Help with new pond maintenance.....?

Question

I had a pond dug on some vacation property I own. It's 30' in diameter and 4' deep. My question is, what do I need to do to maintain it? There is little water in it right now, but the person who dug it assured me it will fill in with rain and then the melt off of snow in the winter. It's out in the woods, and animals will be coming to drink, so I assume no chemicals should be put in once it's filled, but do I need to run a circulation pump to keep water moving in there so algae doesn't take over in the summer? I can dig a ditch to it and run a line if I have to. Any experience and suggestions would be appreciated.

Answer 1

i agree with the boy above me..

Answer 2

I hope you had the level of the water table checked and a core sample taken of the ground before you paid money to dig this pond or it may NEVER fill with water - unless it has a liner, of course.

Answer 3

you could add a pump to it but, algae will grow in it without any kind of sanitizer in it. but if you want animals to drink out of it no i would not add any. are you going to swim in it? what about snakes?

Answer 4

Certain types of plants can help, but you would need to make sure they don't take over the pond and smother everything.

Some kind of pump or filter would be a good idea though.

Answer 5

Nature will fill it as long as it rains. Running a line to keep it filled is one way but it'll take a LONG time to add the water but defiantly possible.

The pump will aid in keeping the circulation of the water and oxygen levels up. It'll keep it from getting stagnant and smelling nasty.

Unfortunately it will do nothing to keep algae blooms from occurring

Algae blooms occur in the warmer months high levels of  nutrients along with direct sunlight. The more sunlight it gets the more algae.

There are many products on the market to control algae and there are many that are environmental safe.

Email me if you want further info I would be glad to help..

Try this link on algae. It'll give you the basics:

http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/aquaculture/...

http://www.newtechbio.com/pond-maintenan...

Try this for basics on your pond for maintenance and ideas on circulation pumps:

http://www.scottaerator.com/index.php

http://www.awesomelibrary.org/pondmainte...