fill your 100 gallon quarantine stock tank up with pond water.. add aeration. drain
the pond until the fish are nearly flopping. net and move them into the stock tank.
continue draining the pond. use plastic shovels (that wont pierce the liner) and
sweep the mud and muck into shovels and get it out of the pond. use a bit of water
to continue cleaning the bottom. (this is how the pros cleaned our two ponds at my
mothers this last spring). then refill with warmer water if possible, or fill as
much as you can with water matched to previous temperature, move the fish back in and
use lily pots with no drainage and good loam. even the fert tablets jammed down wont
leach out. I pick hand sized flat river rocks on the surface and fill in with pea
gravel to keep the koi from mucking around in the dirt. Ingrid

"*muffin*" wrote:

I read this *wonderful* idea of how to plant lilies...
it said use a basket (like a clothes one with holes) line it with burlap,, &
plant the lily... it said it would give more 'air' to the roots & soil, so
you wouldn't get that yucky black smelly planting mix..

wellllllllllll.
seemed good idea.

till I was walking into the pond the other day. ( in case you don't
remember, I cannot SEE the bottom of the pond.so had NO clue). & stepped
into MUCKY thick stuff..........hmmm. I bent over,, picked up the 'pot'...
the burlap was almost GONE there was almost no dirt left IN the
container........ all was left was a BIG clump of rhizomes....plus some dirt
& gravel... all the rest had slid to the bottom of the pond....
arrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

ok, now what... NO bottom drain, ( wish I read THIS group before putting in
my pond......but my luck the thing would drain for some reason)..

not sure...... but ~'maybe'~ this is the reason my pond is murky??? would
this ever clear up on its own?? do I NEED to figure out how to +suck+ it
out??

*sniffle*

oh & hey... the black stuff, it was supposed to prevent??? weelllll once I
stirred it all up,, my pond took on a NICE dark color....
hmmmph.

plus I KNOW it will get worse,, as my son is coming back for avisit next
week to put 4 strands of rope lights on the bottom of my pond.
(lovely,....... probably won't even see them)

Muffin veryyyy bummed out........




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
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endorsements or recommendations I make.