on doing a 20% water change each week, and have plenty of live plants in there.

[pbrack]

It's hard to answer when you don't have a concrete area of where you live. Here in Ottawa, the temperatures can range from 40 C to -40 C. So, if your winters get colder than -5 C to -10 C, I suggest you bring the goldfish inside!

[chefkeith]

I can not believe this! You Do Not Have To remove the fish from the pond.


If the fish had a choice, I bet the fish would rather be inside where it is warm instead of outside in the freezing cold.