I have a very small back yard with a garden and decided to put a small
pond in with a waterfall. I did'nt plan on putting any fish in the
pond so I only made the pond 5' long by 2' wide by 1' deep. Just big
enough to add something nice to the existing garden. I planned on
putting in a few water plants. I have a few questions as this is the
first time I've ever had a pond and I don't know much about them. Are
there any chemicals I will need to put in the pond? How long should I
wait before I put any water plants in the pond? I filled it with
regular tap water. I used a pond caluculator and found my pond is
about 75 gallon. I'm just finding out now that I may have gone too
small with the pond because I'm hearing that I will have problems with
algae in small shallow ponds. Any Info you can give me on caring for a
small pond this size will be helpfull. By the way.....the pond is in
an area that gets sun most of the day.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

Hi Mike,

Sounds like a nice project.

Algae enjoys sun, new water, fish waste, fertilized run off, rotting plants,
blown in dirt.

With no fish you don't have to worry about fish waste (though you may want to
use a mosquito dunk if you have areas of still water in it).
Keep fertilizer away from it, keep it clean of blown in leaves and trim dead
plant growth.

Algae is always the first 'plant' to get going in a pond so you might have a
slight bloom. You can put the water plants in right away, you don't have to
wait.
You can read the algae primer in my sig, though it deals with ponds with fish
in them it also gives you an idea of the mechanics of algae.


kathy :-)
algae primer
http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html