As much as we love large pond projects, sometimes you just cant beat doing a full complete pond clean on an Algae ridden pond. Today, we visited a small goldfish pond in Stockport that was in need of a good clean.
How we cleaned the pond
Firstly, the temporary Koi vats need to be made up ready for the fish and water to be transported into. Once these were erected we could pump in the old water and safely catch the fish / wildlife and put them in the temporary pond. We removed by net with a specialist sludge head as much blanket weed as possible. After this it was time for the pond vacuum as this can remove, with ease, any sludge or stones left at the bottom. Once the pond was empty of water, we used a pressure washer to clean off the rubber pond liner, making it look as good as the day it were installed.
Cleaning the pond filter
The customer had already installed the Blagdon All In One pond filter, this type of filter sits inside the pond and cleans the water without having to send the water to an external filter. These types of filters are convenient for people that dont want pipework coming out of the pond on sight. This filter was in need of a good clean, fully clogged with sludge, the fountain wasn’t producing any height and the media wasn’t getting enough flow through to work correctly. All the media was removed and the Biological media was stored in a bucket with the old pond water. The mechanical media, the filter foams, was put to one side and cleaned using the pressure washer. The filters are as good as new and can be put back into the filter. The filter is now working perfectly with a good flow to the fountain and waterfall.
Adding plants to the pond
Because the old plants were smothered in blanket weed, the customer opted to replace them with new plants. We put in one water lily which was positioned at the bottom of the pond and 7 smaller marginal plats which fitted perfectly on the shelf withing the pond. These plants didn’t come with any stone on the tops so we had to add some of this ourselves. Small gravel is ideal for this as it stops the fish from digging up the plant in search for food which destroys the plant and causes a mess in the pond. We recommend doing this with any new pond plants that don’t come with any gravel.
The pond is now complete, we added mostly the older water and topped this up with some fresh water, using dechlorinators to remove any harmful Chlorine. The fish are now in their lovely clean pond and the owners can now enjoy their fish pond again.
If you have any queries regarding ourselves then please do not hesitate to get in touch!
0161 519 7799 or sales@jjlandscapesandponds.co.uk
