Plants You have a lot. I'm not on site so hard to tell, but from the pics I'd probably remove all the plants from the pond and vacuum or scoop the bottom with a swimming pool leaf rake. When removing the plants note how deep they are. Moving them to deeper water might be an issue. For everything other than lilies moving plants to more shallow water, or even above the water is almost always better for the plants, so that would be OK if you like. Then I could assess the plants and pond better. Pots, baskets, directly plants? Can pots be reused? I can now see the pond without plants. How's it look to me? Were some plants hiding something that I want to continue to hide? I come up with a plan. Buy replacement pots? Maybe reduce the number of species returned to the pond. If the plants are planted directly in soil, not pots, you really have to empty the pond and deal with the plants. Fish have to be moved. That's a whole deal I won't get into now. Most (all) the plants will have to be divided. Depends on when last done. I just made a post on this. Most of dealing with plants just has to be learned with experience. But here's some things you may not know... When removed from the pond the plants can stay out of water for a really long time. Weeks, even months. The leaves may die back but the roots (rhizomes) last a long time out of water. Keeping them in water can actually cause rot. You can also plant them in regular garden pots with dirt, same as a regular garden plant, and just keep them well watered and they grow great. This is true for every plant except lilies, floaters and plants that grow completely underwater. Some times if you look up a plant on the web or printed on the label when buying a plant it will say 6" of water, or 12" of water, or whatever. Many people think that means the plant must be in that much water. This is actually the maximum depth the plant can take. Most of these do better the less water. Even planted in the yard many of these plants will do well. Here in Phoenix many kinds of "pond plants" are used in yards. This is because "pond plant" isn't really a very good term... "vernal pool plant" would be better. They've adapted to living in standing water and also dry periods when there's no water which is what a vernal pool is. So knowing this can make your life easier, more options. Plants inside the pond = more work. So reducing them will be less work in the future. You can put some of these into pots around the edge of the pond, or in the ground, or switch to other kinds of plants around the edge. Gives you the same lush look with way less work and the pond appears much larger. Here are some pics of a pond I built in San Jose CA to demonstrate. No plant is inside the pond. And here the pot on the left is a "pond plant" called Horsetail Rush. It's a foam pot with no drainage hole, soil from the yard. This plant, like most "pond plants" can be very invasive, but no problem in a pot. And no drainage holes means no straining from leaking water (the pot on the right need drainage and therefore a catch pan under it). Go on vacation for a week or two the pot is fine with no watering. When it's time to divide it's no big deal.

Dudleydoright, I agree with no additives besides a water conditioner if you have water supplied by a water company, private wells don't need it. Bacteria's in a bottle are usually nothing more then a placebo! Exception is Bio-Spira that is no longer available. Use the money you would have spent for the bacteria in a bottle and get yourself an accurate reagent test kit, money would be better spent. See the link at the bottom to explain the "cycle" if you are unsure. It is not a technical article, but a basic summary of what it is about. What Ernie did is called a "fishless cycle" and is a great idea and more humane to the fish. It also gets things going quicker because you can spike the ammonia level well past the danger zone to fish. Bio-Spira is the only reliable "bacteria in a bottle" however it is no longer available in the refridgerated form. There is a new product that was supposed to replace it but there has been no tests to my knowledge that back it. By the way the biochemist who invented Bio-Spira for Marineland, no longer works for them. Bio-Spira is still available under the Bio-spira name for salt water only now. Here is a link that might be useful: The Pond Forum

Lesliew There is some very good and very bad advise given here. First let me address the question of to clean or not to empty pond for cleaning. First I have seen no where that your pond has a bare liner anywhere, in fact you say you have a lot of gravel on the bottom. So I have to assume that the liner is covered with rock. If this is the case than you are building up debri in this rock that can not be removed by vacuuming. It normally can only be removed by emptying and pumping it out. Does this have to be removed? That depends on where you live and how you keep the pond in the winter. If you live somewhere the pond gets covered with ice than chances are that you will have a problem one winter. Can I tell you when this will happen? No that depends on a lot of different factors such as fish load, debri in pond, how a hole is kept in the ice, what state the debri in the pond is in, and how long the ice is on the pond. Is cleaning a pond hard on the pond? Yes but the killing of all the fish is harder on the owner. Do you need to add bacteria to the pond? This answer is going to start a lot of debate but here goes. If you have a pond that is covered in rock than you should add it as the manufacture suggests. If you live some where that you get ice on the pond than it becomes more important. Than it also depends on how good you are at keeping debri out of the pond. The main purpose of added bacteria is to break down debri in the pond smaller so that the bacteria that naturally occurs in the pond break it down to a point where it is not a problem. It does this far quicker than the bacteria in the pond can do it. The real problem comes from what type of bacteria in the pond is breaking this debri down. If the bacteria isn't getting any O2 than the bacteria that breaks the debri down produces some very nasty gases. These gases are what will kill the fish. Should I clean the pond with the fish in it? This depends on weather or not you have the bacteria that is producing these nasty gases and how fast you clean it. If you stir up this debri so that the gases are released faster than the pond can expell these gases thru the surface of the pond then the fish will be affected by these gases. Do I need a biological filter? Again this depends on several factors. Natural lakes and ponds don't have additional filters and they don't have problems. But that isn't quite true. Yes they do not have additional filters on them but nature keeps the fish load to what the body of water with the addition of fresh water can support. This is done by the amount of food that is available, concretations of natural chemicals that the fish put in the water gets high enough they stop reproducing and growing, and if all else fails fish kill offs. In the normal garden ponds these are controled. Fish are fed and water is changed so the fish load can quickly get higher than what the pond can support. Than what happens? Very simply you have fish die offs. I am sorry to be so windy but I waded into this thread not because of your situtation but because of other people that may read this thread and get some bad information. From what you have written you probably would not have a problem following the advise given on this thread but another ponder could have some very bad problems following it. Mike

300ga stock tank pond, 3/4 buried in the ground (5'x5'x28"). ~1000gph submerged pump goes to a 60ga DIY skippy-type filter with scrubbies, rocks, and lots of plants on top. Water flows out and down a small stream back to the pond. Six 6-8" goldfish/comet/shebunkins and 1/2 a dozen babies. Spring: Raise the potted plants from the bottom, re-pot and fertilize. Drain ~1/2 the water and clean out any debris on the bottom. Put the plants back in and start up the pump. Fill the skippy and put plants back in it. Buy new oxygenator plants. If the water turns green add prefilter of quilt batting or window screen to pump. Clean once a week for a couple weeks until the plants get growing and the water clears, then remove. Summer: Prune plants and remove yellowing pads as necessary. Remove string algae from the stream once in awhile. Watch so the watercress doesn't plug up the skippy outlet :) Feed the fish 2 or 3 times a week. Fall: Stop feeding fish when water temp Winter: Just before the first snow or hard freezing pull the pump, clean it and store it inside. Drain the skippy and flush it with the hose (this is the only time I 'clean' my skippy). Leave drain plug out for winter. Add air stone and tank heater to pond. This year I'm going to cover 2/3 of the pond with plywood or foam board. Fish stay in it. I have clear water except for ~ 2 weeks in the spring. I try to keep my fish load low and have lots of plants. I rarely have much string algae, my fish seem to like to graze it down. I have a 2nd pond a bit smaller with a 640gph pump and a 1/2 whiskey barrel skippy that I remove all plants and fish from and let freeze for the winter (it's a liner pond and only 18" deep). Otherwise maintenance is the same.