Old neglected pond overgrown with reeds

[ProfileX]

Hi, I bought a home with an old pond that's been neglected for many years. I think I have a lot of work to do, but my first question is about the reeds/cattails, would you remove some/most/all of them? More details:

The pond is concrete, probably 20-30 years old, about 20' x 35' x 10' deep.
The reeds are 8' - 10' tall.
There's not enough rain to keep it full, currently no way to fill it, no pumps or filters or anything. There are some old pipes & a hose near it but nothing is working so I'll need to repair/replace everything. Lots of algae, mosquitos & bees. I added some feeder goldfish & comets just to see what happens. I've ordered a drop water test.

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome!

I’m wondering if this isn’t some sort of retention pond, more so than a decorative pond.

Where do you live? Do you have any plans for what you want to do with it, like clean it out and use it in any way? I hope there is enough water in there for the goldfish to survive (I didn’t see much water), but at least they should help with mosquito control.

 

[ProfileX]

Thanks! I was told it used to be a decorative pond and there are some very old pipes & electrical wires near it, but nothing has worked for years, and I don't know for sure why it was built/how it was used. This is in Julian, CA which is 4300 ft so it gets cold in the winter. I don't have any specific plans for it, I just want it to look nicer than it does now. Even though it looks empty, it's huge so there's at least 200 gallons of water in the bottom right now.

 

[Mmathis]

Hopefully, others will chime in with suggestions. I would say the first thing to do is remove all of the greenery so you can get a better picture of what you are working with. Getting all the plants out will also give you a chance to look for tubings, hoses, wiring, etc. Then you can decide if you want to refurbish it, line it, fill part of it in and start over, etc. etc.

 

[ProfileX]

Thanks. I've already removed all the weeds but didn't want to remove all of the greenery until I got some advice, I can just see someone saying "you should have left some of those reeds!"

 

[Mmathis]

Thanks. I've already removed all the weeds but didn't want to remove all of the greenery until I got some advice, I can just see someone saying "you should have left some of those reeds!"

Chances are, they are growing through the concrete, which means the integrity of the concrete is compromised. Right now, your first priority is to determine the condition of the concrete. To do that, everything needs to come out. Think of it as starting over with a new pond.

Now granted, this is not my area of expertise (I don’t have one), so others might give you different advice — which is a good thing as we share a lot of advice and ideas on here.

You can still save the reeds, just pull them up and temporarily house them in a tote or kiddie pool until you decide what to do with them later. Do the same with the feeder GF (put in a small pump to keep the water moving and aerated, and to discourage mosquitoes).

 

[j.w]

@ProfileX
Wow that is a huge pond and could really be nice looking if it could keep the water in it. I have no clue on how to fix it so it does but there's got to be someone here who can help you, I hope!

 

[brokensword]

Mo

Thanks. I've already removed all the weeds but didn't want to remove all of the greenery until I got some advice, I can just see someone saying "you should have left some of those reeds!"

Most likely, it leaks. So, first order of business is to find that out. Means you have to add water. Don't worry yet re the greenery--that can be addressed later. If you find it does leak, I'd go the liner-over-cement route. That way you're sure about whether it can hold water. And yes, this then means getting rid of all the greenery, which I'd do anyway. Unless you want totally natural, cat tails and those reeds will be problematic. Better to put in plants you can easily control. What you have ARE great filters but not easy to live with. There's plenty of others from which to choose that filter equally as well.

 

[GBBUDD]

Even the best of concrete jobs 20 to 30 years old and left for years out in the sun and cold especially where there is a freeze. The odds the concrete hasn't started spalding cracking and splitting somewhere is almost impossible. from the looks of the walls that have rock cemented in from what i can see there's pointing needed and you can see where there has already been some repairs and or differant pours .
By your own admission it's not holding water to it's fullest and that drain pipe entering the pond says at some point in time a great deal of water was feeding the pond. i do not see in the base any major cracks . uplifts or lifting or delaminating on the contrary it looks pretty good. . Like others have stated remove all the cat tails and clean the base out to see what you have. The base does look better then does the walls.

 

[ProfileX]

Thanks for all the info! The 4" plastic pipe looks like a feeding pipe & the 12" metal pipe looks like an overflow drain. There could be some cracks/leaks but overall the bottom half holds water for several weeks - during the rainy spring it got about 50% full, but now there's little rain so it's slowly down to 10%. I ordered some waders and I'll get started on cleaning it up, then go from there.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to the forum!

Keep us in the loop, we love to watch what others do!

 

[adavisus]

It's a concrete pond with a leak in it somewhere.

I'd lever up the cattail mass, mostly dead old rhisomes from previous years growth and get a rope round them, yank their mass out with a tractor. Keep going a chunk at a time until you find out where the leak is, and chisel out the leaky area and patch it up

When you are sure it holds water again re plant, but, no cattails this time...

 

[brokensword]

Welcome to the forum!

Keep us in the loop, we love to watch what others do!

She meant; we love to watch others WORK!

 

[GBBUDD]

I;d gladly help someone build there pond they spend the money i get to create but they can do the manual labor i'll work the slings or the controls

 

[Lisak1]

Those cattails give me the heebie jeebies - that's a whole lotta root mass! Good luck getting it out. I like the tractor suggestion. Don't do what my neighbor did - he tried to yank a bush out by tying a rope around it and attaching it to the bumper of his car. He found out the bush had more staying power than his bumper.