The Big Cleanout

[Lynz781]

Day one in the Hutton household, Peter and his daughter Lynsey(me) start the gigantic job of cleaning out the old pond thats been there for about 15 or more years. So far I've trapped my hand in a door and smacked myself in the face with a heavy duty plastic bag, but apart from that all went well so far. We have five fish that will be living in two plastic boxes for a wee while

Well this is the pond part drained and plants from the side removed and most of the fairy moss gunk removed. We collected all the snails we could see too:

Here are the boxes with the fish. I'll be able to get better clearer pics at a later date:

Hmmmm, didn't think goldfish had teeth

Draining.....

Alot of fish poo:

We found the pissing boy statue who had been for a rather long swim:

Peeling back the liner:

Washing away all the sludge we emptied down the drain:

Even the next door neighbour was wondering what we were up to:

Can't remember ever having hands this dirty:

Six bags full of sludge:

nothing to do with the pond but I took a few pics of plants

More to come, the funs not over yet!

 

[jayjay]

i remember doing something similar once, getting all the muck from the bottom, but it was no where near on the extent your doing it lol.

good luck

 

[Breedon]

im glad im not you you have a job on your hands there, are you making the pond bigger or just a big clean up?

 

[Lynz781]

We are not making it bigger just cleaning it out. Fingers crossed the fish do ok in the boxes though

 

[sheba]

Hi, good pics. Remember to give the fish plenty of air while they're in the tubs - I presume you used the pond water they'd come from?? Dechlorinate the pond before they go back in again

 

[Lynz781]

Yeh used pond water. Its my dads pond and he doesnt dechlorinate as far as im aware.

 

[BettaUK]

Did I see you using a hose pipe.. LOL

Great pics, but can I ask why you have taken the liner out aswell?

 

[Lynz781]

Cuz it was old and dirty and had holes in it.

 

[BettaUK]

Cuz it was old and dirty and had holes in it.

Oh ok.. now it makes sense. I thought you were just changing it because it was dirty

Can't wait to see the finished pics.. I'm sure it's going to look great once it has established again!

Do you have any pics of the pond before you started draining etc..?

 

[Lynz781]

Yeh this is what it looked like every summer:

I cant find the pic of it in the day so heres one in the dark:

So I missed out on day 2 because I was working. But here are some of day three (today):

 

[Lynz781]

 

[FroggFrogg]

You are allowed to use a hose pipe for the purppose of topping up ponds and such which contain livestock.
And on the dechlorinator note i recentley cleaned out my pond (which we do once a year) and have never used dechlorinator. Seems a bit cruel but the fish are fine!

 

[MasterP]

In my pond we used dechlorinator just to make sure everything was safe for the fish. What types of plants are you going to put in? I would put a lilly just becuase i like the look of them.

 

[Phunky Vicar]

my neighbour's would only have to see me holding a hose reel,& they would be straght on the phone to the water board,as they have nothing better to do

cant wait to see the finsihed job..

@ FroggFrogg,using a hose in any form,could result in a fine if caught. Just top ur pond up at night,when its dark thats what i did..

 

[Lynz781]

A fine? why?