Hello there. We are Scott and Sierra and we're happy to have found this forum. We got married in October 2010 and bought our first home last summer in a historic neighborhood. Our house was built in 1845 and re-done in 2006. Ponds are a staple in our neighborhood so we've got to get this one in shape. We know NOTHING about ponds. So far, we have bought about 6 Koi from the pet store. They all made it through our very mild winter. However, in the past 2 weeks they have ALL disappeared! We guess birds are the culprit. We've read about putting nets over the pond but aren't sure what size or how it would work. This past weekend, we drained our pond completely to clean it for the first time. We used a shopvac and buckets to haul out the water. What a chore! Was there an easier way to do this? Now that it's empty we see that it's overrun with sludge down there. Algae looks under control, there isn't much of it and there is absolutely none of the stringy kind that looks like a pipe cleaner. There were lilly pads growing in their own sludge so we pulled them out so we can pot them and then place the pots in the pond when we refill it. So we have an empty pond and want to make sure we know what we're doing before filling it back up. But unfortunately, we have no idea what we're doing. Please drop some knowledge on us.
