New pond keeper needing some advice!

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Hi all

I'm about to deal with the much needed task of restoring a pond in my garden to it's much deserved glory but am not sure where to start! The main issues are:

LOTS of frogs spawn which we have captured into a large plastic tub but not sure what to do with it all now as there's so much of it but we need it to be out of the pond so that we can clean it and bring it back to life.

A lot of leaves and other stuff at the bottom of the pond which are stagnating. I was going to wade in with my wellies and shovel as much out as possible but we have newts and frogs living in the pond so don't want to upset or hurt them.

We have a big tree from our next door neighbours garden which drops a lot of leaves into the pond so I was considering putting some netting over it. Perhaps this would be best to do in the autumn?

So the main issues are surrounding the frogs spawn, frogs and newts. Once the pond is cleaner we are going to fill with some fresh water and some pond plants. The question is will wading in and removing the leaves and rubbish at the bottom of the pond do more harm than good?!

Comments and suggestions very welcome!

Thanks :(
 

stroppy

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if theres no fish in the pond i would leave it for a while and put the frog spawn back ... you could just try using a net to get some of the leaves out and wait till tadpoles turn into frogs and yes a net next Autumn would help keep leaves out :0)
 

addy1

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Welcome!

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I would put wellies on and go in and shovel out the debris, (don't tear liner) the newts, frogs will move out of the way, not sure about the spawn. That stuff will be real stinky, full of not the best bacteria esp if you have fish in your pond. You will in the long run do more good than harm removing the debris.
When you refill it make sure you use de-chlorinator if your water has choline in it so you don't harm your critters.

The net over the pond will really help when the leaves are falling.

lol just read your post stroppy...............that might be good too let the frogs grow then work on it.
 

fishin4cars

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Instead of doing a full clean right now, Try netting out as much of the Leaves and debris on the bottom as possible first. Just a few net fulls at a time will limit the amount stirred up and allow you to sort through the leaves to remove any critters. This really needs to be removed but I can read that your wanting not to get rid of your newts and frogs either. Not sure what kind of fliter you use or if you have a skimmer, and if you have a bottom drain which I assume you don't or it would probably be clogged with all the leaf matter, so limited info does limit the amount of info to pass on. If you do run a skimmer, once most of the leaves are removed you can instal a air stone with a air pump and turn it wide open and the stone place on the bottom of the pond, this will help lift smaller debris up off the bottom for your filters to remove, You simply move the stone around each day and it helps to remove this bottom muck and gives oxygen to help in breaking down this detrius. Cleaning in this way will help prevent shocking the pond but it is the slow way to do it.
 

DrDave

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Welcome to the Forum
I agree that a partial cleaning using a net and later a broom and net to get it clean now. The circulation you create as the bottom much gets removed will filter out, assuming you have pumps and a filter working with you.
I wouldn't worry about the occupants, they will move out of the way and any that might get caught are easily returned. If it were me, they would not go back, at least until it has cleared up.
 

DrCase

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Welcome to the forum !!
I would pump it down and clean the pond out completely before the hot weather gets here
 

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