Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => General Gardening => Topic started by: Clarky86 on January 02, 2018, 17:34
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Happy new year everybody.
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to spring time to crack on with the plot.
I'm in a better position in that i have finished most DIY tasks to the new house and will hopefully free up time to concentrate on my new plot in my garden.
Alot of work is to be done. The ground seems good and needs digging over too but I'm keen to get stuck in and get at least 4 good sized beds dug over as a starting base and i also have my new 12x8ft greenhouse to start stuff in and grow plenty of toms and cukes etc.
Anyhow, the subject for this thread is Ponds. I aqcuired 2 ponds in my new garden. One is without fish and is a 'spawning pond' and the other is rather large, about 12-15sqm surface area by 4 1/2 ft deep at the deepest. The larger one has fish in, I'm unaware how many, im guessing at x2 5-8lb mirror carp and a good handful about x5-10 smaller black carp?? which are only a 1Lb or 2.
There was plenty of tadpoles in both last year so it is a lively pond.
The problem is i suspect it has not been cleaned for a very long time and the water is very green and you cannot see much below a couple inches from the surface.
There is alot of silt in the bottom which killed the last pump before winter started.
My overhalf wants rid but if i can get it looking more like a pond than a swamp I'll have a better chance of keeping it. I like it because it brings so much wildlife and insects into the garden.
Any advice on getting it to a good condition, best time to drain and clean, can i use harvested rain water to refill? And best ways to maintain it?
I have previously used barley straw but i think the algae problem is far too big to begin with for the barley straw to have a noticeable effect.
Thanks in advance for any help.
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I have to say I'm not a pond expert but all I can do is tell you what I do with our pods that are all man made and razed ponds above ground level we have a small pond in the front garden I built in the corner and a large pond in another part of the garden one stocked with large gold fish the small one has only three young fish
the large pond has 2 pumps going the bottom one 1 pump both submersible running 24/7 obviously the pumps need cleaning occasionally but I found by razing the pumps up of the bottom of the pond on plastic pots the pumps didn't get blocked and stayed much cleaner needing less cleaning and the water is Gin clear despite many fish in the large pond the pumps have been in the ponds for several years now no probs
a friend of ours has carp his pond at ground level and the water is also clear pump slightly of the bottom of the pond hope this helps let us know if you try this method or others good luck
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We have a pond and it also became very green despite having a pump and filter on it. We got a large net and over a couple of weeks scooped out as much sludge and blanket weed as we could (added it to the compost heap) we then treated the pond with a product called Clear Waters biological solution against Blanket Weed which was the only product that I could find that works in winter. I continued using this product throughout the year and it has worked a treat. The pond is crystal clear and the carp are thriving.
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If you scoop out pondweed, always leave it on the side for a day or two to allow pond animals to go back into the pond - don't put it immediately onto the compost heap