Oi! Do you mind? You're making me cross-eyed!!

Nice one! ...out with the pond net then! That's what mine was like...I got quite a shock..but it was very therapeutic removing it all!

urgh...Tetra Algorem...a whole bottle in 48 hours...

...and, now, a few hours later...you'd never think I'd even done it!

"Crystal O" makes it all fry and disappear in the sunlight...but, unfortunately, "Crystal O", is 50kms away...

...Scrappy things - Get growing and get to work!!!

Oh, J! I would love your advice!

Okay, so...the pond has been seriously devoid of oxygenators...

...marvellously huge clumps of eel grass and two varieties of potomageton have been added today...along with other "emergants" (?)

I know that using chemical stuff is only a quick fix...

...so, do you think I need to fish-out the koi, until it all has a chance to get going? They eat EVERYTHING!!

Thanks J. I got up to find that two of my new (and quite substantial) oxygenators have been grazed back to the baskets, over-night. I can't afford to keep these fish any longer.

So, have spent the morning fishing - no luck - they're wily little swine.

Plan B...get a bigger pump and empty the pond, enough to be able to round them up...then start again...

Tetra pond ultra safe during the re-fill?

No J...it's the pond we dug out and filled three summers ago - foolishly adding three tiny wee ghost koi. As they've grown (and boy, how they've grown), the plant life has diminished...so it's just a sad hole, filled with green water now. These koi are eating-machines and now they're having a gourmet diet!

I was speaking to Cammi this morning and he's going to bring a big pump next week. That way we can lower the water level, quickly, and catch them...and a few of the goldfish, then get a few more plants in. I'm not going to put them back in - even when it's established. It was always meant to be fish pond/water garden and I don't think it's at all possible with the koi in there.

Thanks J!
That is just the reassurance I was needing. They've started on the eel grass now, very trickily lowered into the farthest, deepest point, with strings and my velux window hook...
I've spent a good while today, researching whether there ARE any plants that Koi won't eat...and the answer is - they'll be rooting up the water lilies next. Actually, that's probably the reason they've never done so well.

It is a liner, so I can give it a good clean - and the pump at the same time. Just have to choose a day when it's not too hot...shouldn't be too difficult - rain forecast again...

Goodness! What a palaver. Reading this makes me quite relieved I don't have a pond here, however beautiful, and however brilliant the wildlife one would attract. Not something for a lazy person like me, obviously.

That's what I thought too, Gatti and J.

It's mad, but, I put a pond in at the old house and had all the same bother of trying to keep it clear. In the three years since we left, it has had no attention whatsoever (it's a gîte, now)...it's full of goldfish (who don't get fed)...and yet, it's crystal clear. And all plants (especially the water lily) are astonishingly healthy. It's just not fair!!

I keep pinching bits of them and sentencing them to death in this pond.

It is much smaller than this one...and I suspect that sometimes it gets very low, but, no tap water at all...it seems to have created it's own balance.

No J...I have to wait for a sunless day.

It's hard to explain, but, when I had the mini-digger man make the hole...he made it on various levels (just as I asked)...

...but, everything is very "rounded" and sloping (thought it would be better for the liner!), with a big drop to the deepest part...

...I have a water lily in a big basket perched on the drop and lots of marginals...some new, some already there! So, I have to empty and re-fill very quickly - with no frazzling sun!

Have a wonderful holiday!! x

Okay...be sure that you do.