Hello all,

I am a new user on this forum, and my two young children do not give me time for much research, so if this question has been asked before, please point me to the appropriate thread. I did not find anything with a quick and dirty search.

Ok, about 6 months ago, we moved into a house that has an established pond. It is about 6 ft by 3 feet, but a paisly like shape. I do know that at one end it is about 2.5-3 feet deep (the fish survive the few days of freezing that we have). The other end is shallower, but I couldn't tell you how deep.

The previous owner, who built the pond, rather proudly said he never did anything to it and never planted anything, just let nature take its course. Considering some of the plants are in pots, I know the latter point isn't true. There is no filtration, no fountain or flow, but the liner does leak a bit at the upper levels, so the water drains a bit, and the pond refills with each new rain (or the hose in the summer). The plants around the pond and in it are a bit of a mess, few natives and lots of alien invasives, BUT near as I can tell, no algae problems. And the fish, all goldfish, are happy, and I'm pretty sure breeding.

Today, I was fishing some quince out that my son threw in there in November, and for kicks and giggles tested the depth at the deepest end. There is a LOT of debris down there, fallen tree leaves, dead water lily leaves I'm sure some dead fish, and probably other plant material. The current depth is not what the previous owner said- it's closer to 2 feet. It actually seems to be doing pretty well. But I'm tempted to drain it and clean it out. Should I, or is that inviting problems? I know if I were to do that, and refill with hose water I'll likely have an algae bloom, but is that bad? I have never had a pond, and have no idea really how to care for it. I know what my goals are for it, but I think I'll save that for another thread to avoid confusion.

Can anyone advise me? And hopefully point me into a good direction as far as learning materials ? I'd like to stick with natural and organic methods.

Thanks heaps! And happy Spring!