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| My Pond Cleaning Procedure; post by krnlmustrd | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 9 2011, 06:27 PM (499 Views) | |
| krnlmustrd | Feb 9 2011, 06:27 PM Post #1 |
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Fry
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I have six concrete ponds that wrap around my house. I tried keeping fish in two of them. Unfortunately, the one right outside my front doors is only about 3ish feet deep - which I know is not ideal, but it's the one we see the most. The other in the front yard is about 4-5 feet deep. (The deepest in the backyard is about 5-6 feet deep.) The sides are all sloped and curve like the bottom of a ball. I didn't really provide cover for the fish to hide in with the exception of some cantilevered decking on one pond and a bridge on the other which I realize now was much less than adequate. And since I can't really make the ponds deeper, I need to figure out another way to make it work. I plan to drain and clean them again in a couple weeks before we attempt fish again so that would be a good time to maybe tackle this project. These are the two I tried keeping fish in: Posted Image Posted Image |
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| tlc | Feb 9 2011, 10:11 PM Post #2 |
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Big Fish Moderator
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You have a real nice set of ponds there. :drooling: I like the tree you have in the first shot. What procedure do you use when you clean the pond? |
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| krnlmustrd | Feb 10 2011, 10:55 AM Post #3 |
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Fry
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I plan to just drain them and scrub the dirt off the walls with a stiff brush. I also have some large rocks in the bottom that I want to remove because they make it hard to clean the bottom when the water is filled. But in terms of normal cleaning: For clarification (or to make things more complicated!), I call my ponds Pond 1, Pond 2, etc. to Pond 6. They are all connected by streams and water flows downward over waterfalls from Pond 1 to 6. Pond 1 (bridge picture) and Pond 2 (tree picture) had fish. Ponds 1-4 are in the front yard and 5-6 are in the back. In the back of my yard is a real stream as well. There is a feed to take water from the real stream (I know this could potentially be bad, but our fish lived fine for 5 months before the bird came along) into Pond 4 (which flows down to fill ponds 5-6 and overflow back into the real stream). Pond 4 water gets pumped to 2. Pond 2 water pumps up to pond 1. Thus ponds 1-2 can operate on their own cycle if the whole system of pumps is shut off. I have two laguna filters with UV lights that filter the fish Ponds 1 and 2. (I can't at the moment afford the many-thousand dollar filters the local koi specialist wants to sell me.) All that said... The intake water pumps through the filters and then through some pvc with holes in it on the bottom of the pond to help stir up the dirt and keep it from accumulating on the floor. The streams carry the dirty water down the system from pond to pond so a lot of the surface debris gets washed away down the system (I'm not worried about that for now). I would also get my big scrub brush every week and go over the pond walls. The koi guy suggested that to get the dirt moving so the filters can catch it. I then also have a pondovac, but it's so cumbersome and I don't think it really does that great of a job, so we didn't use it too often. We also tried growing water hyacinth to help with the "natural" cleaning. I also have a small floating skimmer in Pond 2, but really need something more substantial. My yard is practically a forest and there is constantly a lot of tree debris. (And don't get me started on Autumn... I used to love the season and the leaves. Now I fear it!) I guess that's about it which is probably way more information then you ever wanted to know... but if anybody has any thoughts on how to make this work better, I'd love to hear it. |
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| tlc | Feb 10 2011, 12:21 PM Post #4 |
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Big Fish Moderator
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I'm not sure why you scrub the walls of your ponds. Are you trying make your pond spic and span or is there another reason for this? I would never scrub my pond or I should say, I don't see a reason why I would ever need to scrub my pond. I sure don't want to remove the algae build up on the liner as it gives a natural look and also harbors the good guys that you want in your pond (meaning bacteria). I use a bio-filter and not a UV so I would not think of scrubbing. That said, I do have a lined pond and not concrete but I don't think that would matter. I can see why you would want to remove the rocks though as they would get in the way if you are traipsing around in the pond. With all those trees around I can see why you don't like the fall any more :fall_leaf: . Are you planning on netting the pond(s) next year to help with that? I think I would do lots of homework on filters before springing on something a koi dealer is trying to sell you. Those are a huge chunk of change and there might be a better way to go. Since you are just starting out with a new pond (new to you last year) I guess you just take baby steps and one hurdle at a time so you don't get overwhelmed. One guy on here has his pond right by one of the windows in his house so he can view his pond/fish. I'm not sure how deep it is but he does have a good mix of fish (koi, golden orfes, catfish and a few others). His name is Wayne and he drops in every so often but he has a few pics of his pond in the Members Pond Photos section I think. |
