Ceaning your pond????

[william jones]

OK, we talked about leaking ponds and that was useful but here is another topic I have many questions about. Is the urge to clean your fish pond driven by the same obsessive urge that causes many women (and some men) to give up about half their lives cleaning things, chasing after cobwebs and bits of dust especially around the house? In this case it's all about appearance and an need to comply to the same standards of friends and neighbours and nothing to do with hygiene. Well is cleaning ponds driven by the same thing? I never clean my pond because I have too much regard for for the wildlife surviving in it because of the "muck" on the bottom of the pond. So for them this nectar. I say that the "dirty" pond is much healthier and a much more attractive place to live than one with only a barren and boring pond liner which is desert from the fish point of view. In a natural habitat no one cleans river lakes rivers and ponds, thanks be. Surely all you need is a good pump and filtration system. I have never cleaned mine in 18 years!

 

[addy1]

The only cleaning I do, in the pond, is net out some of the leaves that fall in during the fall.

As far as my house..................no ocd cleaner here. I could care less if it my house is perfect. And 50 years from now I for sure will not care one bit! Even 10 years from now.

 

[Tula]

In the fall, I trim back my lilies and net my pond, as it sits under a tree. In the Spring, I use a pool net, to scoop out debris.

With 7 dogs, I'm not an OCD house cleaner either

 

[Smaug]

You really shoukd net out any debris from the bottom. Don't fool yiurself into thing yiur pond is a natural system that takes care of itself. Most garden ponds are anything but natural and being a closed loop it is very different to a natural pond that has a natural bottom with naturally occurring plants to absorb excess nutrients. Sure to yiur eye your fish are healthy but they could be a lot healthier if you kept there environment cleaner. No need for draining and scrubbing though,just net out anything that will come out.

 

[MitchM]

I don't see ponds as clean or dirty.
I look at them as balanced or unbalanced.
If your pond hasn't been cleaned in 18 years, I would call it pretty well balanced.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

I don't see ponds as clean or dirty.
I look at them as balanced or unbalanced.
If your pond hasn't been cleaned in 18 years, I would call it pretty well balanced.

I would say that your pond may be conditionally healthy It really depends on the level of organic mulm accumulation on the bottom of your pond. This accumulation exists in natural ponds and is a normal occurrence. But whether in a natural lake/pond or a Garden Pond there exists a potential for real problems. If the layer of mulm is thick enough (usually only a couple of centimeters at most) the lower level of this mulm will be anaerobic and foster the creation of Hydrogen Sulfide. As long as the layer of mulm remains undisturbed, the release of H2S into the water column is minimal, but if disturbed the amount of H2S released can easily be of a level lethal to fish.This is more of a problem in bare liner ponds than in gravel bottom ponds.

 

[MitchM]

Yes, there could be a "ticking time bomb" situation.
A person does need to be aware of the overall organic matter buildup that could be accumulating in their pond.
Sufficient water circulation and oxygenation ( and to a lesser extent, mechanical filtration) is critical.
I say "mechanical filtration to a lesser extent" because I think the most important aspect of pond management is to keep stocking levels on the lower end of the spectrum instead of trying to stock it with as many fish as possible.

On the other extreme, I don't like the idea of having "too clean" of a pond either. It could tend to cause a person to constantly be chasing chemical level numbers and wind up causing harm to the pond's inhabitants. Micro managing a pond's water parameters could turn out very badly.

.

 

[Smaug]

Until you were to actually see his fish up close and know how old they are in comparison to current size then you cannot sit back and say if it's been good this long it must be fine. I call it neglect to not keep up with maintenance on anything.

 

[MitchM]

I prefer to let natural processes keep the pond water healthy as much as possible.
I don't consider that neglect.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Maintenance (more accurately called intervention) is required only when the natural processes are overwhelmed. If it is done at any other time it should be considered interruption.

