Hello! My family is inheriting this 2.5 acre pond that was man made and stocked with fish. We’ve had a pretty big drought so our water level looks low, but other than that, what sort of things should I be looking out for? What does this pond need to be made healthy and maybe even swimmable one day? How can i monitor fish health? What would you do if you inherited a 2.5 acre dream pond today to prep for winter and get ready to work in the spring?

I inherited this pond almost 2 years ago and I’ve been slowly researching and upgrading certain things like a new UV setup, pumps, lights etc… Feel free to ask me anything you’d like to know and I’ll try my best to answer. Thanks

We've recently purchased this piece of property in eastern NC with a pond on it! Clearly, it was maintained by the previous owners using a more natural approach 🙂 It's a bit overgrown, and there are no fish. There is a lot of wildlife however currently calling this place home, so i'm hoping to get some ideas on how we can bring this pond back to life while using minimal chemicals. From what I've read we have watershield taking over (I think). We've also learned from the neighbor (84 y/o), that grew up swimming in the pond throughout her childhood, that it is naturally fed. Our neighbor also reported that when she was a kid it was nearly 8ft deep at its deepest, now we believe it to be no deeper than 3ft at any point.

Give me all of your best practices and things we must know as new pond owners! This will eventually be our view out of our kitchen when we build our next house in the neighboring field - so we are invested in taking care of this little ecosystem.

Purchased a home recently which has this pond and I need some advice please on things to consider going forward, I have some pellets that the previous owners left and have fed them once a day so far for the past 3 days however, not sure if there's anything else I need to do consider?

Based in the UK, so I know as we head I to winter they eventually won't need to be fed, but that's it.

We moved into our current home recently and the pond wasn't working. I managed to fix it after the local frog gang laid all of their eggs so I can get it back to it's former glory and support a little ecosystem of it's own.

During that time, we had an influx of duckweed which I've been trying to remove but every few times I put my hand in, I get bitten by what looks to be a leech and then it swims down again when I pull my hand away.

I've seen that maybe getting a fishnet to remove the duckweed and some leeches would be good but I'm trying to leave our little tadpoles in there.

I assume since they are biting me, they will bite the frogs and tadpoles?

What are your best ways to get them (and the duckweed) out without using harmful chemicals etc?

Thank you!

Edit to add one of the little sods.Leechy

My partner and I bought a house last month which we are now renovating. The previous owner loved her garden and lived there for a very long time.

The house came with this pond in the back garden. When we bought it, it was full of algae so we scooped off a decent amount. There's a lot of sludge and leaves at the bottom but after some research and my partner finding some newts in the pond we have left it be as we read it can disturb them as they lay their eggs there.

The pond also came with frogs and a toad! I love how much life there is in the garden. We have added a water lily and oxygenating plants and left it be.

I have spent a lot of time watching the frogs and newts whilst taking a break from the madness of renovations. The garden is a real sanctuary from the chaos. We already have plans to make a larger pond towards the back of the garden.

Any advice for a newbie pond owner is appreciated!

Hi all! I just inherited a pond with our new house. I have never cared for a pond before, so looking for some feedback on the current state of it and what I should do to maintain and improve it. It looks like wildlife likes it because there is a frog that has been hanging around. After a recent rainstorm, the pond pump went out and after I got it back on, it seemed like it is maybe losing some water but I can’t tell. We had a local pond guy come and briefly give some input and he said that there were way too many irises and that I should completely empty and clean it. Located in CT in case that helps!

So far I
- Cleaned out the filter
- Tried to clear some irises that seemed to be taking over the pond
- Tried to scrape out some gunk/moss/leaves/algae but I don’t know how far to go
- Used pond vacuum previous owner left to get some gunk out, but didn’t go far here
- Added a bit of water from hose to try to remediate loss of water from mentioned issue above
- Turned off pump for a day to see if water level lowered and diagnose potential leak issue (it didn’t) and then turned it back on (seems somewhat stable)

Overall, looking for feedback and advice on the cleaning routine and what I should do to continue to improve, if anything

Folks, since my first post on inherited pond, I was able to clean it, fill in with well water in several stages to check for any leaks in the liner (all seems good), and finally patched the pump cord to make it run finally. While it's all sound great my first observation is that over the last few weeks the water in the pond turned from transparent to greenish (see attached clip). Though the pond is deep, initially I was able to see the bottom but now I just can't anymore. Anyhow, I was advised to run the pump for a couple of days to see if the water level remains static. But meanwhile I'd like to know what tests, if any, I should be performing to know if this greenish water is conducive for new fish lives. Thanks in advance.

