"kathy" wrote:

Now some ponders, smarter and wiser than us, put in skimmers to
keep most of the stuff from settling to the bottom,

Also, snails do a great job. I started with 6 trap door snails and now
after one season have thousands. They can't wait for dead stuff to eat.
--
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18,000 gallon (17'x 47'x 2-4') lily pond garden in Zone 6
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA