Pond Advice Needed!

[jaelen]

Hello, everyone... I'm just in search of some experienced advice here.

Back last December we moved into rented property with a pond in the back garden. It has been seriously neglected- the second photo shows that there are three fruit trees to the left, and they've been dropping leaves and pears and apples in it for years without ever being cleaned out. Even though it is about 17 inches deep, I reckon about 12 inches of that is debris! It whiffs. and it is roughly 7 X 7 1/2 feet.





I was going to start dredging it, but the frogs came and bred in it back in the spring, so I left it... just got a fishing net (good old PoundLand!) to try and control the pondweed until the tadpoles had grown up and moved out... there are still about 40- 50 toadpoles left, and once they are gone I'd like to give it a good clean out before autumn arrives. (Please note FrogTotem to the side of the pond... he watches over frog babies! )

Anyway, I have little experience of ponds, and after trying to find information online and via my local pet shop and Sera Pond brochures, I am totally perplexed by the overwhelming amount of gadgetry involved... pumps and filters and nozzles and pipes and the CHEMICALS ! ! ! to keep nitrogen and whatnot in balance.

I'm tempted to just let it be, but I do want it to be nice, and not just a smelly swamp half-full of twigs covered with pond weed.
Basically, I'm just asking- what do I need to keep the water relatively clean, (we're not putting in any expensive Koi carp!) so it's still a good environment for the tads and newts... a filter? a pump??

Cost is a factor- the landlord is a friend of my BF, so he might reimburse some but not all... so I can't afford to invest TOO much. (I've got an old fish-spitter from the BF's mum... might be nice to incorporated that! )
Any words of advice MUCH appreciated.

jaelen

[Mark_b]

I don't think you need to spend any money at all. Wildlife ponds don't need any pumps, filters, chemicals etc etc

I would imagine you may also have newts (and their larvae) in your pond. It would be best to leave clearing out the pond until later in the year (Autumn) so you don't disturb the tadpoles and other creatures as much.

Put any removed material by the edge of the pond for a few days to allow any critters to get back in.

Another point would be to reduce the amount overhanging branches dropping stuff into the pond, if possible.

I know of many ponds that are full of leaves and fruit - the wildlife really doesn't mind. The only issue is when a pond is so clogged it isn't a pond anymore

[vole-woman]

I think you do have to be prepared to skim ponds and drag out small amounts of overbearing weed pretty regularly. It's just necessary pond maintenance.

Some extract of barley straw might reduce some of your algae without harming any of the creatures who live in the water.

Have you tried doing a pond dip? You might be amazed at what you find.

[jaelen]

I didn't know that about the extract of barley straw- I'll have a look for that.
At the moment the pond weed that floats on the top spreads so quickly... I use a light-weight fishing net, (more of a kiddie's toy than a proper one) to skim it off every few days.

We've only seen one newt, but I'm sure there might be more so I will be careful come autumn when we attempt to clean it. I thought I'd gently syphon off only part of the water initially, so that we could see if there were any remaining tadpoles or anything still lurking amongst all the gunk at the bottom.

I'll have another go at trimming back the trees- they are so old and gnarled that they're not just dropping leaves- I think there are whole branches in there.

I hope to tidy up around it a bit more, too. There are two bird seed feeders hanging from one of the trees, and it used to be just mud around that area- but they've scattered and dropped so much seed that there's a healthy crop of cereal grass growing there now.

Thanks for your replies, Vole-woman and Mark!

[GCN lova]

hi

filters and pumps will actually kill wildlife instead of help them and is just an extra cost and i imagine you'll have to clean in out too. filters will kill tadpoles, newt larave and small water creatures which are important to the food chain of the pond. you should clean it out in autumn but definitely do a pond dip to see if there are newt larvae about.

duckweed can be annoying but i added some to my pond because it creates cover for pond life. however, mine seems to be sucked into my blanketweed and dies and i seriously want them to spread though the next thing i know it will cover everything!

it looks great though but could do with some oxygenators if there are none. also i think maybe you could plant some irises or some other marginals to provide cover for froglets.

broad leaved pondweed could be added in a small pot. they provide surface cover and arent big at all. i think water lilies should be avoided however due the size of them.

GCN lova

[JohanJ]

Give it a big old clean in the autumn (ie remove the bottom smelly stuff), cover it with a net so this year's leaves don't get in, cut away overhanging stuff, add some rushes/reeds and a bunch of oxygenators spring next year and start off the cycle with £10 of live bacteria. Add in a bit of a fake stream using a pantyhose covered pump for an additional oxygen boost. Lots of potential in your pond plot.

[GCN lova]

Originally Posted by JohanJ

Give it a big old clean in the autumn (ie remove the bottom smelly stuff), cover it with a net so this year's leaves don't get in, cut away overhanging stuff, add some rushes/reeds and a bunch of oxygenators spring next year and start off the cycle with £10 of live bacteria. Add in a bit of a fake stream using a pantyhose covered pump for an additional oxygen boost. Lots of potential in your pond plot.

pumps will kill wildlife or not be able to povide still water which some pondlife like and plus they dont occur in natural ponds. bacteria should come of there own accord. sorry i dont mean to attck you like some people on here do.

[JohanJ]

1) I had this for 15 yrs and didn't have a shortage of wildlife
2) pantyhose covered pump - stops smallest stuff going in. Or mosquito gauze. Anything really
3) pumps might not occur in nature... but plenty of streams do. This is about adding oxygen for good, aerobic bacteria to thrive
4) bacteria will come but aerobic bacteria are notoriously slow to multiply
5) the biggest fan of *completely* still water is mosquito larvae. I don't get the feeling that jaelen is after that

Sounds like jaelen has a bit of a nitrate problem - duckweed (the stuff that seems to be covering your pond and that you're fishing out) is growing because you don't have enough other plant that consumes nitrates. Basically, fish poo gets changed by various good aerobic bacteria into nitrates which is plant food - if you don't have enough plants to use this plant food up algae will take over. Get some good nitrate consumers in there (reeds, rushes). The smelly stuff is the bad bacteria - anaerobic bacteria that live in the dark sludge. Less dark sludge = less bad bacteria.

[kathateria]

I would do a partial water change,and carefully place the xexexexe on the side of the pond,so any life will crawl back in,when you go away.Put some water conditioner in the fresh water,as it would take months for rain to fill it.

I would get some nice plants in there to oxygenate the water,and to look pretty

[GCN lova]

QUOTE Johan J I had this for 15 yrs and didn't have a shortage of wildlife
2) pantyhose covered pump - stops smallest stuff going in. Or mosquito gauze. Anything really
3) pumps might not occur in nature... but plenty of streams do. This is about adding oxygen for good, aerobic bacteria to thrive
4) bacteria will come but aerobic bacteria are notoriously slow to multiply
5) the biggest fan of *completely* still water is mosquito larvae. I don't get the feeling that jaelen is after that QUOTE



i dont think jaelen is after a stream in her garden either. oxygenators will naturally bring oxygen into the water as well as create a home for animals. for number 4 wildlife and bacteria should arrive on its own accord and its too bad if some bacteria can't survive. for number 5 i built my pond in april and it had many mosquitoe larvae but now that every other animal has predated on them i haven't seen a single one now. plus a pump is just an extra cost which can simply be avoided. if jaelens pond survived like this im sure it can survive without any mechanical thing-m-bobs around the place.