Topic: Pond problem

[Mimi]

We created our pond about 5 years ago.  It is about 15x6 ft and 3 1/2 ft deep one end, 3ft at the other.  After we had dug and filled with water I 'seeded' the pond with a couple of buckets of water from a friends mature pond, then left it over winter with just oxygenators in.  The following spring we added some goldfish and a few more plants.  It has been no problem at all, just a bit of blanket weed which we controlled with barley straw. 
The problems have come since the prolonged and very cold winter we had this year.  The pond is green and full of 'silt'.  We can no longer see the life in the pond and I don't know what has gone wrong.  The only thing that I have noticed that is different is I haven't spotted any snails in the pond this year.  Usually there are hundreds in there.  Could the cold spell have killed them all off?  If it has what do I do about it.  Can you buy pond snails?  Any help would be appreciated.

[goodlife]

Have you got lot of mud in the bottom...as this could have gone 'sour'...like you said..last winter was 'good' one and lack of oxygen, while pond was iced over, could have coursed the 'wild life' to die...
Maybe the bottom is ready for good clean out and new start...
It could well be that if you do not have any snails left, the natural balance of food chain is tipped and that's why you get this 'silt'.
It could also be that added nutrients that  comes out of the bottie of your goldfish and any un-eaten food that makes water that little bit 'richer' to algae to flourish.
Think of the whole pond as food chain...have you got all chain covered..what eats each others waste...
You might well need your snails back as it is those that keep surfaces clean of algae..

[hippydave]

why dont you try adding sludge balls they contain billions of microbes and enzymes that devour and breakdown the sludge, old food and fish waste and bring back the natural balance to the pond.

[hippydave]

found this on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KING-BRITISH-SLUDGE-REMOVER-PONDS-250ml-/380137005413?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Fish

[hippydave]

or this

http://www.paddockfarm.co.uk/product.asp?PID=1145

But you could get it cheaper on ebay.

[elhuerto]

I've been doing some pond reading today and although the articles are a tad short, there's some helpful stuff on the site - including buying snails http://www.water-gardens-information.com/pond-snails.html

Cheers

[GrannieAnnie]

We add barley straw a couple times through the Spring and Summer. A bale of it has provided enough bunches since 2003 and still have a quarter bale left. Now I'm trying to grow barley straw in a pot so I won't have to buy another bale and have it sit around.
The barley clears the water but needs 70F to work. There is always a bloom of algae when temperatures change sharply in the Spring. Then the barley begins working.  I've never introduced snails. Also we have goldfish but we don't feed them. They survive and have multiplied just feeding on insects.

[Kepouros]

Your current problems are almost certainly the result of last winter`s long cold spells.

In any pond where there is a reasonable amount of vegetation a lot of this will sink to the bottom in winter and die, and this, of course, results in the production of methane gas.  This is normally not a problem as the gas simply rises to the surface and escapes into the atmosphere.  However, when the pond is frozen over for a lengthy period (even if you make a small hole in the ice every day) the methane gas remains in the water, and as it is highly toxic stifles, or poisons, fish, insects and aquatic mammals.

This was evidenced by the large number of angling clubs who found after the thaw that competitions were having to be cancelled as there were so few fish left alive in their lakes.  I also lost all my large carp, orfe and tench for the same reason, as well as literally dozens of frogs.

The silt at the bottom of the pond is simply the result of the decomposition of the plant life

[Mimi]

Just managed to get a load of red ramshorn snails locally from a fellow freecycler so we will see if they can munch away the problems (along with the barley straw dumped in the bottom of the pond a couple of months ago)   Fingers crossed.

[GrannieAnnie]

Just managed to get a load of red ramshorn snails locally from a fellow freecycler so we will see if they can munch away the problems (along with the barley straw dumped in the bottom of the pond a couple of months ago)   Fingers crossed.

What I've read somewhere is that barley straw works best when it is suspended near the top of the water rather than down in the muck but of course I cannot remember the reason they gave. If it has been down at the bottom a couple months it is probably useless by now-purely my guess. Here we have to put in fresh every month or so.
I hope the snails do the trick for you,.

[roxy]

Our pond is always lovely and clear through the winter but as soon as spring comes it goes cloudy. I blame the frogs kicking up all the sludge from the bottom. Would that make sense. I've ordered some sludge eater. I'll see if it helps.

[GrannieAnnie]

Our pond is always lovely and clear through the winter but as soon as spring comes it goes cloudy. I blame the frogs kicking up all the sludge from the bottom. Would that make sense. I've ordered some sludge eater. I'll see if it helps.

might be algae growth also which picks up as the temps rise. That's what happens in ours, each Spring we get Algal Bloom- I add some barley straw in an old stocking, attached to a rock so it floats on the surface actually slightly below when is gets wet. I haven't cleaned out the pond for a couple years now and really that should be done this year since muck accumulates.

[brown thumb]

i didnt where to put this went to go bed   and this gurgling sound turned the switch off to the pond and one of the fittershose had sprung a leek and water llevel was down below the pump in take so i have had to almost 100cent refill ive seen some fish come up but no sign of my largest ghost koli i will be gutted if they died iam hopeing the pump was higher up then on the bottom where hopefully the ghosts are and i only hope the fish will take all that new water 

[brown thumb]

panic over checked this morning every thing seems o k seen one ghost seen   so hopefully the both will be o k gold fish up and eating only got to refill half last night as i didnt want to disturb the neighbours with noise of the water so now filling it up so every looks good