Topic: My pond pongs

[aquilegia]

 ??? :'(

I noticed last week that my pond has got really stinky.

The water is very full of silt and hard to see through. The pond weed oxygenator is mostly turning black (although the top four or so inches are still green). THe surface is covered in duck weed and in spring there was a lot of blanket weed, which I tried to clear out, but a lot of it had toad spawn in it, so I couldn't remove all of it.

It's only a year old.

I pulled out a load of silk and blackened plants.

But surprisingly life seems to be thriving. The toadpoles are growing huge and now most have hind legs. The baby newts are adorable! There are beetles of some sorts and loads of pond snail babies. Plus what looked like miniature clams (about 1cm across) and what might have been a tiny mussle, but was probably a seed pod! And the waterlilly has put up its first ever flower!

Should I panic? Should I continue clearing out the pond? (it takes a long time as I have to check everything for life that is incapable of getting itself back in the pond!)

(PS - top tip - don't clear out a stinky pond with bare hands. It took about 10 washes with anti-bacterial soap, normal soap, washing up liquid and finally bleach to get teh stink out of my hands!)

[Marianne]

Hiya Aqui.  When I had a pond, I had a similar problem.  It was so bad I had to empty the lot.  Unfortunately when I got to the bottom, I found a couple of rotting frogs  :-X :o :'(  That was the origin of the smell. 
So I am not saying that is it in your case, but it is a possibility.

[Margaret]

Aqui,it is hard to understand why it has got silted up so quickly.It usually only gets like that after 3 or 4 years.Don't empty out the water ,but do net out about half the mud from the bottom.If there is anything nasty in there making it smelly it should become evident.Not easy to sift through and get all the pond life returned,but oh so important .Like you i would not want anything to die just because i could not be bothered to check.Remove a lot of the duckweed that could be stopping light getting in and would add to the problem.

I think the pond smell is really quite appealing,don't know what you mean................... ;D

[Icyberjunkie]

If it is that new and you used tap water to fill the pond then the nitrates would encourage lots of algal growth.  As they get used up the algae die and cause a bit of a smell.    You could try oxgenating it with a pump and if that isn't an option you can by pond clearing agent that will encourage the detritus to sink the bottom leaving nice clear water.  If this is a wildlife pond you should not have to clear the slit to make it smell sweet again!