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You should have covered your pond in the fall to keep the leaves out, and removed the tender annuals before the frost killed them and they sunk to the bottom. But if you didn't cover the pond, don't worry. Here is what you have to do to get that pond back into its pristine shape. First and foremost, get the organic materials out. The pond lily leaves, water lettuce and hyacinths that the frost killed and the leaves that fell from the trees are the single most important source of methane and other chemicals that can build up in the water over the winter. If there is only a minimal amount of organic material, you can simply take a good sturdy net and scoop it out. If there is a bit of mud or finely composed organic material, your filter will remove them and the bacteria will digest them. (There will be more on this subject later).

If there is more than you think you can handle by scooping with a net, such as a thick layer of partially decomposed organic material or simply a large amount of leaves, you might wish to consider draining and cleaning your pond out. It sounds like a major undertaking, but you can do it in four steps.

The first thing you will need to do is assemble the needed tools and materials. You will need some type of water holding facility. You can use (clean) garbage cans or even a kiddie pool. Anything that will hold water will do. The objective here is to retain as much original water as possible. It doesn't matter if the water is muddy or full of algae, just that you retain as much original water as possible.

The second thing you will need is a decent pump. If you have a thousand gallon pond and try to use a 250 gallon-per-hour pump, it will take approximately four hours to drain the pond completely down. I'm impatient, so I prefer something in the 4000gph range. You don't need to go out and buy something this large if you don't already own one. Your waterfall might be powered by a pump that large; and you could simply disconnect that and hook it to another hose. Or you could choose to be patient and use a smaller pump.

The third thing you will need and the most overlooked and overworked is a good strong net. You will be using the net to remove waterlogged leaves and debris, which get heavy quite quickly.

The fourth thing you will need is a pair of waterproof boots. When the pond gets pumped down far enough for you to step down into it, you will appreciate them. At this point in the spring, the water is cold. Be careful stepping into your pond. The liner is likely to be covered with algae, which becomes very slick. I've heard numerous funny stories from customers and had a few funny experiences of my own with slippery liners. I once got stuck in the middle of a pond because the builder never put plant shelves in the design. He dug the main pond like a bowl. When I stepped in, I slid to the deepest point and could not get out.

Now you're standing pond side, net in hand ready to do battle. What is the first thing you should do? Put whatever you choose to hold water in very close to the edge. When you start pumping water down and catching fish, you want to be able to get them back in the water as soon as possible. Next, put your pump in and fill everything you have to hold water. The rest of the water can be pumped around in your planting beds. The nutrient rich water makes excellent organic fertilizer. As the water goes down, you will be amazed what shows up. You might even get lucky and find some loose change.

Continue pumping the water down, catching as many fish and other critters as possible and putting them in your holding tanks. At the same time you can take your trusty net and start scooping leaves and debris into a wheelbarrow or bucket. Once you get almost to the bottom, take a garden hose and start hosing all the mud and debris down to where the pump is setting. You may have to stop several times and clear the intake from the pump and watch the output to monitor how clogged the pump is. Get everything as clean as possible. I personally keep going until I'm pumping clear water out of the pond.

Once you reach this point, it's time to reverse the process. Take your pump, put it in your holding tank where your fish are and pump all that water back into the pond. It doesn't matter how dirty the water is. Water is water. The amount of suspended solids in the water is minimal compared to what you have just removed. Besides, the suspended material will make good food for the bacteria colony that you will be trying to establish in your filter. Once all your water and fish are back in the pond, you can start filling with the hose. If you have well water, just fill it slowly so the temperature difference doesn't shock your fish. If you have city water, and you have re-used approximately five hundred gallons of water, you can add approximately 250 gallons of water without harming the fish. Chlorine and Chloramines flash off into the atmosphere in approximately 24 hours, so you may need to re-fill the pond in stages or you can fill the pond completely if you use a commercial chlorine/chloramine remover. The key point to this stage is to fill the pond slowly so the quick temperature change does not shock the fish.

Now your pond is full and looks quite nice. The next step is to get your filtration system up and running. Chances are your bacterial colony from the previous year is nonexistent now, so you will have to get that started too. I prefer to use a bottled bacteria called "Microbe Lift ™". It is a potent mix of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria that break down ammonia from fish waste into nitrites and finally into nitrates which are not harmful to fish. A word to the wise "hold your breath". It smells like rotten eggs, but it works. The smell flashes off in a few seconds after putting it into your water so do not be concerned about this.

Now your pond is up and running, your filter is running right along, and you put the stinky stuff in your water. Now what? Sit back and enjoy it for a few days. You may notice in a day or two a fine layer of sediment all around the pond. Not to worry. Take a garden hose and use water from it to disturb the sediment. The sediment will eventually make its way into the filter, so you may have to do this a few times

One last thing for your to consider. There is a very good chance that your pond will turn pea soup green. This is normal. In the spring when the water temperature warms up, the algae begins to become more active. If you have done your part in removing all the organic matter that the algae feeds on and added the bacteria and have a good filtration system, this will clear up on it's own when the algae consumes all the organic matter and starves itself to death. The reason you are adding bacteria is to establish a colony in the filter which will out-compete the algae for food.

Next fall, you will need to cover the pond with netting to keep the leaves out. You also need to prune back your perennial water plants such as iris and water lilies. Then put a heater in or use a pump to keep an open hole in the ice. The reason for keeping the hole in the ice is not to allow your fish to get air. Your fish go into a dormant state, not quite hibernation but dormant. Their heartbeat slows to an unbelievable three to four beats per minute. At such a slow rate of respiration, their oxygen requirements are minimal. The reason you keep the hole open is to allow gasses such as methane to escape from the water into the atmosphere. (Do you remember when you were a kid and stepped into a pond or lake and bubbles rose to the surface? Well, that was methane.) If the ice is allowed to completely cover the pond, this methane can build up to levels that are toxic for your fish. This is the number one cause of fish kills in garden ponds.


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