Hello, all. I'm 12 days away from moving to a new house. In the backyard I will be inheriting a pond with waterfall. I know absolutely nothing about ponds, and the current owner assured me I didn't need to, because it is a zero mainenance pond; he just throws a chlorine puck in it once every couple of weeks. Essentially, it's a fountain.
I was a little deflated. I would like to get it naturalised, dechlorinate and get some water plants into it and maybe some fish, too. I see a fair number of books at the library, but they all involve making or starting a pond, not salvaging one...do you think I need to do more than empty it, refill it and give it a few days? Or do I even have to empty it, could I just let the chlorine dissipate and ease life into it?
We have some pond stores here, but I thought I'd through the question out here first to see if anyone's done this before and could advise me.
Thanks!
Kris
De-chlorinating a pond?
Buy a bottle of Pond Care Chlorine and Heavy Metal Neutralizer available at most garden centers. You don't use much and it comes in a 16 oz. bottle. I don't think you'd have to drain your pond.
Anne
I agree with Anne, chlorine will dissapate but other things wont. A bottle of neturalizer will take care of your problem.
Well, what a simple thing! Wonderful, thanks so much!
Kris
Adding hydrogen peroxide will also dechlorinate it as well.
Alrighty then! Thanks!
Kris
Hi Kris all the best with your future pond. Like the others suggested the declorinator (available at Rona, HomeDepot, etc) will deal with the issue of the clorine in the water, but it also might be a good idea to get a test kit just in case there are any other water issues.
Cheers,
Grant
Hi Guys,
Really interesting to hear your thoughts. I've just set up a pond and the weather is really hot at the moment (I'm in the UK). The edges of the pond go under the turf and this is really drawing the water out of the pond. To combat this I'm having to constantly fill it up and my Father has told me to leave tap water in a container for a least twenty four hours to let it dissipate, before putting it into the pond. Is this correct advice? It is purely a wildlife pond, newts, frogs and sticklebacks etc. Do I need to do this? Any tips you can give me on de-chlorination.
Thanks
Mark
Ellisethan, to answer your question on letting water sit for 24 hours, this does eliminate the chlorine. There are also various products that you can purchase that accomplish this in a matter of minutes. Is there any way for you to redo the edges of the pond to stop the leeching into the soil? I would be concerned about the edges of your pond turning into an unwanted bog from all of the water accumulation.
Hi Tetleytuna,
Thanks for the advice. You are indeed correct, the edges of the pond are already beginning to get boggy. I've no idea what to do really other than lift the turf and trim back the pond liner. Will this have any impact. Any other suggestions.
Thanks again for the initial advice.
Regards
Mark
Ellisethan, not sure I understand how the edges of your pond are done now, but the way we did ours in order to not have the overflow from the outside of the pond come into the pond was - we put pvc pipe all around the area of the pond and overlapped the liner, then tucked the liner down into the dirt, brick or stone to hold it in place. Basically, you are bringing your pond level up above the ground level by doing this. Don't know how much access liner you have in order to do this, but thought I might suggest it in case you did. I think we used 4" pipe for ours.
n2birds, thanks for the advice, I think there is sufficient liner excess to do what you suggest. I'll give it a try.
Sorry it's taken so long to respond, I've been away for a few days.
Hope you had a pleasant 4th of July.
All the best,
Mark