Good morning, I went out yesterday and found the highest point of the lowest point of the ground (if that makes sense) and used my handy-dandy water level to find the equal point at the highest point of the cliff. Then measured down from the cliff. This determined that the water level will be 4.5 - 5 feet down from the edge of the current cliff. Then I picked a random number and measured up along the slope of my remaining hill 9 feet. I chose this number for three reasons a) it needed to be short enough not to eat up my entire hill, b) it needed to be long enough to make a substantial difference in the angle of the cliff/slope, and c) it needed to be big enough to fit three small pools. I'm not sure it will satisfy C, but it's a starting point. So then I did a little calculation. I'm not sure why I'm doing the calculation. But those 2 sides of the imaginary triangle leave me with a 10.3' slope up from the 4' mark. That would mean, if I built the lowest rock wall 2' high, it would have 1' submerged (approx) and 1' above water level. That seems much more doable. That also gave me a more accurate measurement of the "deep end". It is a good 4' down from the top of the water. That is more than ample. My first concern is STILL creating a stable berm for that area of the rock wall. My thoughts are to start work by cleaning up the shape of the pond and throwing all medium and small sized rocks into the deep end. Then, as I start to cut into the cliff to make the sloped terraced pools, I will throw the dirt onto the rocks and create a new floor of the pond. When I tried to pound a rod in the ground to measure the water level at the back of the pond, the gravel/dirt fell away as soon as I touched it. So I am anticipating that I cannot "sculpt" out a berm back there. So I'm wondering about using the big rocks (10" to 14" in diameter) to create a foundation (on top of this new floor) for the rock wall instead of a dirt berm. Does that make sense? Will write separate post regarding the pump. Cheers, Katie

Algae grows fast in a pond that doesn't have much surface covered with plants. You have a lot of iris--don't buy anymore as they multiply like crazy! Don't know how long your season is but you could probably have at least two hardy lilies in your pond depending on the variety. I have 6 in my pond which is 18ft long by about 7 ft wide and overwintered them in the pond and the sc last year. Deepest point on my pond is about 4 ft and it gets very cold for a very long time here in the winter. They all survived. Have never had much luck with hyacinth or water lettuce and I don't like how the hyacinth goes brown. I would think if you are going to overwinter it you'd need grow lights of some sort. I've had alot of string algae this year too but I just go along the edges and pull it out and about every two weeks put on the hip waders to get the stuff that's wrapped around the lilies. Have had to clean the leaf trap before my pump several times this year due to the increased algae from the hot weather we had last month. Some people use an UV light for algae but I never have but don't have the green soup algae. I look at it as a sign of a healthy pond--algae doesn't grow if there isn't nutrients for it so...If it's driving you crazy use the toilet brush, feed your fish less and get some plants for surface coverage. Good luck. Patti

I am going on 1 month with a turtle in my pond. Let me say this....they can climb vertical rock surfaces. They might even be able to leap and or fly since mine keeps getting out and I don't know how. They do need a pot full of mud to burrow in to in the winter though. Especially if it freezes near you. As for koi...I have a 9 inch koi who currently bullies my red eared slider. I feed the turtle little pellets on a rock that he suns himself on that is partially submerged. He won't eat dry pellets so I have to toss them in the water. The koi will literally push himself on to the rock, 1/3 out of the water and muscle the turtle out of the way to steal a few sticks. Lately the turtle has planted his feet and stood his ground a little better. Its hilarious though I have seen his big clawed turtle feet push against my koi and worried about scratches. As for eating fish....every bite he takes of his pellets he makes crumbs and all my Mosquito fish and platies swirl around him as he eats. I have seen him go out of his way NOT to eat little fish right in front of him. though this doesn't mean he will always do so.

Some ponds are never cleaned and the ponds and its occupants survive very well. However, a large number of ponds are created with high fish densities or are built in locations were the pond receives a great deal of debris over the year. Even if you start out with just a few fish initially, in a healthy pond they will breed to the point that the number of fish will push the environmental limits of your pond and biofilter. The debris may be the result of leaves blowing into the pond, the die-back of vegetative pond plants as well as fish wastes. It is these latter types of conditions that will necessitate you cleaning the pond eventually. The two most likely time points for cleaning are in the fall, to reduce the amount of accumulated muck on the bottom of the pond as you head into winter, or in the spring to remove material accumulated over the winter from leaves blowing into the pond, accumulated fish waste or catkins and similar materials shed by trees as they leaf out. Cleaning in the fall reduces wastes in the bottom of the pond which may turn anaerobic if sufficient oxygen is not available, creating a breeding ground for harmful bacteria, or which may decompose, releasing ammonia and other dangerous chemicals that can be trapped under the ice. The build-up of these pollutants can lead to fish kills over the winter months. While keeping a hole in the ice over winter will help alleviate the accumulation of gases, cleaning the pond before winter sets in will reduce the overall potential for problems. Cleaning the pond in the spring may help reduce diseases and parasites that often occur as the pond and its biology warms up for the summer, as well as reduce the overall availability of nutrients that stimulate algae growth. The following are a few approaches that have been successfully used to clean the pond. 1. If the pond has a bottom drain periodic changes of water (typically 10% per week) have been used to evacuate the accumulated debris from the bottom of the pond. This simple approach minimizes the amount of material that is removed at any one time as well as adds water to the pond on a periodic basis. Care must be taken when adding water to be sure that you have minimized the addition of chlorine and chloramines typically present in many municipal water supplies. This can be done either by pre-treating the water with dechlorination agents or by using a whole-house water filter with an activated carbon cartridge. 2. Using a net such as used in swimming pools is helpful for cleaning out large materials that have settled to the bottom of the pond. However, if there is a very large amount of debris in the pond you should be careful to either remove the fish or use supplemental aeration to avoid creating significant oxygen deprivation due to stirring up anaerobic or large amounts of oxygen-consuming muck. If you notice a rotten egg smell this indicates the presence of hydrogen sulfide. You should immediately stop stirring up the bottom and get the fish out of the water as soon as possible before continuing with the cleaning. 3. You can use a variety of devices for vacuuming the bottom of the pond. Some of these use a garden hose to create a suction through a venturi device. The potential problem with these devices is that the pond may fill up with too much water during a prolonged vacuuming and you may have a potential problem of adding chlorine and chloramines to your pond if you do not pretreat the water. Wet/dry shop vacs, specially those with an attachment for a garden hose to provide a continuous drain, have also been used. These devices may drain a large amount of water from the pond in a short time and therefore it is necessary to either replace the water or use the garden hose to add the water back into the pond through the biofilter. Care must be exercised in reintroducing water taken from the bottom of the pond in that it may be depleted of oxygen as well as have very high suspended sediment levels that may create problems for the fish. A third approach is to use a pump capable of handling a moderate level of solids (such as a sump pump) to pull water from the bottom of the pond and pass it through a device to strain out the majority of the solids and then recirculate the water back into the pond. Filtering materials such as old sweaters, panty hose, etc. have all been used with some success in this approach. In any of these approaches, if using an electrically powered device running on house voltage make sure that you have it plugged into a GFI protected circuit for your own safety. Ronaye, Steve and David