Fish Pond

Currently I am the proud owner of a small, pea green, fish pond.  It is a work in progress.  Created last July 2010 by myself and my brother-in-law, it measures 6 foot by 8 foot.  It is a plain hole in the ground.  It remains undecorated as it seems we did not dig it deep enough so I have not placed the rocks or any landscaping in order to see if the fish survive the winter. How do I know it is not deep enough you ask?  In the heat of summer, I had a lot of my goldfish go belly up from the water getting so hot.  But I solved that problem with a super sized umbrella and water plants. They survived the summer so now to survive the winter.  I thought if they did, I would not re-dig the hole as we had to go through 18 inches of clay.   I have 8 out of the 10 goldfish that were in the pond before winter hit so it appears it is deep enough to survive the past winter we just had.  But it seems the water is now currently a pea green color and I seem not to be able to get it to clear up.

A visit to Koizilla, a local fishpond store, has resulted in quite the surprise for me.  I was informed I am not the happy owner of a fishpond like I thought I was, but that I am the unwitting owner of a water garden.  The size, depth and gallons of water contained do not add up to what is considered a fish pond.  Oh well, I am happy with my water garden/fish pond, except for the pea green soup that has replaced the cool clear water that once filled my pond. I have a working pump, an umbrella (very large) to shade the pond, and I am currently doing water changes almost daily, not to mention all the chemicals I have put in to try and clear up the algae.  I change at least a quarter of water per day.  I pump water out, put water in and use a net to stir up the water to try and catch any dead leaves that have accumulated on the bottom.  My goldfish seem to love this as they swim vigorously toward the net that I am stirring the water with. I am ashamed to say I have whacked one or two of them with the pole as it is hard to see them through the green fog.  But, they survive so I can't be doing to bad.

My brother-in-law suggests I pump all the water out, taking care to remove the fish, and power wash the entire inside of my pond.  Excuse me if I keep referring to this hole as my pond.  I prefer to think of it as a fish pond vice a water garden as the words "fish pond" has so much power and brings to mind beauty and large powerful fish vice water garden.  Water garden just brings to my mind a little pot of water making a tinkling sound from a little spray of water splashing about ( gotta admit, I had one of those for years <laughing>).  I'm getting sidetracked.  Cleaning the fish pond is something I am determined not to do as this would mean I can not maintain clear water and would have to do this major scrubbing yearly.  Ugh.  Tomorrow I try a different chemical, a different tactic.