Rehabilitating a neglected pond

[Lindsay]

Just purchased my first house, and it came with a pond in the backyard. The pond has been sitting there with no maintenance for who knows how long. It is full of leaves and sticks and has a bad smell. I want to clean it up but I'm new to all this so I don't know where to start. The pond is approx 5' wide X 5' long X not sure how deep because it is so mucky I can't see the bottom. It looks like it has a cement liner. There is a waterfall at one end of the pond, and the pump is working. I don't think it has a filter, or at least I can't see anything else besides the pump. I figured I will neeed to rent a sump pump and get rid of the old nasty water, clean it, and fill it with new water. After that I feel clueless. I thought getting some advise from someone who is familiar with all this would be good place to start. I will say I have some knowledge of water quality and bio filters ect. from many years of being an aquarium owner; however a pond seems so large I feel a little intimidated. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks. :razz:

 

[addy1]

to our group

A sump pump would work great, it will pull the water and muck out. Do you have any fish in there? Once you get it clean take some nice pictures of the set up. Follow the plumbing lines to see if there is a filter somewhere, it might just be a filter waterfall box.

Make sure you wear gloves when in the mucky water, it can harm you if you have a cut.

 

[Lindsay]

What is a filter waterfall box?

 

[j.w]

Lindsay
So if the pump is a submersible one just sitting on the bottom of the pond you can just attach a hose to it and drain all the water out that way. Then you could just muck out the gunk w/ a plastic shovel or some kind of scooper. Rinse and drain some more. Who know there could be some hiding fish in there still. Just saw your question pop up while typing this. Here is a photo of a type of waterfall box.

 

[j.w]

Sorry for some reason it won't let me put that photo on here. Anyways it's just a black plastic round type container that a hose from your pump attaches to and pushes water up into the filter chamber and then out over the black lip of the falls.
Sure wish the photo would show up so you could see it.

 

[j.w]

Ok here is one.

 

[Waterbug]

Sump pumps clog pretty fast in muck if there's old string algea, leaves, sticks, gravel. If you're going to the trouble of going to a rental place I'd get what's called a "trash pump". They can still clog, but much less likely.

For me, that size pond, I'd just use a bucket to pail it out. Or a leaf rake. A shop vac works well for the last little bit.

 

[Lindsay]

The waterfall box looks nifty. What kind of media do you put in there, and is there a shedule for rinsing or changing the media?

 

[adavisus]

The bad smell is from the debris and critters that have piled up with time, it's toxic and harbours aneirobic bacteria which are what gets ponds a bad reputation for being unpleasant.

Ponds that are not allowed to get into that condition are a different kettle of fish, full of life...

To turn around the pond is as simple as bothering to dredge out the decaying/decayed stuff and the water quality will swing from aneirobic (lacking oxygen) to having healthy oxygen levels suitable for sustaining life for what we consider beneficial bugs and critters

Taking a few buckets of muck out at a time using a rake and a sturdy net will turn it around.

Doing it in steps will allow sediments and silt to settle, convenient to thin out next time

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[addy1]

The waterfall box looks nifty. What kind of media do you put in there, and is there a shedule for rinsing or changing the media?

You can put all kinds of media in it, anything that will grow bacteria. Some use floor scrubbing pads, those net pot scrubbers, plastic toys, check the diy section there is a lot of talk about what to use in a filter.
Mainly you rinse the media, you don't change it out. If you are on city water you want to rinse it with pond water. The chlorine in the city water will kill the bacteria.

 

[taherrmann4]

If you use a sump pump just don't stick it on the very bottom, have it off the bottom some so you are only pumping water then once you get most of the water out you can begin the bucket brigade to get all the muck out.