Cleaning out my pond

Discussion in 'Water Gardening' started by EJ, Sep 26, 2008.

  1. EJ

    EJ Allotmenteer Extraordinaire

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    When is the best time to get in and have a bit of a pond clean out? I don't want to empty it completely, but I do want to get in and de-sludge and sort the plants out. We do have some baby fishes that we spotted, but if we don't do it soon, then there will be frogspawn and we can't do it then....so when oh when?
     
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  3. petunia

    petunia Young Pine

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    I'm on my way out but sure how to answer this because I have already did mine. I had baby fish and they died on me. so please be careful.
     
  4. playtime8978

    playtime8978 In Flower

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  5. CritterPainter

    CritterPainter Awed by Nature

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    Wow, that site is a treasure trove! I really need to clean mine and just run into deadends in searching for how to do it. Many thanks!
     



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  6. EJ

    EJ Allotmenteer Extraordinaire

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    Thanks for the link playtime. Ours is only a small pond, and I don't want to completely empty it, just take the level down by a half, sort out the plants, clean the filters, dredge some of the gunk off the bottom, then refill, so I might do so tomorrow as the sun is forecast to shine. I will let you know how it goes.
     
  7. thisisme12

    thisisme12 New Seed

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    Be careful with how much of the water you take out, try to keep a good portion of the old water, 50% like you said is good
     
  8. EJ

    EJ Allotmenteer Extraordinaire

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    I know this is an old thread, but we finally did the pond at the weekend. We took the level down by about 50%, took the fishes out to check them over, and dredged the bottom. Found 6 lovely fat frogs, a couple of snails and a toad. Sorted the plants out - they could do with repotting to be honest by my budget won't stretch to new planting baskets and pond compost at the moment so they will have to make do. It looked quite clear this morning which was a relief. So fingers crossed for frogspawn any time soon.
     
  9. Christy

    Christy New Seed

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    Hi, i clean my pond out in the springtime,and then it is a good time to divide your waterlilies to.
     
  10. eileen

    eileen Resident Taxonomist Staff Member Moderator Plants Contributor

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    I'm hoping to do ours at the week-end but it's a big pond and I'm not sure how long it will take. I really need to do it now though as I found a female frog with mate attached in the garden a few days ago. Fingers crossed the weather stays dry to let us get on with the cleaning.
     
  11. brink2012

    brink2012 New Seed

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    I'd wait until Summer.. temp solution is that blue color dye for the water.. doesn't hurt the fish
     

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