Hi, new to the forum, and glad to find it.

I have a small roughly 6 ft x 12 ft pond, fed by two springs. The pond has deep muck on the bottom (about 12-18" of muck), probably created by decayed leaves as it is under a bunch of deciduous trees which rain leaves in the fall. Under that is solid rock! I just discovered that I can buy nets to catch the leaves and will probably do that next fall. I would like to vacuum the muck and send it on downstream, but haven't a clue how to do so. If I could do that and then put gravel in the bottom it would be a much prettier pond.

I have salamanders, crayfish and frogs native to the pond. Around the pond are ferns and other grasses, lots of moss and stuff on the rocks around the pool.

Last weekend my 8 year old son and I built a rough brick dam across the lower end, I used black plastic garbage bags to "seal it" and some gravel and sand to cover that. Really crude, but it raised the water level about a foot to 16 inches....

I now have about 2-3 foot depth in the south end (by the dam), about 12 inches in the northern end. The two springs pour a TON of water into the pond after a rain. No idea about the GPM but the water level rose well over a foot in the time it took me to build the dam - an hour or two.

The rain swollen spring also brings a fair bit of silt. The silt settles in about 12 hours or so and the water clears right up so you can see the bottom.

Without the rain the springs still flow pretty nicely. Even during the drought that climaxed last year the springs never dried up, though I was starting to worry.

Last summer I populated the pond with shiners (bait) and we enjoyed watching them all summer but they are gone this spring. I do have frogs and even raccoons and possums, so I am guessing they ended up a meal for some critter.

I am wondering whether I can just put plain old goldfish in the pond, or even koi? If so how many would a pond this size support? Will I need to feed them? How about pond lilies or something for protection?

Last summer I did have a fibrous green slimy stuff growing up from the bottom of the pond which at one point covered a lot of the pond. I actually raked some of it out. I see no sign of it yet but I'm guessing it will be back. Is there anything that will keep this stuff at bay?

Thanks for any ideas on helping my son and I build a fun little fish pond.

JWC