what does pond shelving, snails, and a substrate have in common?

14 years ago

The answer is..........I have none in my pond. What I do have is another list of questions for you my pond professors.

My pond is an above ground pond without any plant shelving. I was thinking of using cinder block or brick to build some. Could these have any harmful effects on my pond? Any suggestions on what to use?

Also, there is a layer of rock on the bottom of the pond. From what I have read, some pretty gross stuff can collect below the rock layer and be hard to clean and harmful. Could I line the bottom with flag stone? This will give it some color, and sediment should be easier to control on the top of the stones, the gaps between may be another story, but it should'nt get too much below the flagstone, right?

And finally.....Would some snails help eat the crud that is below the gravel or on top of the flagstone?

My pond will be highly filtered within the next few days, but there is still a bunch of stuff lying beneath the substrate. Other than draining and pulling everything out, will these items mentioned above help?

I would really like to put something lighter on the bottom to give it some contrast, but a clear healthy pond is first priority

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Comments (6)

abranv
Original Author
14 years ago
I forgot to ask in this post. Is there any method of removing exhisting sludge from the bottom while the pond if full? will the filter eventually take care of it in time?

thanks!!!!
squirelette
14 years ago
You can get pond vacs to clean the bottom, you can also check around and see if there are any companies that perform pond maintenace that could come and do it for you, although the one company I have seen ads from out here end up draining the pond and using a pressure washer. Pond vacs will not work too well with heavy gravel although it might work if you are using a thin layer of fine gravel. A shop vac also works for cleaning and there have been many posts from people about making their own pond vac. Flagstones might work better than gravel and would definitely be easier to remove for cleaning as long as you keep them to manageable sizes. You can try stirring up the gravel to suck the debris out but as a regular maintenance job it might do more harm than good as you would be disturbing the bacteria good and bad that would be in the gravel. Snails will eat stuff that falls to the bottom but they will also add to the bio load. Thats my 2 pennies, I am sure that you will get lots of other posts with helpful suggestions here. Good luck
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buyorsell888
14 years ago
Vacs will suck up the gravel or clog with it in the nozzle. If you want to vacuum putting down flagstone will make it a lot easier.

Having said that I have river rock on the bottom of my fish pond and have for twelve years and never tell anyone they have to remove their rocks or dire things will happen since the dire things never have happened to me.

Snails eat plants and algae but they don't eat crud.
amalgamation
14 years ago
We've used a ShopVac with a lot of success and it was *much* cheaper than a good pond vac. One of the trees over our pond is a large conifer that drops round marble-sized "pine cones" and it sucks those up easily.

Depending on how big your rocks are, you could get a hose attachment with different sized ends. It will definitely be easier to clean the bottom with the flagstone, but I'd worry about the stuff underneath (if you don't suck it out first) eventually making the bottom anaerobic and stinky but the filtering might make a difference with that. (We don't have a filter, but our water is clear.)

Hope this helps :)

-A
sleeplessinftwayne
14 years ago
I guess no one will believe me but stuff collects under flagstone as well. Maybe worse. Try it. Put down just one flagstone and lift it after a week or two. You will be shocked at the amount of mulm that collects. Sandy
buyorsell888
14 years ago
I pictured that the flagstones would be mortared when I said they'd make vacuuming easier.

what does pond shelving, snails, and a substrate have in common?

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abranv
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squirelette

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what does pond shelving, snails, and a substrate have in common?

Comments (6)

abranvOriginal Author

squirelette

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amalgamation

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abranv
Original Author