I inherited a small pond with four or five comets, a large bullfrog
(reaaaally large), and some plants (and the requisite snails). The previous
home owner told me that i shouldn't feed the fish, even though he had a ton
of food, and all the maintenance it needed was the occasional cleaning and
filter wash.

A year has passed, I emptied the pond of everything temporarily into large
stock tanks, cleaned the pond, built a raised platform out of excess bricks
from a demolished patio and placed the liner into that structure. I
supported the plastiform mould of the pond with sand and backfill soil, and
layed bricks out as a sustaining wall which I believe will last the winter.

I then set a beach umbrella in as a permanent shade, and used thin rocks as
covers for the edge of the liner. I plan to post pictures of the setup
soon, but now that you have the background, here's my query: since that
move the fish have had about 4 fry, my stinky little brother dumped 5
bullfrog tapoles into the pond without my knowledge (they have since grown
and shown no signs of leaving although the original bullfrog decided to call
it quits) and the frog-bit and other aquatic plants I placed are growing
quite well. The strange thing is that I haven't had to feed the fish or
wash the small mechanical filtration unit. It just doesn't get choked up by
algae like it used to, the water has pretty much remained clear, and the
frogs and fish appear to love their home. Is there such a thing as a mostly
maintenance-free pond? The fish eat the algae and the frogs devour the
plethora of insects, so food doesn't seem to be a problem. The filter
hasn't clogged yet, and the plantlife controls the bad algae, so upkeep
doesn't appear to be an issue. Do I just sit back and enjoy like I have
been, or should I worry about the structural integrity during the sometimes
harsh Pennsylvania winters? Oh, having the pond raised like this cuts down
on the falling leaves, etc, drastically!

HK Newbie wrote I then set a beach umbrella in as a permanent shade...
cleaned the pond...haven't had to feed the fish...
doesn't get choked up by
algae like it used to.... the water has pretty much remained clear

You've employeed three of the algae primer basics
- cleaned out the debris
- added shade
- didn't overfeed fish


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

Sounds like the pond has inherited a natural balance in the eco system
with each other. However odds are it will go sour on you some time or
other once just a single thing gets out of line. To me its usually
easier to keep things up by checking and doing odds and ends than
having to fix a major problem when remidying a simple problem would
have eliminated the major.

I assume you live in the southern portion of PA if your not concerned
much with any major winter issues and freezes, but don't
underestimate momma nature.

I like the beach umbrella idea myself......I have a small approx 8 or
10 gal preformed pool which was made for use as a connecting pool,
instralled in the middle of the companion plant section of our water
garden into which I continuously pump water into from out of the large
natural pond. From this connecting pool it flows out the spillway
through a small stream and over a waterfall. Even though its
constantly getting fresh cool water from the depths of the large pond
I still use an umbrella to help shade the little pond, until some of
thre companion plants get large enough to do it naturally.

If there are sufficient insects then supplemental feeding may not be
needed.
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