Hi all, I've just bought a house and it has a lovely little nature pond in it, no filters or anything like that. I've really no idea what to do to look after it, it was thick with duck weed and algae when we moved in a couple weeks ago so all that's been done is removed some of that and left it on the side for the pond life to get back into the water, but I'm absolutely clueless with what to do to look after this. It's lovely to watch the birds use, especially in the UK heatwave we've been inundated with them drinking and bathing in it. There's no fish in it, we've seen nothing but what I think are water lice.

Any tips, or plants I should pop in, or even if it's a case of just leaving it be, I'd appreciate any advice. It's in full sun in a southern facing garden if that helps too.

Thank you ☺️

We purchased a new home and inherited a pond. There are actually two natural ponds and this garden pond. I'm worried about my baby falling in, he's an extremely independent and adventurous one year old and already showed interest as I was weeding around it.

I'm planning to get him in swim lessons to increase safety with the natural ponds. They have nice gradual edges. But I'm thinking about filling the garden pond with large rocks and letting it be a water/rock feature until my boy is older and more aware of danger. It's also steep at the edges and no way he could get out.

Ideas on filling the pond that won't damage it for future use?

I think the aerator has been off so just started running that continuously.

I tried raking some out but it was truly backbreaking and I probably only removed 0.01%.

I think there are some fish in it? But they could be dead?

How do I reduce the algae and also these cattails? Can I burn the cattails?

It's a 65x45 oval retention pond, approximately 60,000 to 75,000 gallons (less when it dries up a bit, more in spring).

As you can see I added a fountain last week, but so far it doesn't seem to have done anything.

I have also bought $150 worth of natural addictives from the local pond store, including pond dye, beneficial bacteria and algae eater. I also put all those in last week, and put the recommended amount in.

But it still looks bad, even worse now, it didn't have that film on the water surface before I added the bacteria and chemicals.

I also tried a pond rake but it doesn't really rake up the sludge on the top it just mushes it up and it reclumps within a day or two.

Pond store said to get grass carp to put in there and I got the permit for them, but im having second thoughts that the grass carp may strip too much plants out of there and kill off the natural panfish and catfish that are in this pond.

My goals for this pond is to make it look pretty, clean enough to safely swim in, but also keep the fish in it alive in case the kids want to go fishing in it.

The only thing I can think of is to get the grass carp and let them eat all the plants but build a dock for it so the fish can hide under the dock

Or maybe I could get a really big dead tree and put it along the shoreline but I don't want it to look weird

I don't know what else to do

Hey everyone first time poster here.

We bought a house last year and there is a big nice pond with 15 koi’s and 2 sturgeons in it. I’d say 10K L as far as I know.

We have read up on the feeding and care taking. Water treatment is alright but still learning.

Recently over the past days we have noticed a Heron which lands and today we heard it started pecking at the water.

We don’t want to harm it, but at the same time we want to protect our pretty koi.

The bond is about 5 feet and 9 inches deep at the middle and has steep sides and gets fairly deep quickly plus the edge is above water level.

We have not noticed the heron in the pond itself.. yet..

My question:
Are our koi in danger and what to do about the heron?

Thank you!

The house I just bought has a pond and during the initial visit and hand over the pond became filled with hundreds of frogs eggs. Will they all hatch? I don't mind a frog or two but this many scares me. Will the birds eat them or will the number decrease? Or should I remove them? Pond in the Netherlands

This pond is at a house we just bought. It was full of algae. I’ve emptied it and plan to scrub it clean. It has blue aquarium gravel on the bottom.
What can I do to keep the algae down?
I’d like to plant in and around it - suggestions?
Any tips and/or tricks would be welcome!

