Cleaning ponds | When to clean a pond and how to clean a pond bottom?

Despite regular maintenance and scooping out leaves from your pond, the bottom may become contaminated. The layer of silt will need to be removed. Simon provides tips on how to do this.

All your good intentions notwithstanding, your pond may still become polluted. Fallen leaves have half decayed and sunk to the bottom, fish droppings accumulate; the pond plants can no longer keep up with purifying the water. The result can be a slippery sludge layer at the bottom of the pond or dirty particles floating through the water. High time to step in and clean your pond.

Pond without maintenance

As is the case with many things, prevention is better than cure for a pond. Because a pond that is in biological balance requires virtually no maintenance. Even cleaning your pond then practically does not need to be done. The trick is to build your pond with the right ingredients: 1. a layer of pond substrate, 2. plenty of pond plants for the size of your pond, and 3. add a dose of pond bacteria at the start of your pond. All three play an important role in keeping your pond clean. In Simon's step-by-step plan, you can read how to build your pond the right way. Already have a pond in place and it's still polluted? Read on below. We recommend cleaning your pond no more than twice a year, so as not to disturb the balance unnecessarily.

How can you remove silt from the pond?

Silt in pond water and on the bottom consists of a mixture of leftover fallen leaves, bottom debris, sediment and dead aquatic plants. In short: organic waste. The bottom of your pond is a tricky place to clean. Chances are that the pond bottom contains a (thick) layer of silt if you have not applied pond substrate to the bottom or not enough pond plants. In that case, you will have to clean the pond often. If you don't want this to happen, make sure your pond is set up correctly, so that there are enough and different types of aquatic plants, that there is a good layer of pond substrate on the bottom and that you add pond bacteria to the pond water.

How do you clean the bottom of the pond?

If you want to clean the bottom with or without pond substrate, you can first try to remove coarse dirt particles with a scoop net. Can't get the pond completely clean and is there still a lot of algae on the bottom? Then pump the pond completely empty with a submersible/dirty water pump and rearrange the pond. When you set up the pond correctly, the pond will keep itself clean and you no longer need environmentally harmful pond pumping systems or pond filters to do this for you.

Pond cleaning from algae

The more organic waste there is in the water, the more nutrient-rich it becomes. This provides a warm welcome for algae, such as floating algae or filamentous algae. The latter are relatively harmless, but the slimy green stringy blobs don't make your pond any more attractive. You can remove the largest tangle of threads by hand or with a scoop net. See how to remove string algae from your pond for good. If you suffer from floating algae, your water will turn green - also not what you want. This type of algae indicates that there is no longer a biological balance in your pond. Intervention is necessary. However, it takes some effort to restore the balance and make the algae disappear. We would like to tell you what you can do against floating algae in the pond.

Draining the pond

Draining a pond may be necessary for various reasons, such as maintenance, changing the water level or moving the pond. It is important to dispose of the water responsibly so that the environment and any aquatic life are not affected. This can be done through the use of a water pump, a hose or pipe to drain the water to a drain or another location. It is advisable to seek professional advice before draining a pond, especially if there is a lot of water in the pond or if there are precious fish and plants in the pond.