You can remove muck and debris from your pond using a pond vacuum. Understand the nitrogen cycle. Likewise, a small clean can be carried out during spring when temperatures begin to rise and fish become more active. A water change is simply the act of removing a certain amount of pond water (usually 10-25%), and replacing it with fresh water from your mains supply. You’d want a vacuum with a decent discharge length and some good reach, as your pond sounds fairly deep. You can also hang some netting underneath the underside of the tree, and brush away the leaves daily. Remove debris yearly to avoid algae growth. In cases such as this, performing a small water change during cleaning can help keep ammonia levels down and improve overall water quality. If you are going to clean your pond regularly, buy a decent pump, it will be worth it. Beneficial bacteria can only do so much and can easily be overloaded in ponds with massive amounts of waste build-up, so water changes can sometimes be a good option for maintaining water condition. 2) Perform a water quality test and note all parameters 3) Perform a 25-50% water change (reduces ammonia/nitrites and replenishes KH/Alkalinity) 4) Perform another water quality test and note all parameters 5) If parameters are still not ideal, take further steps (i.e, slowly reduce silt, increase aeration, supplement bacteria) 6) Monitor fish for stress, injury or illness (are they eating? You can find the steps to all 3 ways below. Please help. This is often the step where you may feel draining the pond would help, but this is only necessary if you’re manually removing sludge with a net or rake. Be patient and gradually adjust dosages of chemicals. Can I use a shop vac? Muddy pond water affects the pond’s look and makes it uncomfortable for the fish to live in. Do this several times. Remove by hand or use a net to collect larger patches of algae, debris, sticks, leaves and garbage from the entire pond starting in one area moving to the next until you are done. Maintaining your pond. Algae treatment can take days or weeks to fully clear. These are essential to ponds with fish, and form the basis of the “nitrogen cycle“, which helps keep the pond in balance. Pond surfaces are easily damaged - … As your backyard pond begins to attract new life in the form of insects, fish and birds, it will turn into a small ecosystem capable of sustaining itself. You will want to remove and clean the cage that covers the inlet of the pump, as well as check for any mulch or debris that has partially entered the pump. In terms of pond silt (sludge), there is sadly no hard-and-fast rule, and the same amount which may be healthy in one pond may be unhealthy in another. References. You can, of course, hire a pond pro to clean your water feature for you. How to Clean & Optimize Pond Filter Media 1) Cleaning Mechanical Pond Media Mechanical media can be cleaned with tap water, and the more layers the better for filtration! If you have a small pond, a pond net can be used to slowly rake out the bottom muck whenever it gets too high. For larger ponds, contact a professional for drainage and sediment removal options. If you do decide you want to perform a water change, however, you should make sure water is safely dechlorinated before adding to the pond or you could have problems later down the road. Having an efficient filtration process in place will help reduce overall cleaning and also improve water quality for pond fish. If you have a particularly deep pond, you’d want to look for a model which can keep suction at good depths and which has an extendible handle for easier cleaning. Yours may have a lovely water fountain or a bunch of koi. Maintain a healthy fish population. Also, vacuums are designed to be used in contact with the pond liner, and since fish don’t actively lay on the bottom, it would be very unlikely to get sucked up that way! This may take a while, but will give you immediate results when it’s done. Next, refill with water (rain water if possible), positioning pond plants as you go Finish by returning the fish and any other creatures. Quality pump = all day cleaning pond. It will also help balance the microbiome in your pond. There is a great pond cleaning process that even us professional pond people follow. Purchasing a sinking sturgeon feed is obviously better long term (including some of my recommendations below! In future, I’d recommend adding a good variety of plants to keep the water healthy and to help attract more wildlife to the pond. We have many goldfish which breed prolifically (we keep the numbers down by giving some away every year). The first step to cleaning up a neglected pond is to remove any debris that is floating on the surface of the pond. Clean the liner with a scrubbing brush and water, bailing the dirty water out with a bucket Return the saved silt and any saved pond water. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/1\/11\/Clean-a-Pond-Step-1.jpg\/v4-460px-Clean-a-Pond-Step-1.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/1\/11\/Clean-a-Pond-Step-1.jpg\/aid8789551-v4-728px-Clean-a-Pond-Step-1.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"