Spring Pond Cleaning

[newpondguy]

Got into the pond today with temps in the mid 30's. There was a lot of debris in the pond from the very rough winter we had here in northern Ohio. The pond was froze over for 3 month and never unthawed besides the area around the pump. We had the 3rd coldest winter ever, and I am pleased to say our pond that is only 2 feet deep did very well. The ice thickest at the max was 9'' thick and we had plenty of days below zero. We lost one fish but I expected that because our pond was put in, in August so they didn't have much time to get settled in before the cold came rushing in. But the 2 bullfrog tad poles we put in survived as well! We are pretty excited to get this season going, hopefully by the end of the week the pond will be cleaned out and the waterfall will be up and running. Temperatures next weekend will be in the 50's, it can only get warmer from here on out! Has anyone else opened their pond for the spring?

 

[Dave 54]

Hi newpondguy whether your fish survived or not your pond is far to shallow ad in reality needs to be taken down to 3ft or if you keep koi 4-5ft so it may well be a good idea to scrap your current pond then dig down that extra depth .

Dave

 

[vent1962]

Newpondguy, I live in Indiana and I know firsthand just how brutal of a winter we had! It was terrible.......worst winter I ever remember in my lifetime!! We had ice most of the winter also on the pond. I did keep my pump running all winter for the first time and was a nervous wreck but it worked out really well. I am thinking our winters won't get any more brutal than what we just had (fingers crossed) so i hope to feel safe from here on out. My pond is about the same depth as yours and I have not lost any fish as of yet due to the cold. Maybe I am just lucky and probably should also take Daves advice, but I have already redone my pond three times now due to making it bigger, reshaping and replacing a liner, so I can't bear to even begin to think about doing it again . I have slowly started netting out the debris on the bottom of my pond, trying not to disturb the "water babies" too much and have started using koi clay. I am now anxiously awaiting adding pond plants! So yes, I guess you can say I have opened my pond up and am raring to get it back to a tropical escape. Good luck with yours this spring.

 

[RobAmy]

Congrats on getting your pond going. Opened mine up the other day. Things are doing great. We are getting more cold weather and maybe more snow

This was a couple of days before I turn the pumps on.

Here it is running for the time in 2014 You can see my dog is testing the water quality

 

[vent1962]

How beautiful!! Your dog is beautiful as well. We are supposed to get an inch or two of snow Monday night . I don't think this winter is ever going to end! Would love to see pictures again of your pond in the summertime.

 

[RobAmy]

How beautiful!! Your dog is beautiful as well. We are supposed to get an inch or two of snow Monday night . I don't think this winter is ever going to end! Would love to see pictures again of your pond in the summertime.

Thank you and I will take a few spring and summer photos. Here is the link to the build and some summer photos from last year

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/showcase/rob-amys-pond.7/

 

[Dave 54]

Congrats on getting your pond going. Opened mine up the other day. Things are doing great. We are getting more cold weather and maybe more snow

This was a couple of days before I turn the pumps on.

View attachment 67577


Here it is running for the time in 2014 You can see my dog is testing the water quality

View attachment 67578

RobAmy I knew this breed of dog were clever as my Dad and his wife had one but this is the first time I heard of one that does water quality testing for their owner ( LOL).
Does it show that I didnt like his wife (the family wrecker) but her dog was lovely friendly and loved nothing better for me to take him for long walks whilst on leave
Sadly he would be long dead now as we are talking the last time I talked to my Dad which was in the late 70's
PS my father has also since passed away but she remains

Dave

 

[callingcolleen1]

Fish are alive and well after the long hard winte, and. We suffered with several bouts of minus 40 this seaon, hopefully winter will be gone for good next week! I cleaned out the underwater filters that I leave running all winter, and netted out some pond leaf litter out of the bottom of the three connecting ponds too. Water is crystal clear after leaving my pumps running, with a heater, for the 23rd year of ponding it.
Pictured below is the Middle and bottom pond the other morning, yes we have more snow again, but the underwater lights look so nice!

