Scariest Pond on the Planet Award goes to.... ME. (a Newbie, too)

[JustGinger]

I've just joined a Garden Pond forum, out of sheer desperation and actual fear of the giant, 8-years-of-total-neglect pond in our suburban backyard. (About 20'x20' and 12' deep!) For the first time since buying our house, I thought I'd try to skim it with a net yesterday, and had the most awful, horrific thing happen. I'm skimming, and I'm skimming, and then I hit something heavy. I call my husband to help me fish it out. It's the complete carcass of a dead rooster.

Needless to say, it's time to tackle this body of water that is now killing our neighborhood fauna. And we have zero clue what we are doing.

 

[Big Lou]

I would recommend you hire a professional garden pond maintence service provider based on the age, condition and size of your pond. Good luck and welcome to the forum.

 

[JustGinger]

That's probably a wise idea. Do you think I could just get started with draining it somewhat on my own first? Money is tight, and I am pretty capable, generally speaking.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

This pond obviously needs to be completely drained and cleaned.

 

[JustGinger]

Hi! Yep, that's the plan! As much DIY as I can manage, then I'll probably need to enlist the help of some pros. Any tips or tricks, or general pieces of advice would be much appreciated! Have a great day!

 

[Lisak1]

Ok - I know I'm a bit strange but the idea of fishing out a dead rooster made me laugh out loud. That had to be a shocker!

First question - are you sure the pond is 12 feet deep? That would be a great depth to dig for a backyard pond. In my part of the country you would need to reinforce the sides to prevent collapse at that depth.

Is the pond lined? Can you post pictures of this killer pond?

 

[pecan]

Ok - I know I'm a bit strange but the idea of fishing out a dead rooster made me laugh out loud. That had to be a shocker!

First question - are you sure the pond is 12 feet deep? That would be a great depth to dig for a backyard pond. In my part of the country you would need to reinforce the sides to prevent collapse at that depth.

Is the pond lined? Can you post pictures of this killer pond?

These are all good questions. Pictures will help as well and pictures of any pump, filter equipment you are aware of.

Welcome!

 

[Big Lou]

I do not recommend you drain the pond yourself due to the unknown level of contamination. The service provider may use a decontaminate before draining.

 

[DocD]

First tip I could give you is that if you do pump it out yourself then try to get a heavy duty submersible pump that can take some debris (but get as much debris out before). I wouldn't risk trying to pump it out with your pond pump or anything else you have that runs the pond. Would be more trouble it your existing plumbing got clogged and to the point of needing to be replaced.

You might could probably rent a pump if you had to.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our group!
Rent a debris handling sump pump, put it on the bottom let it draw a lot of the debris and pump it out. Wear gloves so you do get any infections from the water, it could have contamination.
Pick a good are for the yuck to flow to. It can be good for yard plants, maybe lol.

12 feet deep? did you mean that?

I think you will be able to handle the clean out just take precautions since there is a lot of debris and muck. Keep the water and muck off your skin, any open sores, etc. Wear gloves. Get those long sleeved kitchen gloves, or the ones in the hd lowes area chemical proof ones.

 

[Big Lou]

addy1, would it help to put bleach in the pond before the pumping?

 

[ChrisP]

You'd have to add a lot of bleach to get a concentration level that would be effective in the full pond.

I would think draining off a half and then bleaching it would be more effective. You could use a push broom to work the sides that are now exposed.

Then after a day or two, finish draining.

 

[Big Lou]

Bleach is cheap.

 

[JustGinger]

Oh my gosh, thank you for all of the good info and tips!!! I actually didn't end up doing anything to it yesterday - my instincts really told me to wait and see what, if anything, people here advised. Glad I waited!

12 feet deep may be an exaggeration. I actually have never seen the bottom of it, but it's definitely around 5-6 feet deep. I have the original invoices from the landscape company who built it back in 1995, I'll post pictures of those, too. It sure was pricey, and that was in 1995 dollars, too! ($13000.00!!!) Yikes! I can't believe we've neglected it so badly. Sigh.

Yep, the roosters' demise is so outrageous it's easy to laugh about it, but the poor thing! It's like a horror movie, really. We gave it a proper burial, though, which hopefully counts for something? I'm off to get some pictures for you guys, thank you SO much for the help!

PS- The bleach addition halfway through draining sounds good, was the official conclusion to that affirmative?? And about how much bleach are we talking? Is it advisable to pump bleach out into an irrigation ditch?

 

[JustGinger]

The invoices from pond installation. Feb 1995. The blue page is a summary I wrote up of all the info I could find on the pond... I wonder if the original work permits would be helpful to have, just for reference and if we ever decided to fill it in. Any thoughts on filling it in vs. renovating it? Would the cost be drastically different? Thanks!