How to keep a pond clean?

[QueenDuck]

I just went out and bought a small pond today. It's 1.9 meter by 1 meter. I was just wondering that when I get the pond into the ground and it's filled up with water, how am I going to clean it? A pump is not an option at the moment because of the electricity. I thought about some pond plants but with the ducks walking in and out with all of the mud I don't think that will work. Any ideas on how i can keep it clean?

 

[billw]

You're going to want a drain. Ducks will collect mouthfuls of dirt and then spit it into the pond, trying to extract bugs. The pond will fill up with muck in no time. My pond is about the same area as yours and has to be drained every three days and mucked out once per week.

If you can't use a pump, the best thing would be to install the pond on a hill and put in a gravity drain, or install it in a mound if you have to put it in a flat area.

 

[QueenDuck]

By a drain so you mean that I will have to cut a little Hole im the plastic? Or get bucket loads at a time and get the water out that way and scrub around the edges?

 

[billw]

It is a heck of a lot easier to have a drain in the bottom than to empty with buckets - particularly given how fast the ducks foul the water.

You didn't say how deep your pond is. Mine is about 250 gallons, so that would be a lot of bailing. If yours is shallow, you could do it, but I'd rather let gravity do the work.

 

[QueenDuck]

It's actually round my nans at the moment. I would say it's no deeper than 2 foot.