We seem to have accumulated quite a lot of grubby, muddy silt at the bottom of the pond that the fish keep stirring up and which is clogging the filters.
Any recommendations for some kind of pond-vacuum-silt-remover type device that, hopefully, will not remove any fry that might be in there?
Net the fish and use a wet and dry cleaner? When they're not breeding.
Oase make a pond vacuum cleaner which does a reasonable job - but it's not cheap. Takes a long time because you have to keep stopping to empty the mud from it.
The best way is to empty the pond so that you can clean it properly - but that's a bigger job and you'll need a holding tank for the fish while you do it. I employed someone to do mine, but it cost several hundred quid.
Yes its been left a bit late now, and all I can suggest is to try to extend the nozzles for the filtering away from the silt for now at least. Note I no longer have a pond. grin Brian
those 2 sound self contradictory. If it's small, emptying it is fairly quic k, once you've got a holding tank. But beware that tap water often kills fi sh, it's the copper content. OK if you've got hard water & the plumbing's n ot been disturbed in a while, otherwise fatal.
A trash pump would remove much of the muck but fish too, which is no good. I've never tried scraping the stuff up by the shovel load, but it would be bound to catch or kill the fry, so not really a solution.
If emptying it's not practical, I'd extend & improve the filters, and maybe move the pickup tube to the bottom. And operate it such that the babies ca n get out ok.
NT
Sure its not the chlorine that kills them? Tapsafe removes the chlorine as does a GAC filter.
Add another coarse filter before the bio one and empty the solids more frequently.
I'm not a fish expert. I got that info from a fish keeper's club that had no problem using tapwater, against the usual advice, until one member had a bit of copper pipe replaced. Fish that came into contact with the water then died.
NT
IME fish from funfairs are nearly immortal. I once made the mistake of buying a very decrepit looking tortoise, I hadn't realised that the damaged shell meant good survival characteristics. The damn thing is still wandering around the neighborhood many years later. At least it's destroying other peoples gardens now!
Algae build up in spring is from pollen the rest is either road detritus or autumn leaves. Get an heron that will take care of your fish.
How many times did you fall in ?. Just wondering.
Breeding wet and dry cleaners !.
That must be why my local electrical shop is selling a Henry 'mini' for £139 which looks like a shrunken version of the trusty old DIY variety.
Care to define "take care of"?
Eat.
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