Hi to everyone and thanks for the remarks! The pond is dirt but there are a
lot of leaves and pine needles that have fallen into it since it was dug, so
maybe the bottom is somewhat buffered from the catfish in there. The catfish
are commonly called mud cats and don't grow over a foot long from what I
have read. There are also a number of koi in there, and they are really
spooky, maybe because the water isn't clearer. I have put three pots of
water lilies in; I was afraid to plant them direct in the bottom so they
wouldn't take over. I plan to build a waterfall with the flow of water from
the well, am considering trying my hand at some homemade
rocks....anyone have any luck with them?
..

Is the pond lined or dirt?
Are there any fish in the pond?

Usually we council lots of plants in ponds to help
with clear water. (Gives algae(s) some competition for nutrients.)
But you need to be able to manage the plants, which is much easier to do
in
smaller ornamental ponds.
We also advice low stocking of fish, not overfeeding fish and some way to
clean
debris out of the pond (you won't have much of that now).


If your pond is an earth pond I recommend
Earth Pond Sourcebook
by Tim Matson
and the newsgroup
misc.rural

If lined there are ways to use plants that will
not cause all that much more work. Let us know.

k30a :-)