Pond is a nightmare

fIsHy13

fIsHy13

not a troll
Oct 5, 2005
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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!
 
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
 
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
 
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!!!!
 
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.
 
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!
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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