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Pond Life
Samantha55
Posts: 30
Just come in from the garden having enjoyed this beautiful winter's day in North West Staffordshire. Inspected the pond to find it full of sludge. It's fed naturally from a brook which meanders through the garden and out into the fields. Baring in mind wildlife, when would be the best time to empty it? It is man made (concrete) so would a mini digger be the best bet? It's 3m x 3m and 1m deep in the middle.
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I would be inclined to lie a big sheet of plastic beside the pond, scoop out the sludge and spread it on the plastic. Any fish can be popped back in but there shouldn't be frogs, toads or newts just now. Bugs and creepy crawlies will crawl back into the pond themselves. After a couple of days the sludge can go on the compost heap and the water will clear. I wouldn't bother with a digger, I would use a large sturdy net unless you mean it really is full, in which case you might want to take steps to prevent more sludge before you worry about the stuff you have now. It certainly isn't a job to do every time there's a spell of heavy rain.
Hi Samantha,
You could try Api Pond Sludge Destroyer, manufactured by Mars Fishcare.
Here's what it states on the bottle:
Consumes pond sludge.
Simplifies pond maintenance.
Reduces build-up of fish waste.
All natural highly concentrated bacteria.
Promotes clean, clear pond water.
Breaks down fish waste and dead algae.
Consumes specific nutrients necessary for algae growth.
Reduces pond maintenance.
Sludge build-up is unsightly, and can reduce the oxygen concentration in pond water, creating a breeding ground for disease-causing bacteria. SLUDGE DESTROYER is a super concentrated blend of beneficial bacteria that consumes organic pollution and increases the oxygen levels in pond water to create and maintain a healthy eco-system.
Directions: Shake well. Use the API dosing cap on the bottle. Add 30 ml per 1,000 L of pond water. For a quick clean up, double the dose. To maintain a clean, clear pond: dose every 2 weeks.
Safe for fish, pond plants, as well as surrounding wildlife and pets, when used as directed.
The product is inexpensive and should be available from most pet shops, water gardenings specialists or online.
Hope this may help.
pbff
Last edited: 08 January 2018 10:27:16
Many thanks for the advice. The pond is fed from a brook which goes into a culvert under the lane so all the muck off the field ends up in there. We'll have to get the shovels out, clear the sludge and start from there, should shift a few post Christmas pounds!
Oh dear! Drastic action needed then. Can you create some form of protection?
When we moved here, 34 years ago. there were 3 successively larger ponds, created by damming a little valley through the garden. There is a spring line just beyond our boundary and the ponds were fed by the largest of these. We get our domestic water from another, higher up the hill. The subsoil is clay and I do not know whether it is this alone that creates the ponds or if they were 'puddled' but there is no kind of liner and the large dam does not leak.
All three ponds were almost completely silted up and we had a hired digger excavate the largest and the smallest and all the silt was dumped in the middle one. This for two reasons, mostly because the flow of water year round is not enough to sustain the surface area of all 3 ponds and also because it made the garden space more useable.
The smallest pond and its dam act as a partilal silt filter for the remaining large pond which is still fairly deep - to the tops of my wellies near the edge, and deeper in the middle. The small pond, about the same size as yours, is full and like yours needs digging out, it dried out almost completely last summer. The same system operates for our domestic water supply - a small tank higher up overflows into the much larger one - and works well. Perhaps if there is space you could do something similar and add another pond - a kitchen sink would do - into your water system, that is easier to clear out, even though it would need doing more often.
Digging out is on my list for this year, but I am less concerned about the wildlife as the ducks ensure that there is little in this pond, though it finds more hiding places in the large one. I am aiming to move a few bucketsful at a time and use them to smooth out levels on the grassed areas around.