Yup, this is an ancient thread, but very helpful. I had to give up the pond eventually as we were starting a new house build and that summer the (really old) liner developed some big cracks due to age. Gave my two humongous koi to a local pond supply place and removed the pond. I figure the house will sell easier without something future owners may look at and think "high maintenance" (not that they're wrong, but...) and I want to ditch the old house fast when the time comes. I write this post simply to say to new pond builders: When you buy a pond liner, get a REALLY GOOD UV PROTECTED one that is mostly thick rubber, not plastic. I thought mine was thick enough but after 12 years or so, it started to wear out due to sun, get brittle and just start having problems. You drop a rock? Oops, hole! Now the pond area is just a plant area and all I have are memories of better pond days. I'll have a pond at the new place after things settle down and thanks to many posters here for all the info to help keep the water clear when that time comes!

My pond used to get green and murky in each spring... I determined it was due to not having enough plants come out of dormancy early enough to use the excess nutrients that the algae was feeding on. I added 3 marsh marigold plants and have not had a problem since. The marsh marigolds are one of the first plants to "wake up" in the spring and I no longer have a spring algae bloom. They are also one of the first flowers in my garden each year.

the pond is app 24 inches deep in the middle and about 8 ft by 3 1/2 to 5 ft across in spots. I do not belive it is all mud as the bottom of the pond is now very slick almost like a film on the bottom. Pond has only neen in few days. I do have 2 water lillies in the kind of net holders that tey came Would this have anything to do with it. My filter is a all in one pump and filter from lowes with a fountain on top. Are these sufficent for the job. Sorry for all the questions I am a newbie. I will post pics if I can on this forum James

Chiming in for my own interest as well as to offer a suggestion. Warning: I am a novice - my advice might be detrimental! Hopefully, those with greater expertise can chime in and offer an opinion. I put in a 12 x 10 pond years ago. Did it on the cheap. I used the thickest black plastic on a roll I could find. It is not unlike painter's drop clothes only a lot thicker. Every 2-3 years I have to replace it due to it wearing out or getting holes poked in it by my kids playing around. It was $30 or so for a monstrous roll I still haven't used completely. Why not drain down the pond, muck it out, layer the pond with the cheap liner and see what happens? Full disclosure - I go to the local pet store and buy 25-cent goldfish. The sales people are usually good about letting me select a combination of different markings so my gene pool is diverse. I started with four and had it quickly grow to 40-ish fish. For a while I fed them but found out one winter I didn't have to - I was hospitalized and too infirm to care for them and they survived on the nutrients in the pond. Trees grew over the pond in time and they would muck up the bottom and clog my submersible pumps. Eventually, the shade countered the algae growth and I didn't need to replace the pumps. A small number of plants in pots that were weighted to stay submerge provided a small amount of cover. A shrub rooted near the pond and branches dangled to the ponds surface. I trimmed them but left the shrub for shade/protection. The problems were not health of the water or the fish or the plants. The problems were related to leaves filling the pond and "filling it in" substantially each fall. Until Tulsa changed the chemicals in its water supply. The 110+ degree temps and leaks in the thin-ish liner required fillings 2-3 times a week. I forgot for a week and it got really low. The water I added overwhelmed the existing water, and the chemicals wiped out the remaining dozen fish. The plants didn't seem to mind but I now have a muck-covered liner (several layers of it, actually, as I'd just add the new one on top of the other, figuring the old ones would provide some protection from roots poking through). Is that a practical solution? Buy some cheap CHEAP liner. Connect them to cover the bottom of the pond. Drain and muck out the pond, drop the liner and let it fill in. === Or...fill in a big chunk of it and create a new "wall" out of liner with rocks, backfilling with rock, soil, sand, whatever. Plant plants that don't mind wet feet and let them live in a bed next to a much more manageable pond.