Cleaning a pond

We have a small-ish goldfish pond that came with the house. There are 11 HUGE fish swimming around.

We noticed the other day that the water is kind of murky and that there's a lot of algae in the pond itself (on the pipes and sides).

Is there a way to clean this up?

Thanks!

Re: Cleaning a pond

I can't believe they left you the fish!! That is great!! We are def taking our fish when we move

Does your pond have a skimmer? That might have to be cleaned.

If that doesn't work you might have to drain it and add more water. But you don't drain it all the way.

Do you have any aquatic plants in the pond? That really helps level out the eco system and helps keep away the algae.

Re: Cleaning a pond

Yeah - they left the fish! We got a house with built-in pets!


When I say "small-ish", I totally mean it. The pond can't be more than 4x4 and maybe 2 feet deep.

Just like everything else with this house, they half-azzed the pond too. There is a pump, but no "filter" system. The only skimmer we have is like a small butterfly net to skim off any leaves or anything small that gets in there.

If I did have to drain it, how would I clean the sides? It looks like all it is is a heavy duty plastic liner.



Your pond is coming along soooooo nicely!

Re: Cleaning a pond

read up on this first before you start removing stuff. My parents have a large pond in their yard, and they have a circulating eco-friendly filter inside. The trouble with removing all that "stuff" is that it will change the pond's ecosystem. You may be doing more harm than good by doing this.

From KellyFG's video, it seems she knows about pond care. Why not FM her and ask beforehand?

HTH!!!

Re: Cleaning a pond

theres a place in Middle Island called reliable fence give them a call or even better go there they have tons of fish plants etc and the staff there is EXCELLENT.. I only go there for advice and plant fish life

Re: Cleaning a pond

Re: Cleaning a pond

Definitely go to a good pond place and ask them their opinion...

...but I think the only way to kill algae is to use a UV light. Ask them about this when you go. They sell filters w/UV lights. DH is big into ponds and takes care of his parents...he said all the water flows through the canister, through the UV light and it makes the water crystal clear. Tetra is a good brand he said. HTH!

Re: Cleaning a pond

I don't know where u live but there is a place in Carle Place that cleans the pond for u!

Re: Cleaning a pond

You might just want to get a filter and let it clean itself. Pond water is often murky, its not going to be clear like a fish bowl. Go to a nursery and ask them before doing anything at all. We have had fish in our pond (at my parents house) that are probably going on 10 years old now, also, they keep breeding, so every year more and more fish appear! Also, you could go to an online pond forum...that helped me alot when we first built the ponds (it was 1996/7 so I don't remember the sites)

Re: Cleaning a pond

The original homeowners also left us the fish too.

We just did this after my hubby kind of ignored our pond and it's 19 fish for 2 years (other than feeding them of course)

We drained the pond. We put the fish into those big tubs that you can use to hold beers. We put them in our screen house so they were safe from critters and the blazing sun. We bought a cover pump (a pump for the cover of the pool). We pumped out the pond- had it drained into our grass (let me tell you how well the grass is doing in the area where all the muck went). We have a triangle shaped brush that my hubby used to scrub the sides. We DID NOT use anything but water to clean the pond because some algea is good. You don't want to get it all. We filled the pond let it sit and then the fish went in. We lost one big guy and about 5 tiny tiny babies but the other ones are doing great. Also get some plants and an ultra violet light. When there is nothing to shade the pond directly it has a tendency to turn green. The plants also give the babies a place to hide so they don't get eaten. FYI babies are brown when they are born and EXTREMELY hard to see, so you may have some in there that you don't realize.

I think that's it. Anything else let me know and I can ask DH. The pond store in Middle Island that they are recommending is AWESOME. They are the ones that finally motivated dh to get his butt in gear and take care of the pond. He makes a trip there every other weekend because he just loves it there.

Re: Cleaning a pond

I wanted to add that DH said you might just need a UV Light. I would go to Dee's Nursery in Oceanside. They have a great pond guy there and he sells everything you might need.

Dee's