- Joined
- Jan 31, 2008
- Messages
- 8
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Hi. Will try to keep this short but accurate. I've had my pond for almost 20 years now (have had to replace the liner once) and it's been used for lots of different things. Started out as a koi pond, then added lots of great pond plants, then turned it into a turtle rescue pond, and now that the turtles are gone it's now a combination of fish pond/dog swimming pool! Here's my dilemma:
When it was a koi pond I was able to pretty much keep it crystal clear by doing general maintenance but never draining the pond.... I let the biosystem grow and do it's thing. When it became a turtle pond, obviously all the plants got eaten and the water was always disgusting so my husband would do frequent water changes, and that meant remove ALL the water, scrub the sides and bottom, and refill. Of course that meant it looked clean for a day or two and then was disgusting and green again. Now that it is a fish pond again, I am begging him to STOP draining the pond and let me go back to going the natural, eco-system route. I'm not sure if it will take years for that to establish again or if I can make it happen faster so looking for advice.
Should we drain it completely one more time and start with a squeaky clean pond and then leave it alone? Or should I just try to get some of the fall leaves and much out while keeping at least half of the old water in there?
It's been a long time since I first started this pond up so I need to do a lot of reading and refreshing, and I'm guessing there are probably new schools of thought since I first started this hobby. If I had to guess I'd say it's 12 feet by 12 feet, average depth of 24 inches.
Thoughts/suggestions, please? And thanks in advance.
Sue
When it was a koi pond I was able to pretty much keep it crystal clear by doing general maintenance but never draining the pond.... I let the biosystem grow and do it's thing. When it became a turtle pond, obviously all the plants got eaten and the water was always disgusting so my husband would do frequent water changes, and that meant remove ALL the water, scrub the sides and bottom, and refill. Of course that meant it looked clean for a day or two and then was disgusting and green again. Now that it is a fish pond again, I am begging him to STOP draining the pond and let me go back to going the natural, eco-system route. I'm not sure if it will take years for that to establish again or if I can make it happen faster so looking for advice.
Should we drain it completely one more time and start with a squeaky clean pond and then leave it alone? Or should I just try to get some of the fall leaves and much out while keeping at least half of the old water in there?
It's been a long time since I first started this pond up so I need to do a lot of reading and refreshing, and I'm guessing there are probably new schools of thought since I first started this hobby. If I had to guess I'd say it's 12 feet by 12 feet, average depth of 24 inches.
Thoughts/suggestions, please? And thanks in advance.
Sue