 

[Dave 54]

Fish are alive and well after the long hard winte, and. We suffered with several bouts of minus 40 this seaon, hopefully winter will be gone for good next week! I cleaned out the underwater filters that I leave running all winter, and netted out some pond leaf litter out of the bottom of the three connecting ponds too. Water is crystal clear after leaving my pumps running, with a heater, for the 23rd year of ponding it.
Pictured below is the Middle and bottom pond the other morning, yes we have more snow again, but the underwater lights look so nice!View attachment 67580

Your an absolute star you really are.... keep doing what your doing you fly in the face of conventional thinking ,
You keep your water unfrozen where my Canadian friend has to take her koi indoors because she couldnt keep her pond clear of the 2ft of ice it used to get in winter and your koi thrive on dog food when everyone else is buying specialized koi food
I think we all have alott to learn from you

Dave

 

[newpondguy]

We left our fountains on all winter all well. Our pond is only 2 to 2 1/2 feet deep because of thick hard clay and we can't go any further down. It is in complete shade 24/7 365 days a year, because it is on the north side of the house and shaded by the house. Which allows very minimal warming up and cooling down. We have a very nice thin netting over it that you can't even see to keep critters out, though they have never been a problem. We only have goldfish and only want goldfish because koi get to big and need a lot of room that we can't offer. I will post a picture once the pond is refilled and cleaned up. RobAmy: Your pond looks great! I love the landscaping around the pond as well. Callingcolleen1: I hope that wasn't a recent picture! If so hopefully spring arrives soon.

 

[Lisak1]

Hi newpondguy whether your fish survived or not your pond is far to shallow ad in reality needs to be taken down to 3ft or if you keep koi 4-5ft so it may well be a good idea to scrap your current pond then dig down that extra depth .

Dave

Eek! Not sure I would jump to that level of advice when someone reports that they are happy with their pond after a long, hard winter! There are many pond keepers that do well with their ponds at less than 3 foot depth. And as Vent1962 says, it's hard to imagine we will see a winter as bad as this one for many more years to come. Glad to hear things went well for your first winter. You have a lot of fun ahead of you as we move into spring... hopefully spring is still coming. Right?

 

[Dave 54]

Eek! Not sure I would jump to that level of advice when someone reports that they are happy with their pond after a long, hard winter! There are many pond keepers that do well with their ponds at less than 3 foot depth. And as Vent1962 says, it's hard to imagine we will see a winter as bad as this one for many more years to come. Glad to hear things went well for your first winter. You have a lot of fun ahead of you as we move into spring... hopefully spring is still coming. Right?

You say that here in the UK weve had record flooding a one in a hundered year event they said.
Then this year it happened again exept far worse , I for one wouldnt like the fish I love frozen in a block of ice if you get a one in a hundered year freeze next winter newpondguy cant go further down because of the clay but there is nothing stopping him building upwards .
Our own pond is 4ft in height and it sits on top of the soil with only the bottom drain buried in the ground and the surounding wooden decking on frames sitting on the ground this is termed a temperary structure and thus gets around the planning laws , had we dug a hole 2ft deep then built up 2ft we would have to apply for planning permission so we used a loophole that allows thing like averies to be built ( crafty eh) see frme around pond in photos :-

These are shots of my friends koi pond with 2ft of ice

So as you can see ice does get 3ft deep

Dave

 

[haver79]

Oh my Dave, that ice is really thick. Unreal that does it doesn't do damage to the pond itself, or does it?
We had a brutal winter here for Iowa standards and I know my ice wasn't even close to that thick. I did run a big heater all winter.

 

[Dave 54]

Oh my Dave, that ice is really thick. Unreal that does it doesn't do damage to the pond itself, or does it?
We had a brutal winter here for Iowa standards and I know my ice wasn't even close to that thick. I did run a big heater all winter.

My friend is Canadian this was a pond under the cover of a garage at -24c with a wind chill of -54c since then she moves her koi indoors each winter otherwise they do not survive .
It was my suggestion she does this , since then she hasn't lost one koi
She's so pleased wiht the results they stay in her DH heated workshop at 11c until spring then they are moved with the filtration back outdoors to the pond, they with the filters then go back into the workshop in late fall.
The problem was that the cold all but fried their gills apart from a small bit at the top most died in winter the survivours died as the water warmed up because they couldnt breath anymore it was heart breaking especially when her favourite koi Naval died
In the bottom photo you can see frozen air bubbles that over time built up into what you see a type of weird stalagmite or stalactite not sure which is which
But to maintain an airhole she had to chop the ice with an axe each day {which you shouldnt ever do because of shock waves) because the pond heater just couldnt cope with the intense cold even though it was working 24/7

Dave

 

[Lisak1]

Is your friend's pond above ground Dave?