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| tlc | Feb 10 2011, 12:31 PM Post #5 |
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Big Fish Moderator
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I got a newsletter yesterday from Bonnie's Plants and she had a link to her plants that do well in the shade T |
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| krnlmustrd | Feb 10 2011, 12:54 PM Post #6 |
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Fry
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Part of my problem is that the front ponds are built into the side of a hill. So it gets a lot of runoff which brings dirt and debris into them. Eventually, I want to put some rocks along the raised side to help control that. And since all the fish were viciously killed by the evil Blue Heron about 3 months ago, I've been a little lax in keeping the ponds cleaned out. So they're extra dirty. Plus, because of how they were built, I don't have a bottom drain. (Yet.) So if I don't get in there and vacuum frequently, the dirt just sort of finds places to collect around the bottom and sides. I figure I need a good fresh start before bringing fish in again. The previous owners said that they tried netting the ponds in the past to keep fall leaves out, but it wasn't very effective. There's just a crazy amount of trees all around. This is a picture of one of my backyard (non-fish) ponds that I cleaned out in December after a season of TRYING to keep it cleaned: Before: Posted Image After: Posted Image |
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| tlc | Feb 10 2011, 02:32 PM Post #7 |
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Big Fish Moderator
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One thing you could do that might help to keep the run off out of that pond is to dig a ditch round the pond. I don't know how much rain you get in your area but we get lots where I live and I dug a trench around mine on one side. I went to major extremes but you might not have to do that. You would need just enough to catch the water and either run it off to someplace else or let it drain back into the earth (which is what mine does). You could come out from the ponds edge about a foot I'm guess and start the trench. Then lay in some nice drain rock (we all love rock) with some landscape cloth on top of that and then maybe some decorative rock on top. It's just an idea. Fall and winter is a good time for digging since the ground is soft. I can't tell if the ground around the pond is level or if the whole area is sloped but I see what you mean about the leaves! T |
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| frogman3 | Jun 7 2011, 07:30 PM Post #8 |
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Bluegill
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Somehow I missed this post. :red: Welcome Michael, Beautiful pond setting! You certainly have a pretty unique situation to deal with. All the problems from Herons, and leaves from the many trees make it a challenging situation. Netting the ponds would deter both but I would imagine the leaves as many as you have to deal with in the fall collapse the net into the pond. Might I suggest building a temporary PVC frame across the pond to create a tent effect for the fall leaves they will almost all fall to the sides of the pond where you can use a leaf vacuum and suck them up. For summer for a heron deterrent you can remove the frame and stretch the net across the pond. With the shallow water you have around the pond edges with out a net the birds will land there and clean you out. I incorporate a electric Fido shock fence around my largest pond except for the fall and winter season to keep out the raccoons and herons but that will not work for you with the shallow areas of your pond unless you eliminated them. Keep us post how it all works out. :welcome: |
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| krnlmustrd | Jun 7 2011, 07:39 PM Post #9 |
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Fry
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Thanks for the tips. A couple weekends ago, I broke down and built a fishing line fence around and over my main koi pond. So far so good with the birds. But now I'm worried about snakes. I saw a big 2-3 foot snake on the bottom of my pond yesterday morning which we were fortunate enough to catch with a skimming pole and "remove". I wonder if he was trying to feast on my small fish? |
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