Cleaning an old pond..

My Nan & Grandad have an old pond that mesures about 2x1m and this
summer has seen it become very overgrown with lillies and dirt.

The pond has no filters / pumps etc and so one end has become thick
with all mannor of nasty stuff (the same end where the lilly roots
are).

What I would like to know is what would be the best way to approach
cleaning it out and removing some of the (far too many) lilly pads that
are in there - without diturbing the 4 goldfish too much!

Many thanks in advance.


--
Kameleon

Short of scooping or vacuming the mulm out, its going to be a job,
since once you disturb a lot of bottom junk, with no filtration and
often times even with filtration your going to re-introduce bad stuff
into the water. Things like hydrogen sulphide gas can be released and
this is harmfull to fish.....I wold approach the clean out and do a
little at a time, and try not to disturb or stir up the water too
much........Any way you can put a pump with a fountain etc in that
pond.........they are relatively cheap, and it may give a bit more
insurance on keeping the fish ok. Is it a concrete or liner type
pond........Are the plants in pots or simply placed in the mulm in the
bottom? You can always just reach in there and get ahold of a lily and
pull it up very gently and remove the junk around its area etc, and
its certainly easy to deadhead leaves and blooms etc by reaching down
into thr water and get up right next tot he crown and pinch the stem
off. If you just want to "remove" some lilys then just pull one out
every now and then along with some debri, and allow it to settle back
down and then remove some more over a period of time. This would
probbaly be your safest bet since you have no filtratoon or aeration
and you'll keep disturbing too much of the pond down to a minimum.


On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 13:22:25 +0000, Kameleon
wrote:

===
===My Nan & Grandad have an old pond that mesures about 2x1m and this
===summer has seen it become very overgrown with lillies and dirt.
===
===The pond has no filters / pumps etc and so one end has become thick
===with all mannor of nasty stuff (the same end where the lilly roots
===are).
===
===What I would like to know is what would be the best way to approach
===cleaning it out and removing some of the (far too many) lilly pads that
===are in there - without diturbing the 4 goldfish too much!
===
===Many thanks in advance.


==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
"The original frugal ponder"
~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o

"Kameleon" wrote in message
...

My Nan & Grandad have an old pond that mesures about 2x1m and this
summer has seen it become very overgrown with lillies and dirt.

The pond has no filters / pumps etc and so one end has become thick
with all mannor of nasty stuff (the same end where the lilly roots
are).

What I would like to know is what would be the best way to approach
cleaning it out and removing some of the (far too many) lilly pads that
are in there - without diturbing the 4 goldfish too much!

Many thanks in advance.
===========================
My approach to such a pond would be to remove the fish to a suitable safe
place and clean the whole mess out. Remove and discard the mulm/soil
whatever it consists of. The lilies are probably all connected by roots
and shoots. Most can be given away or discarded. Start with several nice
small healthy ones spaced out, in their own pots, to give them room. Refill
the pond and either dechlorinate the water or wait 24 hours - then return
the fish. Even a small pump and filter is better than none at all. Good
luck.
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
My Pond Page http://tinyurl.com/cuq5b
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o