Ponds and pond care

You’re describing our situation from a few months ago! We acquired a small pond and it was pretty grim. Daughter wanted some fish, which we were supportive of as animal care seems to help her develop empathy.

A couple of weeks back I drained the pond, counted nearly 200 newts and a few frogs as we scooped all the debris out!!

We’ve since refilled the pond, put lots of oxygenating plants in there, bought a pump, some fish and the redistributed the 200 newts and the water has been pretty clear since.

We do get quite a lot of algae but I think it’s due to direct sunlight but I tend to scoop the surface level stuff off when I see it.

Couple of points:

• Get a pump for your size pond
  
• Don’t put plants / animals etc straight into tap/hose water as the chlorine can be harmful - you can get a neutralising agent or wait 24 hours
  
• check out plants for different depths as these create great safety spots for fish/frogs/newts
  
• try not to remove all the sludge, I read that it’s important to leave some (can’t remember why!)
  
• It’s actually lovely watching fish and newts dart about a pond!