So me and my wife are buying a house right now. It has an existing wildlife pond on the bottom of the property. I have always wanted a pond but never had the yard for it. This yard is huge (for me anyway, I'm coming from .17 acres) at 20 acres it has more room then I know what to do with. The pond is pretty big but it's surrounded by trees and shrubbery and looks like pea soup. I don't know the first thing about mud ponds. I can make small garden ponds but mud is all new territory for me. At it's size and currant condition I'm slightly over whelmed. My problem is size, condition and distance from electric. As you can see in the pictures it is a good 1000+ ft from our house, that is in the top left of picture. My plan is to cut down most of the trees/shrubs around the pond and then either drain or dredge it and start over, I'd rather not since the bio is already set up and I have no idea what I would do with all that nasty water anyway. If I had electric I could set a pump and UV, but I don't nor do I think a solar powered UV exists. What's the more experienced pond hobbyist's think? I'm open to anything.
New house, finally a pond opportunity.
- Thread starter SiestaSkyy
- Start date
I've built a fair amount of ponds but I personally don't know jack about mud ponds and don't care for them personally. I've always done liners or concrete and if I was in your situation I'd start fresh closer to the house. Are you sure it wasn't just a watering hole for cattle or something of the sort?
Sent from my mind to my fingers to my phone to the MFK servers to you
Sent from my mind to my fingers to my phone to the MFK servers to you
It very well could have been a farmers livestock or irrigation pond. I know the previous owners did not farm the land but before that anything is possible. There is a slope to the land that you can not see in the picture that makes me think it may be a gravity pond, and with a pond existing on the property the size of my house I thought it would be cheaper to try to fix this rather then start from scratch. Quite honestly I don't know a bit of mud bottom either, so I'm not sure if it's an easy feat or if I may as well start digging a new hole... I know either way I'm in for a fight, I guess I was just hoping some one would say "Hey, It's this easy, just do ____ ". I suppose I'll just start digging.
Drain it fill it in and start over closer to the house if you want a pond. You may have a natural spring. Do you have any idea how deep it is? Ponds do not need to be as hard as some people make them. Just dig a hole as big as you want and next year you will have a pond.
