New house...new pond...first time pond owner

[SaraSantos]

Hello!
My husband and I just bought our first house, and with it we have inherited a pond which looks to need a loooot of work.
There are fish (and baby fish) and frogs in the pond and we have absolutely no idea what to do to restore it.
Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated as we would really love to make this what we believe was once a beautiful pond.
Thank you so much in advance!

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome!

Well, this isn’t my area of expertise, but I can start by asking a few questions to get things started. It looks like a liner pond (as opposed to a pre-form). This is a good thing, especially since you list Canada as your home.

• Do you know how many gallons it is and/or the dimensions including deepest part?
• Other than the fountain and water return (I see the hose), do you know what kind of pump is being used? Is it submersed or external?
• And what does the set-up look like — where is the pump, where does the tubing go?
• Do you know if there is a filter?
• How well is it holding water — any sign of leakage?
• Do you have any idea what kind of fish you have and possibly how many and how big they are? IOW, koi vs goldfish....? We can possibly help with the ID if you don’t know. Gold fish are easier for beginners to deal with (in general).
• And the biggest question: what would YOU like to do with the pond? What are your visions?

And as you have already done, it’s OK and encouraged for you to post pictures of anything you aren’t sure of (such as the pump, or how things are hooked up, etc.).

Others will chime in shortly and offer all kinds of helpful advice!

 

[SaraSantos]

Hello and welcome!

Well, this isn’t my area of expertise, but I can start by asking a few questions to get things started. It looks like a liner pond (as opposed to a pre-form). This is a good thing, especially since you list Canada as your home.

• Do you know how many gallons it is and/or the dimensions including deepest part?
• Other than the fountain and water return (I see the hose), do you know what kind of pump is being used? Is it submersed or external?
• And what does the set-up look like — where is the pump, where does the tubing go?
• Do you know if there is a filter?
• How well is it holding water — any sign of leakage?
• Do you have any idea what kind of fish you have and possibly how many and how big they are? IOW, koi vs goldfish....? We can possibly help with the ID if you don’t know. Gold fish are easier for beginners to deal with (in general).
• And the biggest question: what would YOU like to do with the pond? What are your visions?

And as you have already done, it’s OK and encouraged for you to post pictures of anything you aren’t sure of (such as the pump, or how things are hooked up, etc.).

Others will chime in shortly and offer all kinds of helpful advice!

Thank you so much for your reply!
In response to your questions:
-if I were to guess I would say the pond is approximately 100 gallons with the deepest part being no more than 3 feet
-the hose and fountain you see are both on external plugs and just sitting in the pond. We constanty have to pull them out and spray them clean as they are always stopping do to being covered in algae (at least every couple of days). These are the only 2 things that are in there...no pump seen
-as for a pump and tubing there is nothing like that
-have never seen a filter either unless that fountain thing is the filter
-it seems to hold water fine except for one time during the winter where it seemed to be almost fully drained, but then filled itself up again within a few weeks
-I am pretty sure they are goldfish because they are all bright orange. There is a larger darker coloured fish in there also, but I have no idea what kind it is. The babies are dark also
-as for our vision, I would really just like to clean it up and have a nice healthy environment for the fish to live in. There is so much thick green algae, and everytime we pull up the hose and fountain it gets so cloudy and dirty looking. My husband really wants to build a small rock waterfall. Being new home owners money is a bit tight. Is this pond going to cost us a fortune?

 

[Mmathis]

@SaraSantos Ooh, I would have thought greater than 100 gallons, especially if it is close to 3’ deep! Maybe you can take measurements of the width and length? It won’t be completely accurate due to the pond’s irregular shape, but will be close. It just looks bigger to me.

So, you don’t see a pump.... What are the blue hose and the fountain jet connected to? That might be the pump since it circulates the water around. Have you pulled the fountain housing out of the water? If not, do that and take some pics for us. That will give us an idea of what you have to work with.

It shouldn’t be too much of an effort to clean it up. Looks like it’s in decent shape. Well, at least it doesn’t appear to be clogged up with out-of-control plants. Why don’t you get a net and see what happens when you scoop around on the bottom. Sometimes there’s a lot of crud and decaying things down there that have to be removed — though, again, yours looks clean.

As far as the algae, that’s not a bad thing, but is usually an indication of excess nutrients in the water. More on that once we figure out your filtration system. If you are feeding the fish, it won’t hurt them at all to stop for a little while.

 

[j.w]

@SaraSantos

 

[snoozer]

Welcome. A large fine mesh swimming pool net works great for scooping out gunk. I just look through the net and toss frogs and tadpoles back in to the pond.

 

[Telion]

Welcome. You're on the right track you joined a knowledgeable forum next step is read and learn to stay one step ahead of the cost curve. Learn about your pond and the direction you want to go from filtration to looks.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our group!

I would so like suggest above, get a pool net, pond net and scoop out what debris you can.
Later you can build a home made filter to start helping clean up the water.

 

[SaraSantos]

Thank you everyone for your responses!
Here is what the fountain looks like out of the water. The blue hose looks similar, but is covered with mesh as well. I' not sure of they are pumps or filters? This is the one that only works for about a day or 2 before it needs to be sprayed out again.
I have a net that I use to scoop the debris out of the pond. It seems to me that the pile of debris on the bottom is pretty thick, and I'm having a hard time getting it all out. There alsobseem to be a few large rocks on the bottom (that have fallen in from the sides of the pond perhaps) which also makes it difficult to get all of the debris out

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

@SaraSantos inside the black box covered in mesh should be the pump which is most likely surrounded by a coarse filter pad. As the water clears up you should need to rinse it out less often. I agree with the other members and would encourage you to scoop out as much of the thick muck from the bottom as you can. That muck is going to keep collecting and decaying overtime causing even more algae and muck to form on top. It might take a bit of time but the more muck you scoop out the sooner your water will be clear and the happier your fish will be!

 

[EricV]

It looks to me like the mesh (burlap?) was meant to hold the pump and some media around making a crude filter. As you go forward, you might want to consider a pre-filter or an in water filter hooked to one of the pump intakes.

 

[qclabrat]

Welcome @SaraSantos,
one good thing I have to say is that the fish survived the winter, which will make year round maintenance easier IMO. You have some good experts helping already, but suggest you explore the pond a bit more and take lots of pictures. Sometimes it may not be obvious for you but the pictures really help us to know what's going on. Another good bit of information, it how much are you looking to spend? I'm a frugal ponder, so can at least help you in that way. Good luck, test your water quality and keep posting your progress.

 

[EricV]

Is the pump connected to the blue hose and the hose itself "free" in that you could remove the whole thing from the pond and show us what's there too?

 

[Mmathis]

Is the pump connected to the blue hose and the hose itself "free" in that you could remove the whole thing from the pond and show us what's there too?

Good thought!

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

It's hard to tell from the picture but it seems like @EricV might be right and the mesh/burlap is probably just around the pump housing itself which would mean that instead of being completely surrounded by a coarse filter like my container fountain kit is it probably has a small coarse pre-filter. In that case, I would definitely recommend a larger pre-filter like the EZ Bio Core Pre-filter by Matala.

As others have mentioned the more pictures you can take of your setup will help us help you figure out how to optimize your current equipment and/or recommended changes.