Wildlife pond advice wanted.

[Ann Ewt]

Hello,

I'm new to this forum and new to ponds, I just wanted some advice about a wildlife pond.

I have a neglected concrete pond that was here when I arrived: it had plenty of newts in it, so I topped it up and put plants in but the problem is that leaks very badly; I've tried resin, concrete and glued fabrics but it still leaks.

It's September now and there are still some baby newts in there and lots of other things like water boatmen.

I plan to line it with Butyl rubber so here are my questions:

1) Will winter cause the creatures to leave the pond (I believe that the newts should go soon) I don't want to injure things in the process of re-lining.

2)I plan to put the plants in a child's paddling pool while doing the work and likewise any creatures that I find; any tips for saving the creatures?

3)At the moment I have horrendous blanket weed that I have been removing by hand, (I believe that this is caused by the nutrients in the tap water), so I am hoping that it will go away when I have the non-leaking liner.
However, a friend told me that I need a pump to stop this weed but I don't like the idea and thought that they were only for ponds with fish; he claims that the running water stops the weed. Anybody know if this is true?

Thank you in advance for any answers.

Ann

[Kayleigh]

Its best to leave any cleaning or pond maintenance till Oct as all the creatures will have either left the pond or not hibernating at this time.
Sounds like you have it all planned dont put in a pump as wildlife gets trapped and dies this is rubbish it stops blanket weed.
I have got rid of mine with water cress and rain water I have a duck weed problem now not blanket weed..

[Insomniak]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

Its best to leave any cleaning or pond maintenance till Oct as all the creatures will have either left the pond or not hibernating at this time.
Sounds like you have it all planned dont put in a pump as wildlife gets trapped and dies this is rubbish it stops blanket weed.
I have got rid of mine with water cress and rain water I have a duck weed problem now not blanket weed..

Kayleigh, how does the water cress eliminate the blanket weed? By covering the surface and letting less light in or by using up the nutrients in the water?
I have some blanket weed and it's actually preventing the duck weed flourishing by tying itself up in its little roots.

Apologies for hijacking your thread, Ann.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Insomniak

Kayleigh, how does the water cress eliminate the blanket weed? By covering the surface and letting less light in or by using up the nutrients in the water?
I have some blanket weed and it's actually preventing the duck weed flourishing by tying itself up in its little roots.

Apologies for hijacking your thread, Ann.

It uses the nutrients in the water I pull it out if it gets invasive barley straw is good too.

[Insomniak]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

It uses the nutrients in the water I pull it out if it gets invasive barley straw is good too.

I have a pad of barley straw for the last couple of weeks, but I'll throw in some water cress and see if that helps.
Thanks!

[Dorts]

Anne, welcome to WAB.
Coming back to your original question. You can do this at any time if you follow a few guidelines.
You say you have a paddling pool, that's great.
If the paddling-pool is big enough, put as much of the water from the pond into the pool that you can, have to probably use buckets. (Make sure to remove as much 'unwanted' weed as poss. ie. Blanketweed, Duckweed etc.)
Then the pond-weed and then any 'sludge' at the bottom. All a bit messy I'm afraid but at least some of the 'sludge' is important because that's where a lot of the little 'critters' will be.

Don't remove the old 'liner' if you can be sure there is nothing sticking through it that may have caused the leak in the first place, but give it a good clean removing any debris from it. Cover it in old carpet or newspapers, lay the new liner and reverse the processes. Voilà!
Dorts.

[Tringa]

Hi Ann.

I think it would be a good idea to cover the concrete with something to proctect the butyl. You can buy a protective fabric like liner, but old carpet, other fabric will also work.

The newts seem to have left our pond now. However, frogs over winter in ponds so I would not leave it too late. Though the last time I cleaned out a pond the frogs were coming back into the empty pond about as quickly as I could pick them out.

Barley straw does reduce blanket weed but newts lay eggs on the blanket weed. Just pulling it out it probably the easiest way.

We were in a similar position earlier this year. The pond had goldfish and looked like pea soup so in May we decided to empty it. The fish went in a spare dustbin, the newts (probably less than a dozen) were put in the undergrowth along with 30-40 frogs. Refileed with tap water, put the plants back and left it. We got lots of blanket weed, but the newts that came back used it, Also load of duckweed. Left it to cover virtually all of it and then removed it. Both water cress and water mintalso seem good at clearing the nutrients - a handful of water cress from the supermarket grows really quickly. The pond is wonderfully clear and had loads of wildlife. Eventually pond balance themselves, I think.


Good luck

[Cowgirl]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

Its best to leave any cleaning or pond maintenance till Oct as all the creatures will have either left the pond or not hibernating at this time.
Sounds like you have it all planned dont put in a pump as wildlife gets trapped and dies this is rubbish it stops blanket weed.
I have got rid of mine with water cress and rain water I have a duck weed problem now not blanket weed..

Hi sorry to barge in & hijack, but where can you get watercress? I've never seen it in a garden centre & what depth of water does it grow best in, my pond edges are too deep really for good marginal growing. I have a blanketweed problem so I'm looking for plants to take up the exra nutrients. I have loads of honwort & elodea which grows like mad but still the blaket weed grows, I'm probably feeding my koi too much as well.

[tom00_uk]

watercress can be got from fruit and veg shops, it readily roots as long as it is in good condition

modern carpet i would not recommend, its treated with chemicals to try and slow/stop it burning. cheap fleece blankets would be ok, they will not rot and should be possible to remove easily in the future if the pond is extended or filled in.

puncture the deepest part of the existing pond to stop water being tapped between the liners other wise you could get an unsightly bulge appearing

its horses for courses with regard to a pump. i have never had any blanket weed as there are lots of plants in my pond and its in a fair amount of shade, a pump was added to create some water movement this year and get the satisfying sound of water, but like i said its worked fine for a number of years with out and now means there is a little extra reason to play in the water as the pump should be cleaned frequently if its to run efficiently and not burn out.

if you do put a pump and filter in you will not be able to turn of the pump over night with out killing off a lot of the bacteria and creating a large chemical and biological shock to the water body each time you turn it on again, so if your thinking of having a pump on when sat there etc then do with out a filter

[Tringa]

The watercress we used comes in bags from the supermarket. It does not matter that is has no roots. Throw a bunch in the pond and it will form roots.

Dave