smelly pond and dead frogs

[beehold]

Hello everyone

I have a small pond about 70 cm wide (round) but 120 deep. It's been there for a year now and frogs found it pretty quickly. There are some water lilies and other plants i don't know. There is no fish and no filter/ pump/ anything. It's just its own ecosystem.

But i found one dead frog in it today and one maybe 6 weeks ago. (There are many frogs for such a small pond.) And the water smells stagnant.

What do you think i should do?

Thank you for your help.

[coasty]

A pond that small and that deep is going to struggle to find a natural balance, It sounds like there is to much rotting vegetation in the bottom. This with no oxygenating plants spells disaster,

I am sure you will get plenty of advice on hear. I would say you need to make the pond bigger,,,

[Cazzie]

Sure you haven't got a heron around? It could well have died naturally of course and the one a few months ago, so I would be too overly concerned atm

The pond is quite small but there's no reason for it not to be healthy even with a good amount of frogs in it. I suggest you clear out some of the sludge (being careful to put the froggies back in) and take out about 1/3 of the water and refill with preferably rain water (have you a water butt?). It will obviously get stirred up but it will settle again. Give it a couple of weeks to adjust and then change 1/3 of the water again and see if you get any more casualties.

Hope that helps and good luck!

[hannahpanda]

I'd recommend the same as Cazzie.
We had similar problems, but our pond was very deep (about 4.5ft) so there was alot of rotting vegetation at the bottom and the water went murky and smelly.
We changed the water and took out all the sludge & dead veg, bought a solar pond oxygenator and made the pond shallower and its fine now

[zan]

A good oxygenating plant is Egeria densa\ Elodea sp. which you can buy readily in gardening stores. It grows well in low light and could help add more oxygen to your water. You have to be careful it doesn't escape though as it can be a problem in natural waterbodies.

The alternative is that you have too much vegetation and it's shading the pond, causing plants below to die and rot. If that's the case, a spot of grooming should help the problem.

HTH

Zan

[Kayleigh]

You need lots of oxygenating plants as said. This barrel will be three years old in spring and it gets frogs breeding every year. Its only 12" deep.

[naturelover]

hi kayleigh what do you do in the winter,dose it freezes over ?.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by naturelover

hi kayleigh what do you do in the winter,dose it freezes over ?.

It is on the patio so it is sheltered. The top freezes but I break the ice. I have a tender small water lilly and that has not been killed as yet. There are no frogs in it in winter they use the large pond, they just breed in the barrel in spring time.

[Al Hyde]

Hi Kayleigh

Are you sure there are bno frogs in there over winter? Try putting your arm in and feeling around as the males often hibernate at the bottom.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Al Hyde

Hi Kayleigh

Are you sure there are bno frogs in there over winter? Try putting your arm in and feeling around as the males often hibernate at the bottom.

If there are frogs in the bottom they can stay there. There is leech like things in it as well. I don't like cold water any way so I'm not putting my arm in it. There are pots of plants in it so it would be difficult to find any thing in the bottom unless I emptied it.

[Al Hyde]

I can understand that

[Marineboy]

Just a thought - can frogs in the pond get out? If the water is not to their liking the frogs will leave. A deep vertical column of water with a small surface area, subject to temperature swings will not permit satisfactory gas exchange and results in oxygen depletion. Dead frogs and a heavy biological load from vegetation and sludge at the bottom would also cause the water to go off very quickly. I doubt that the water quality itself has killed your frogs, (unless unable to climb out).
I suggest a good clean out, reduce the biological load and add good quality Elodea/Canadian pond weed.