I have a reasonably large pond of around 10,000L which started leaking this year and has multiple holes in the lining. I’m in the process of sorting this out. All the fish are out, plants out and a few frogs, all in various baths and buckets in sheltered places. I’m clearing out the thick mud and not far from being able to put down the new lining. My worry is that we have a patio edging which will go down again over the lining and I worry about very small amounts of cement going into the pond. There are only 9 goldfish in the pond so not a lot, but I worry about them being out of the pond for too long . I can do water changes of their temporary pond, and it is buried so it won’t get too cold, but has anyone tried doing a pond edge with the fish in before?
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Re-lining existing pond
- Thread starter RPackman
- Start date
netsukekoi
Member
Have done similar several times on koi ponds without any ill effects - would not worry too much (bigger worry is that you had accumulated a thick layer of sludge at the bottom. Might be good for frogs but not great for clarity or water quality and a great home for bugs and parasites).
Yes, there was a thick layer of sludge at the bottom, accumulated over the 30yrs since it went in. It was foul to clear out and I feel evil for the fish who have been living in it. The true bottom of the pond is pretty difficult to get to without emptying it so although I vacuum the bits I can get to, the deepest part was too difficult to get to without completely emptying it! I’ll have to figure out a better way of cleaning it in future
martin-green
Member
- Joined
- 8 Aug 2011
- Messages
- 296
So long as the old liner is clean (No debris/stones etc) it will be ok, as the old liner will act as an underlay. (My pool has 4 layers, don't ask)
The pond is back, the cement work has been done around the outside with little/no cement in the pond and stable pH so I don’t think enough went into cause serious issues. The new issue now is the cycle! There is less than 0.25 ammonia and around 0.25 of nitrites in there. Nitrates match what is coming out of the tap so the cycle isn’t very well established. The only problem is the holding tank the fish are currently in has the same parameters and I’m having to do daily water changes. This is a much smaller volume of water so is easy enough to do a water change, but the pond is not at all practical to do a water change on! I know the answer is to wait for the cycle to have fully developed on the pond and keep up with the water changes on the holding tank but the fish are starting to signs of stress so I just need to check my reasoning!
