Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help New & Not sure what to do w/Natural Backyard Pond

Hi everyone, I'm new here to your forum and would love to be able to get some advice on whether there is anything we could do in hopes of remedying the pond we have on our 4 acres. At the end of this post, I've also provided a link to the photo album where I have taken pictures of our pond, just today. I apologize for the length of my post, but I'm trying to provide as much info as possible in hopes it may be helpful, thank you.

My husband and I bought our first home 9 1/2 years ago and it came with a small to medium natural backyard pond that is about 600 feet or so from our house. We live in the state of New York, zone 5.

The pond had been neglected for many years before we purchased the house. It was horribly overgrown by trees, shrubs, weeds, etc. When we first moved in, it had several bleach bottles floating on top and on the banks. The water still seems stagnant and the mosquitoes in our yard are terrible! We have been gradually doing what we can to clear out and remove the overgrowth around the pond, but as parents of six young children, we haven't exactly had the funds, resources, or knowledge to do alot to help this pond.

This pond was put at the edge of the property line where there is a long row of very, very tall/mature evergreen trees. It does not appear to have any fish in it that we can see. We've tried from day one to "catch" something and to see fish, but have never, ever seen any. We have seen what we believe to be water leeches, and have definitely seen snakes, snapping turtles, bullfrogs, etc. in it.

Every spring we do have an occasional pair of Canada geese and Mallard Ducks that visit, and up until a few years ago, we enjoyed wood ducks at the pond but they have not been here in the last 4 years or so. We also have wildlife in the area that drink from the pond (deer, fox, coyote, birds etc.)

Also in the past few years there has been a pair of Green Heron that would spend the summer here, but that too stopped about 2 or 3 years ago and we don't know why.

The pond seems to almost always have a green "muck"? covering to it. As summer progresses, the depth level of the pond also lowers a great deal. We have NO IDEA how deep/shallow the pond is or what items/litter may even be sitting at the bottom. I don't mean to sound ignorant at all, but sadly enough, we know very little about this pond.

As you can see, we are very much amateurs to pond "maintenance" and knowledge, but would love to learn ways we may be able to salvage this pond. My biggest fear is that your recommendation will involve a great deal of money, which is something we do not have.

Thank you very much in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

Pictures of our pond here

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v451/allhis/pond/

Password is pondpics

Welcome to PB. That looks like duckweed but I can't see it clearly enough to be sure. If it is the place to start is to get it out. There are a number of threads on ways to attack the problem.

Howdy, tdmom, and welcome to the forum.

Many things can be done to investigate and help your pond for moderate to very small amounts of money.

What would be the best thing your pond could be, given your druthers? Crystal clear swimming hole? Fishing hole for food & fun? Scenic beauty spot with no green scum or skeeters?

It does sound like there aren't any fish in your pond. Are there any kinds of fish you and tddad (would) like to catch?

Also, do you have any idea how big (surface area) the pond is? We can help estimate that for you if you can give the approximate dimensions of it (i.e "It's a square about 100 feet on a side" or "it's very nearly circular and the circumference of the shoreline is 400 feet" - that type of thing.)

Right now your photo link wants me to log in to your photobucket account (perhaps because I don't have one). If you go there and pick out the pics you would like us to see and find the "www.etc" type lingo in the little window with "IMG" at each end, you can copy that text and put in in your post to display the photos directly for all to see.

I can't tell if its duckweed or filamentous algae.

Mom, is the plant stuff (green scum) slick and slimy stuff or tiny little non attached leaves or?

Oh, by the way, welcome to PB.

Welcome to Pond Boss. It looks like a great spot. have fun with the adventure. I am in my first year of a pond, and it is a wonderful labor of love. This site have been a treasure trove of information. Go luck and keep us posted.

First of all, a big THANK YOU to everyone for your welcome and comments, I really appreciate it!



Oh, you have no idea how happy we are to hear this!




Well, we could never imagine swimming in this, so we'd go with a Scenic beauty spot with no green scum or skeeters (as long as frogs could still survive in it) and perhaps someday a fishing hole, mostly just for fun fishing.




We'd love to have fish in it if it were feasible (and healthy for the fish), but wouldn't have a clue as to which would or would not be appropriate for the size, depth, etc.




tddad is outside right now trying to get some measurements, and if he can, I'll post them as soon as he gets them. Ok, he measured near the water line and said the perimeter around it is approximately 275 feet, but in the winter it would be larger since the water level would be a bit deeper. Oh, and it is pretty much an oval shape.




See, I was afraid of posting the pictures here for fear of taking too much webspace (bandwith?), so that was why I tried putting them in a photo album. Did you enter the password I provided? If not, the PASSWORD is pondpics but I'll see if I can post some of the images here.

Also, I just had tddad use a stick to scoop out some of what is on top and I took a few pics of that in hopes of identifying what it is. We know a lot of it is pine needles that fall off of the monster pine/evergreen trees that grow alongside of the pond. We didn't build the pond, but we think it was a poor location to put a pond in because it is so close to the trees.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR WELCOME AND ALL YOUR HELP, it is much appreciated!!!

Yesterday I took ALOT of pictures but don't know the limit I'm allowed to post here because they may be too large or take up too much space.

You can view the ENTIRE pond album here http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v451/allhis/pond/ and enter the password pondpics

Here are just a few of the pics:











Thank you!

DUCKWEED!

P.S. Compared to the sump on the neighbor's property behind my woods, that water is already pristine.

P.P.S. Pics don't take up storage space here; the biggest "offense" with using a whole bunch (especially if large) is probably the affect on download time.

If I did the Math right, a perimeter of 275 ft would give a maximum size of just over 1/8 acre IF it was round. Oval will make it somewhat smaller.

Circumference = 2 x Pi x R = 275 ft

Radius = 275 /2 x Pi = apx. 44 ft

Area = Pi x R squared = apx 6050 sq ft

Ok, so the green stuff floating on top is Duckweed? What do you suggest we do next? Thanks.

I'm no DW expert (I get jut a trace of it each year). It can be chemically controlled, physically removed, or (keep fingers crossed) eaten by certain species of fish. Do a search for "duckweed" under All Topics or the "Aquatic Vegetation" group and check out some of the threads. We have many discussion on controlling DW.

That's a beautiful little spot! I'm sure the experts here will help you to make it enjoyable and to get it back into shape. I do know that here in the south we use Fathead minnows to control mosquitos in our ponds. They are relatively cheap but need to be restocked every 18 months or so.

In some parts of NY the health department gives them to you.

Here's a link.


Fathead Minnows NY

tdmom, I'm not sure if you've seen the posts, but some have used the floating rope method to clear algae and duckweed from small ponds.
Another help might be stocking golden shiners which also eat algae & duckweed, and would provide forage for any game fish you were to stock later, I have plenty of GSH in the pond and it's clean as a whistle, although I can't be sure it's only due to them.

tdmom,first,sorry Im late welcoming you to the forum.Hi,welcome to PondBoss.As to ypur duckweed,my advice would be to use the prickly rope to clean it out.Its not that hard at all,and if your kids are big/old enough to help,I bet they would really enjoy the results afterward.IMHO,ponds are a great family project.I think with a little (lot)of work and minimal expense you could have a great looking pond with fish.