Did I ruin my new pond?

[herzausstahl]

C2g, do you have any updates on your pond?

 

[c2g]

I'd say it's "established" at this point. Spring started out with American toads taking up residence and calling day and night, but no tadpoles. After the toads, a green frog moved in and called for a mate in vain through the end of August. Raccoons frequent the pond and they dug up about half of my shelf plants over the summer, probably trying to get at the frog. I skimmed off duckweed once in a while throughout the summer this time around and there were a couple of string algae blooms, but nothing significant. Usual adult/larvae dragonfly/damselfly populations again this season, and there are a number of leeches in the pond. The biggest change this year was that I didn't use one mosquito dunk at any point during the season, and we were able to enjoy being outside without being bit, unlike a lot of our friends in the neighborhood. I don't recall seeing one mosquito larvae in any of the water samples I took throughout the year. Also, it only rained once or twice in what seemed like 2 months and the water level never dropped that much. Just the right amount of sun/shade.

 

[addy1]

Sounds great, nicely balanced

 

[Tula]

Absolutely lovely, a natural sanctuary.

 

[tom213]

looks fantastic

 

[c2g]

Hi, so my pond is in year 3 and I'm experiencing some issues from what I'm guessing is leaf litter and dead organic matter building up at the bottom of the pond. I have not drained and cleaned yet and I do get a lot of leaves in the fall. This past spring I had 3 separate toad spawns. Each time, the eggs failed to hatch tadpoles -- they just disintegrated. Also, I do regular water samples and in past years it would've only taken a couple of scoops to see dragonfly/damselfly larvae. This year, I have not seen any of these, just other small organisms. This past week, I started scooping up a few mosquito larvae in the samples, and I haven't seen these in over a year (when I stopped using dunks).

I'm worried the oxygen levels are too low from decaying material. I get string algae in the spring, like I do every year, and just like in past years, duckweed takes over in late June which keeps the algae down. I have one green frog living in the pond. It arrived in May and I've seen it every day since.

I will do a drain/clean at some point, but for now I purchased the following products: CrystalClear Algae Off, CrystalClear Muckoff, and a Aquascape 2 - Outlet Pond Aerator to add some oxygen. Hoping that makes a difference until I have a drain/clean plan.

Any advice? I'm worried about seeing mosquito larvae and don't want to go back to dunks, but will if their numbers start growing.

Thanks

 

[c2g]

Hi, so my pond is in year 3 and I'm experiencing some issues from what I assume is leaf litter and dead organic matter building up at the bottom of the pond. I have not drained/cleaned it at all yet, and I do get a lot of leaves in the fall. This past spring I had 3 separate toad spawns. Each time, the eggs failed to hatch tadpoles -- they just disintegrated. Also, I do regular water samples and in every past year I found lots of dragonfly/damselfly larvae. This year I have not found any of these, just other small organisms and snails. This past week, I started seeing mosquito larvae in my samples and I haven't scooped up any of these since I stopped using dunks 2 years ago.

I'm worried the oxygen levels are too low from the decaying matter. I get string algae in the spring like normal, and then that goes away once I get duckweed in June. I have one green frog that overwintered last year and has been in the pond every day since April/May.

I will do a drain/clean at some point but in the meantime I purchased the following items: CrystalClear Algae Off, CrystalClear Muckoff, and an Aquascape 2 Outlet Pond Aerator to add some oxygen. Hoping this makes a difference until I have a drain/clean plan.

Any advice? I'm worried about the mosquito larvae and don't want to go back to dunks, but I will if their numbers start growing. Thanks.

 

[Mmathis]

Do you have fish in your pond? They usually take care of the mosquito larvae. If not, maybe you could add a few mosquito fish or rosy reds. Why did you stop using Dunks? What I do for leaf issues is scoop the bottom of the pond with a net every once in a while. That would work better than adding chemicals. Aeration is always a good plan.

Gorgeous pond, BTW!!!

 

[Richardspond]

You're going for natural, let it sit, let it be, let it fix itself. Sand will murk a pond up. I use it on the top of my plant pots over the clay. It gets foggy but then clears up after running thru the filters. Only fault i see, is Mosquitos; being you will have no water movement at all. Get your a handfull of mosquito fish and throw them in there. They'll live and thrive and populate lol. All that being said, my pond attracts all the forms of wild life that you seek. I have swarms of different kinds of dragons flys. Butterflys frogs toads ect. I just had a buncha tadpoles crawl out into many species of frogs, I have frogs everywhere.

 

[herzausstahl]

Hi, so my pond is in year 3 and I'm experiencing some issues from what I assume is leaf litter and dead organic matter building up at the bottom of the pond. I have not drained/cleaned it at all yet, and I do get a lot of leaves in the fall. This past spring I had 3 separate toad spawns. Each time, the eggs failed to hatch tadpoles -- they just disintegrated. Also, I do regular water samples and in every past year I found lots of dragonfly/damselfly larvae. This year I have not found any of these, just other small organisms and snails. This past week, I started seeing mosquito larvae in my samples and I haven't scooped up any of these since I stopped using dunks 2 years ago.

I'm worried the oxygen levels are too low from the decaying matter. I get string algae in the spring like normal, and then that goes away once I get duckweed in June. I have one green frog that overwintered last year and has been in the pond every day since April/May.

I will do a drain/clean at some point but in the meantime I purchased the following items: CrystalClear Algae Off, CrystalClear Muckoff, and an Aquascape 2 Outlet Pond Aerator to add some oxygen. Hoping this makes a difference until I have a drain/clean plan.

Any advice? I'm worried about the mosquito larvae and don't want to go back to dunks, but I will if their numbers start growing. Thanks.

Any updates on this pond? Always been a fan!

 

[c2g]

It's been a while, but the pond is still doing great. I've had a steady population of green frogs for the past few years now, and just found a new egg mass last week.

I attached a few recent pics, and here's a video of some highlights from last season:

 

[cas]

I like your wood fence!

 

[c2g]

I like your wood fence!

Thanks. Took about 6 hours of work, 2 hours to find the branches, and a couple boxes of screws.

 

[addy1]

It is a neat fence!

 

[Lisak1]

Great looking pond! I love to see ponds as they mature.