Natural pond needs help

18 years ago

We have a natural pond that can be quite scummy. It is mostly surrounded by trees (mainly a few weeping willows and pine trees) and has collected years and years worth of leaves and branches from the willow trees, which most know can be very very messy trees. The deepest spot of the pond is only about 5 feet deep and that is when the pond in completely full. For it's size I believe it should be a lot deeper. If you mix the water up it is black and smelly, and it usually has a lot of seaweed since it is so shallow.

So my question is:

Is there any way we can clean out our pond with out having to drain the entire pond to dig it deeper and get rid of what has been collecting for years?

Eventually some day we would like to do this but is not really an option right now. We were hoping to be able to make something ourselves to dredge out the pond.

We don't expect to be able to make the pond perfect right now but any improvement would be great.

Any suggestions that anyone could give would be very helpful. Thanks.

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Comments (4)

fool4flowers
18 years ago
Adding more plants can actally help clean the water.
terrestrial_man
18 years ago
Is this a natural pond or a man-made natural pond?
If a natural pond is it being fed by a stream or just
surface run off into a low area?
I would definitely opt for removing some or several of the trees.
Maybe the link below will help??

Here is a link that might be useful: pond owner magazine
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cokeisit
18 years ago
Sounds like you probably have years of accumulated muck on the bottom of your pond that is full of anaerobic bacteria which is causing the smell. That muck from the trees is adding nutrients to your pond which is probably why you have the algae growing all over. The two things you should look into is adding an aerator and even augmenting with beneficial pond microbes to help break down the accumulated muck. The aerator will add much needing oxygen to the pond to help fuel the growth of aerobic bacteria and minimize the anaerobic. The aerobic bacteria will also help reduce the bottom sludge, but it is a long process, but better than digging and dredging. Here is some information on some guys who specialize in bacteria and also carry some good aerators. They even have can even help put together a program for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pond Aerators
jeffken
18 years ago
From the picture it appears you have no aeration in the pond. There are a wide variety of aerators on the market but you should consider sub-surface aeration. As a previous poster has mentioned, you have years of accumulated muck in this pond. As the algae blooms shown in the picture die, they will drop to the bottom and provide more nutrients in the pond, fueling additional algae and weed growth. Aeration allows naturally occurring bacteria to start to get rid of this decomposing material. In order to speed the process you should also consider adding bacteria. You can reduce the muck level by up to 5" per year with the proper bacterial formulation. You can make the pond clearer by using a flocculant. This binds excess nutrients in the water, drops them to the bottom, allowing the supplemental bacteria to get rid of these nutrients. Once you start treating the pond with natural products, you will start to see a clearer, less algae filled, clean smelling pond.