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Message: [QUOTE="Waterbug, post: 183613, member: 2322"] I call a Wildlife Pond a pond that you leave to nature. For example the stink is caused by bacteria feeding on the dead organic matter, which larger animals eat, and you get a food chain. Part of nature. That's exactly what a person would want in a Wildlife Pond. It sounds like what you want is a Water Garden, something you manage and control to get what you want rather than nature wants. I use these terms only to determine what your goals are so advice can be more accurate. The plants, O2, bacteria, etc., don't keep a pond clean, at least what humans call clean. Plants add waste. They grow and shed leaves which rot. O2 and bacteria break down waste but don't really remove it, more of a conversion thing. It's exactly like a compost pile only underwater. The organic matter breaks down but doesn't go away. You can remove the bits of broken down matter with all kinds of filters and pumps...kind of expensive, a lot of trouble and doesn't really work very well. A better way to keep a pond clean is to remove the large stuff before it decays into little bits. Easier to remove a single fruit than the 100,000,000 bits it decomposes into. The question is more about how fast the bacteria can break stuff down into small enough bit that you're OK with. In a small pond a little minnow net can be used to just scoop around everyday or so to keep it clean. The reduces the amount of waste to a level hopefully the bacteria and O2 level can handle and you get a clean pond. Or keep emptying and refilling. People do that. Or you can also add a drip in the pond that runs 24/7 so the pond overflows. That can keep a pond very clean. As for the mosquito larva the dunks won't hurt the guppies (or Mosquitofish?) directly, but that would eliminate their food source. When given a lot of food Mosquitofish and guppies reproduce pretty fast, like 2-4 weeks. They normally arrive at some place in the cycle so they could be giving birth right now or in the next week. That's kind of the beauty of these fish, their population expands to the supply of food. Afterward the population of fish dies back to whatever the pond can support. I'd let them do the job for you, they're pretty cool. [/QUOTE]

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