Combining two ponds - empty them first!

[jnorris235]

I have two ponds. One has grass carp in and goldfish, had a grass snake swim through, and frog spawn in spring. The other has duckweed and newts galore. They are 2 metres apart, one below the other. I want to empty them both, fill one in to make it a bog garden and extend the other one a great deal.

The trouble I am having is working out the order to do things in, and the timing.

Ideally, I suppose I would empty the newt-pond by pumping the water into the lower fish-pond (overnight with a submersible pump? 10m by 10m by 2m deep). Then try to scoop a good portion of the newts and put them in a kiddies paddling pool. Temporarily.

So then I could fill in the newt pond and make my bog garden - but first.....

I have to catch some of the fish in the fishpond and put them in the paddling pond, too. Is this OK (odd there are no newts in the fishpond anyway as it is so close)?

Then I could dig away and lay the new pond. If only I could store the original fishpond water, I could add this straight into the new pond and dump the fish and newts straight in.

The fish and newts would be in their paddling pool for as long as it took to dig out and shape the pond (30m by 20m, av depth 1m) which I guess is a couple of days if the liner, sand, and whatever is else is ready.

Feasible?

 

[addy1]

Do fish eat newts? maybe that is why there are none in the fish pond.