Renovating a Pond

Hi Trapezeartist, welcome to Gardeners Corner. We have lots of thread regarding water gardening with lots of different opinions on how to maintain a pond, with or without a filter.
The last one being posted was "frothy problem" which might be worth looking at, as well as the others.

I have a pond around the same age as yours, without use of filters, but it does have a waterfall. It will, obviously, pay you to sort out the pond first before installing a fountain or waterfall. To be quite honest without pics it is difficult to give anything but general and possibly vague advice. Firstly you need to check how deep your pond is, how much mud on the bottom. But first how big is the pond?

 

There's that one, and I'm sure you'll find other threads on the same subject. There are two schools of thought regarding filters, those that wouldn't be without them and those, like me, that use other more natural methods.:D

 

Not a bad idea, Miraflores.:D

 

Nice pics, Trapezeartist:D Now we've got a a visual idea of the pond. First take out all the duckweed and the long ferny oxygenating weed. The oxygenating weed looks like Lagarosiphon aka Goldfish weed. Put a small clump of the Goldfish weed in a container full of water for the moment. You should leave the weed you have removed beside the pond rim, for a couple of days, so that any pond life can find it's way back into the pond. By the way, any frogs, water boatmen, etc will hide away and come back to the attraction of the water feature.

Once the pond is clear of weed, check the bottom for the thickness of sludge on the bottom. All ponds need a bottom of sludge of, say, an inch, as it contains aquatic life and microbes essential to the pond. If it's too thick just take some out, it's rich in nutrients so it'll won't harm the borders. One thing we didn't mention was the clarity of the pond water, Even with your description of the pond being heavily weeded it is quite possible that the water is reasonably clear. So how clear is the water??

The waterfall is something else:D You've seen my jug waterfall, but what do you want?
The conventional waterfall is stones, lined underneath with pond liner or concrete. I, personally, would not buy a pre-constructed one as it's cheaper and more satisfying to make your own. You don't need a huge pump for your size of pond and more importantly the height to which you're going to pump the water to the head of the fall. I think that the size of the one I've got will suffice easily for your purposes. I'll have a look at the specs of mine and let you know later, as I can't remember it at the moment!! Obviously, you will need external power for the pump, using a cable that is armour protected, waterproof connections, plugs, switches and circuit breakers to keep you and the family safe. Because a waterfall is a very personal choice in how you want it to look, I would advise doing a bit of research and read a couple of books on water gardening that gives you the basics of types of waterfalls. Geoff Hamilton's Gardeners World book contains some very common sense and clear instructions on how to build a watefall without getting too technical and overwhelmed. Digest this and let me know what you think.:D

 

No, you're not a nawnort because you're asking all the right questions.

Yes, the ferny stuff converts dioxide from nutrients into oxygen helping aquatic life, including fish, to exist in the pond, it also helps keep the water from becoming stagnant. You can weight a few small bunches down with pieces of string and stone to plant them when needed. By the way, it'll never over-oxygenate the water!

All that weed has grown like that because it's been using the nutrients in the water from dead foilage etc. Because you've got so much weed in there I don't think the water is going to be too bad. You probably did disturb the water when you took out some of the weed. You'll be able to see how clear the water is once you've taken the rest of the weed out and it's had time to settle down.

You're right, if the water is fairly clear and there's not too much sediment on the bottom you won't have to mess around emptying the pond and starting again. Be gentle with that spade by the way. If you were to introduce fresh water into the pond it will have more nutrients in it which will encourage algae and that's not good. The secret of keeping the water clear and algae free is to keep the nutrients down to the minimum by using filters or, as I recommend, the use of marginal plants to extract it naturally. During the Winter months the algae won't grow too fast but it only takes a warm day to "turn" the water, so get your marginals in in early Spring. That will give them time to start using the nutrients, grow and become even bigger and more efficient at extracting their food out of the water.

If you're going to get a pump and all the electrical bits it would be wise and cheaper to get it from the Net, always making sure you're buying from an established Aquatic retailer.

I really would advise you to get a book on water gardening and ponds just to give yourself an idea of what you need to do. There's plenty in Charity Shops book sections.

 

I said I would look at the pump I'm using and I have!!! It's a Hozelock Cacade 1500LPH Fountain and Waterfall pump and if you measure things in imperial units, as I do, then it delivers 300 gallons per hour and is a medium sized pump. You can use both waterfall and fountain functions or just one of either of them just as I have.
Looking at the pictures of your pond, the size, and estimated guess at the height of the head [start] of your waterfall I would say that is around the size of pump you would need, although Watergarden is much more knowledgeable than me regarding such things and might advise differently. There is a vast range of pumps on offer and at some really good prices on the Net, so don't take it that I am advising you to use a pump the same as mine.
The other thing to remember when putting the pump into the pond is that you should place it on top of a brick or breeze block to keep it clear of the sediment to that it doesn't suck in mud and block the filters:D

 

Mmmmmmmmmmm, I wish you luck for this weekend as the forcecast for West Cheshire is not good!! So I hope you get better weather where you live.:D