Water Gardening: Ponds & Streams - Cleaning Solutions Wanted, 0 by parrotma32578

parrotma32578 wrote:
Funny you mention a wet vac. First I filled the bottom pool as full as possible and turned off the pump. I then started at the top and removed as much debris as possible by hand. I then vacuumed all of the gunk out of that section, dumping the wet vac 2-3 times per section. I repeated this all day until I got to the pool. I then removed as much of the debris as possible. I don't have fancy fish either--just comets. I did have 7 large goldfish that I purchased two years ago for $.12 each; sadly, however, a raccoon ate them, even though we had two 18" by 18" Styrofoam squares floating on the pool to provide cover , water lilies, water hyacinths, and there is a bridge to hide under. I have quite a few yearlings (~75) up to 5 inches, and now I have a lot of babies to boot.

It is a good thing I cleaned when I did because now I have hundreds of tadpoles. I can't scoop up anything without getting a few and I am too tender-hearted to kill the little critters. It sure is funny seeing these tiny toads hopping all over. I know they are toads because we have caught them in the act...LOL--the green frogs will come next. They did the same thing last year and I thought for sure I would be inundated with frogs, but guess they ventured out to find new home. I don't have any more this year than I did last year. In the meantime, I am really enjoying the serenade of the green frogs.

Also, I did notice that the acorns were coloring the water and tried to keep up with them even before I undertook the major cleaning. I also think that there might be a smidgen of tannin in the live oak leaves as well.

As for my pond (Photo attached), which was built a year earlier and is separate from my stream, we removed all fish and placed in the stream pool and drained and cleaned it as well as pressure washed. And can you imagine my disbelief when a month later I noticed that there were baby fish in the pond. Boy, those goldfish eggs must be pretty tough!!!

Thank you all for your valuable inputs.


Parrotma