Thanks for the advice!
Cheryl, your pond is beautiful...our ponds are 8' in diameter and 9', the top pond being the smaller one...the waterfall goes into that one, and then the stream is about 2 ft long into the lower pond, where the fish are.
I had such trouble with algae this summer, and it's impossible to get it off of the waterfall...I scrub it with a brush, but it's so stuck on...
we have Mexican rocks in the pond,and the rocks have gotten a brownish goo on them. Do I need to take everything out and wash it all off?
I know it's supposed to be relaxing, but I am so worried about doing something wrong and killing my sweet fish...wish I could do it all over again and know what the heck we were doing when we made the pond...
oh, by the way, I don't know what zone I'm in, but it can get down to -10 in the winter. I have a surface deicer for the lower pond...the one with the fish.

Thanks Debbie. This was one of the ponds I designed and our crew installed this summer. It was one of our larger ones, 11'x13' and approx 4' deep. We don't use preformed liners as they tend to crack and the rocks will perforate the liners and cause them to leak. We have a lot of fish predators so we install ledges in the pond for the fish to hide. It's quite a process but the clients get to keep their fish a lot longer!

Here's a link to an interactive Sunset Climate Zone Map. Find where you live and click on it and you can find what climate zone you are in.

http://www.sunset.com/sunset/garden/...845218,00.html

To control the algae, you need to control the water temperature. The warmer the water, the more the algae will grow.

The ideal conditions for algae to grow rapidly in number are: 1) warm and well-lighted water; and 2) an abundance of nutrients. The key to 'clearing up' green water, therefore, is to prevent the algae from multiplying by removing the ideal conditions for their growth.

You need to shade the pond. Here's a link that might help you.

http://www.koiandponds.com/algaecontrol.htm

"homemade pond bio-filter" info links
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...er&btnG=Search

I use a variety of the suggestions to make mine.
I clean ours out once a year because we live on a dusty rock road and a lot of the airborne dust lands in the pond and builds up in the filter making a sludge.

One of the projects that we undertook when I was in school was to take care of the City's Koi Ponds. It was a lot of fun! The Koi were quite spunky sometimes and we got to wade around in the huge ponds and clean them out. We wore chest waders and sometimes the fish would "bump" us. Some of them were quite large and if you weren't paying attention, you could find yourself getting knocked off balance and a lot wetter than you anticipated!!!

In the subdivision where I live, we have an irrigation pond system in which we had an algae problem until I convinced the association that one of the neighbors was dumping their heated water into the pond from their heat pump system. The association wondered why, during the off season months when we don't have irrigation water flowing into our pond, the water level wasn't dissipating and that the water had to be coming from some source. Keeping the water temperature higher than normal was creating the perfect breeding ground for string algae which is poisonous to some animals. Since the irrigation water flows through two pastures this could potentially cause a problem for the homeowner creating the hazard.

We had a two year process of killing the algae once we put a stop to the homeowner dumping their hot water into the irrigation pond. Fortunately, we have solved the problem and our irrigation water is once again safe.

Algae can pose a potential problem if left uncontrolled. It can damage your pump system as well as kill off your fish. It is also unsightly. It doesn't take much to keep it under control.

Good luck with your pond. They can be a source of relaxation! One of these days, I am going to have one instead of designing and installing them for others!!!

Thanks for all of the advice...It's true that we have afternoon sun beating down on the ponds..in the morning, they're shaded by our maple tree.
I have a pond vacuum on my Christmas list...it might help get some of the waste out of the ponds...
I hope to get an expert in here next spring so that we can clean it right. My spasms and knee and back problems make it impossible to clean it right this fall.
Sometimes I think I should take the koi out of the pond and get an aquarium for the winter, but I really want to see if our deicer works and we can get through the winter...
Thanks again!

How did your fish survive the winter ? I live in the northeast and it gets very cold and snowy here. My pond is about 18 feet long 4 feet deep and 6 feet across although it curves around, it is not a rectangle.

For Algae control I use a combination of algae reducing plants and a ultraviolet lamp that the water flows through. The UV light kills most algae . and the plants are most welcome by the Koi as they eat them.

I run my pumps and waterfall until it freezes over, I then drain down the hose, unplug the pump and go into the house until spring

The pond freezes solid, but come spring, it melts, I clean out the leaves and debrie, and the fishicles defrost and start swimming like nothing happened. Funny I know last winter, the pond was a solid ice cube, we had a very deep freeze and yet this spring the fish are all accounted for

My biggest problems are leaves in the fall and blue Heron in the spring and early summer, One heron can clean out a pool in a few hours.. I think I need to go deeper, I built a ledge for the plants and I think the heron stands on it and has a good shot at the fish.

A few years ago we had a raccoon, that decided our fish were a free meal, so I left the dogs out for a couple of nights.

The UV light is really great for reducing the algae, you should add it to your pond, you dont need a big one and they are fairly cheap on ebay. 50-90 bucks.

Enjoy your pond !

Ahhh spring, with all of it's beauty, and all of it's work
All the fish survived the cold winter...we had a deicer on the surface of the fish pond.
We drained the lower pond with the fish in it...and found about 3" of sludge at the bottom. We'd had two 4" rains within a week during the winter, and the mulch and mud had gotten into both ponds. I honestly don't know how the koi survived all of that. In fact, we found two of the fish in the mud, still alive and kickin'...
we got all of the sludge out, washed off all of the rocks in the bottom, and refashioned the ledges in each pond. We put all of the rocks from the bottom around the edges, building up the edges so we can avoid any further issues with mud.
None of my marginal plants survived, since I left them out of the water. My two lily pad plants did survive, since they were in the bottom of the pond, and they are really taking off this year.
My husband put a net over the fish pond so as to keep the herons and racoons out. We had a male and female mallard duck that thought the pond was their swimming hole. We put a fake owl out next to the pond, and they haven't been back since.
We put some new plants and grasses around the ponds...some of which have already been destroyed by the blasted rabbits. It's a learning process...
We do have a UV filter that we're using this year, and we bought an 11 ft. wide umbrella to protect the ponds from the afternoon sun. It's shaded by a large tree in the a.m.
I'm using an algae reducing liquid a couple of times a month, so I hope it doesn't get too bad this year. The sides are kind of wierd this spring, and I'm trying to figure out how to keep them clean. That's the challenge now. Any advice would be helpful!!
Thanks for all the info!