 

[addy1]

I seldom do a "deep" cleaning. I do pull out excess leaves that fall in, but over all there is minimal stuff on the bottom. Maybe 1/4 of an inch here and there, the snails, tads etc live in the stuff. I have not done a good cleaning in years. I decided to be a "good" pond keeper one summer, after netting here and there and getting nothing worth pulling out, I quit.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

OK, we talked about leaking ponds and that was useful but here is another topic I have many questions about. Is the urge to clean your fish pond driven by the same obsessive urge that causes many women (and some men) to give up about half their lives cleaning things, chasing after cobwebs and bits of dust especially around the house? In this case it's all about appearance and an need to comply to the same standards of friends and neighbours and nothing to do with hygiene. Well is cleaning ponds driven by the same thing? I never clean my pond because I have too much regard for for the wildlife surviving in it because of the "muck" on the bottom of the pond. So for them this nectar. I say that the "dirty" pond is much healthier and a much more attractive place to live than one with only a barren and boring pond liner which is desert from the fish point of view. In a natural habitat no one cleans river lakes rivers and ponds, thanks be. Surely all you need is a good pump and filtration system. I have never cleaned mine in 18 years!

One must be careful comparing our backyard ponds to natural cycling waterways like rivers and streams and lakes, because most of those water systems benefit from much more volume where the "dilution is the solution" rule become a very important factor. And we all know that a pond NEEDS a certain amount of biological activity (bacteria action) going on it to remain "healthy", but we really only want specific biological activities.
For instance, I've swam, fished and ate the fish from rivers and lakes that for all intents and purposes were very healthy, and yet in those same "healthy" water systems I've seen dead corpses of deer and other large dead animals. Comparing that to a pond now, my guess is that if you found a dead decaying deer lying at the bottom of your pond you'd want to break your 18 year furlough from cleaning your pond and start scooping that "muck" the heck out of there! If you didn't I think most people would agree that your pond would become very unhealthy, indeed.
So what allows a river or lake to accommodate a few large corpses a year and still remain "healthy", and yet would turn any backyard pond into a stinking mess with just a single large dead corpse ?
It's essentially comes down to the differences in volume of water involved, and the type of biological activity (bacteria action) going on.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

I see Meyers posted while I was writing my post, but he basically makes the same point I was trying to make. It is much easier to overwhelm the filter capacity of a typical backyard pond then a natural lake or river, so intervention may be needed.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

One must be careful comparing our backyard ponds to natural cycling waterways like rivers and streams and lakes, because most of those water systems benefit from much more volume where the "dilution is the solution" rule become a very important factor. And we all know that a pond NEEDS a certain amount of biological activity (bacteria action) going on it to remain "healthy", but we really only want specific biological activities.
For instance, I've swam, fished and ate the fish from rivers and lakes that for all intents and purposes were very healthy, and yet in those same "healthy" water systems I've seen dead corpses of deer and other large dead animals. Comparing that to a pond now, my guess is that if you found a dead decaying deer lying at the bottom of your pond you'd want to break your 18 year furlough from cleaning your pond and start scooping that "muck" the heck out of there! If you didn't I think most people would agree that your pond would become very unhealthy, indeed.
So what allows a river or lake to accommodate a few large corpses a year and still remain "healthy", and yet would turn any backyard pond into a stinking mess with just a single large dead corpse ?
It's essentially comes down to the differences in volume of water involved, and the type of biological activity (bacteria action) going on.

It is the ratio of total water volume and total SSA to total biomass. The type of biological activity is basically the same.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

It is the ratio of total water volume and total SSA to total biomass. The type of biological activity is basically the same.

It's true that the same type of biological activity may be going on, but hopefully at far different proportions. You mentioned earlier that you'll get anaerobic bacteria action going on in a pond if the mulm gets very thick. This is not the desirable type of biological activity (bacteria action) we want going on it our ponds to a large degree. Yes there will always be some, but it's not something we strive to encourage. If it was, we could just throw a dead dog in our pond and we'd have plenty.
I guess I should have said the proportions "of the type of biological activity". You are such a stickler Meyers.