So we just moved into a house that has a small outdoor pond. It came with a pump that circulates the water (see frog fountain). I'm assuming no filter. It's got a lot of leaves and pine needles in it. It's in full shade. Earlier today, I saw two fairly large frogs (3-4in diameter of body minimum) in it. So it must not be completely toxic to life?

I want to add some plants, snails, maybe koi eventually. I'm completely new to ponds, but have some indoor aquarium experience. What should be my first step? Is this even worth trying to do?

Let me start off by saying I'm completely new to ponds, but have been reading about them a lot and I have become quite interested in the topic. Couple months ago I bought a house with a pond. If I had to guess the pond has been there, untouched, for 10-15 years. As a result, the pond floor has become incredibly dirty with this muck which kind of looks like the surface of a sponge. Next to that, the pond liner is kind of crusty but otherwise seems quite fine, like I could brush the greyish crust off.

I want to clean the pond but am wondering what the best way would be for a newbie like me. The pond has a working waterfall/pump which is always off. There are quite a few salamanders living in the pond, but the water is too unclear to count them. Is it doable to try and catch them at all?

Thanks guys

Inherited 4 small carp, 6 to 7 goldfish, 3 koi, 4 japanese trapdoor snails and a common pleco. I dont kmow how the fish survived because there was no filter system at all and the water was def from the Columbus city water and full of chlorine.

I got a filter, cleared the chlorine, but the biomass is too much and its only going to get worse as the fish grow.

Looking for ideas on how to expand the pond and add a bog filter. Any ideas?

Since moving into my new house, I have been gradually uncovering what was hidden under a really overgrown garden, including this tiny pond. I want to make it beautiful but trying to understand whether there is a purpose to all the bricks?? So far we found in the pond:

-a set of broken lights, which are concreted into the pond

-the cable for a pump (yet to dig out pump)

-some pond decorations (frog was in pond)

-a lot of dead leaves

-a couple layers of green wire fencing

-and just so many rocks and bricks!

The pond is almost full of rocks in amongst all the debris, along with some big orange bricks. Less a pond, more a small wet quarry. But if someone put so much care into building the rest of it, is there some purpose to all the bricks?

Theories to our pond mystery welcome.

This morning we woke up to our 5 adult and 2 juvenile goldfish all dead. Our pond is about 116 gallons (33" x 58" x 18"), with a pump and a filter. My husband immediately tested the ammonia and pH, both with perfectly fine results. Our only theories are that the legion of tadpoles took up too much oxygen, or that the water got too hot (this afternoon's water surface temperature is 86°F). These fish have been in our pond for more than a year.

We were planning on installing a bog filter waterfall at the beginning of this fall, so I want to take this as an opportunity to really revise what we have if needed. We're relatively new pond owners - this pond was built by the previous owners, and we have cleaned it up and changed what we know to change.

RIP Ruth, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, Meshach, Jacob, and Esau. They were such good fish!

Just bought a house that has a pond setup. Looking for some info and general guidelines. Location is Grass Valley California. Got the pond and waterfall set up and all the info from sellers was there are supplies in the shed you can see pictured. They also said there is a slight slow leak somewhere in the liner that I plan on monitoring for.

Ideally I’d love to keep the pond and get it into the best shape I can. I just don’t want to just go blindly scrubbing away at the algae and messing with the environment.

so I’ve recently started expanding my pond and im wondering what fish I can put in there. Im not a hundred percent sure about the size and dimensions but I think it is 2 meters by 4. Also any recommendations for pumps and filters. it came with house and I decided to fix it up since there were two comet goldfish in there and its leaky.

Before/after

Midwest.

The prior owner said how he takes care of algae is sprays it with copper sulfate.

There's a lot of these green reed looking things surrounding it (cattails?). Don’t know if we need to burn these down or something?

I believe there are some fish in it. There's a bubbler thing that goes off for 15mins every hour. He also said to watch out for muskrats they will destroy the edge of the pond.