This is a short video of my backyard pond I took a few hours ago today.
Check it out! I've finally defeated the algae!
I'm happy, the fist are happy, the local birds are happy and the dragon flies are happy. The mosquitoes that bred in the pond are happy....for awhile until the fish eat the larva and those mosquitoes who do manage to survive, the dragonflies and dragon damsels (the female dragon flies) are waiting for them.
When I installed this pond three years ago my plan was not to have a pond filter running 24/7 but instead to have aeration supplied by my solar panel and leave the rest up to Mother Nature with the proper planting of plants. Alas, the algae always seem to take over.
This year I decided to install an electric motor pump and a filter box. Oh sure, it doesn't look "natural" (as all the instruction books always urge) but it works for me......and the fish. Maybe next year I'll fancy up the black filter water-fall box with flagstone to make the waterfall look more natural. Hey, it's not natural so what's the difference? My main goal is to have clear water so I can see the fish and for the fish, so they can see. Previously, with all the algae, my pond often looked like pea soup, very thick pea soup.
When we lived in Pennsylvania I had three ponds, all electric motor driven. Two of the ponds I had built a filter system that mimicked natural (there's that word "natural" again) wetlands. I never had to change that filter. With the filters I have now, I have to change them every four to five days. Actually rinse them out of algae.
Some algae in a pond is natural. In fact the fish eat algae but maintaining the proper balance is tricky. I am so happy that I have that balance now.
Once I day, around noontime, I go up to the pond to feed them. I turn on my hose from my well to provide fresh water for the pond. My resident fish, many of whom were born in this pond (I started out with six feeder goldfish I bought three for twenty-five cents each). The fish know this is feeding time. The warmer the weather, the hungrier they are. I actually don't have to feed them because they can find enough in the pond to sustain themselves but I like the daily routine of feeding them.
I know it sounds like a chore to clean the pond filter box every four or five days but I don't mind. It's part of my regular routine plus I'm outside. Maybe not so much fund on a day like today where the temperature is ninety degrees and 91% humidity but most days it's just fine.
By the way, if you look closely at my pond videos you'll see a large, fancy, multi-colored fish. That's "Big Mama". A good friend of mine asked if her granddaughter's pet goldfish, which she got at a local fair in Pennsylvania some years ago, could join my goldfish club in my pond. Her granddaughter's goldfish had outgrown her tank in her home. I said "Sure!" This is her second summer in my pond. And guess what, I have several multicolored baby goldfish now!
There are only two problems with having a goldfish pond that bother me. At some point I either die or move away and I can't take the goldfish with me. When Bill and I moved from our beautiful home in Pennsylvania, I left about a dozen long term gold fish in my ponds. A few years later, after the buyer of our Pennsylvania home defaulted on his mortgage and had to move out and left our old home abandoned, we visited the now empty house with overgrown shrubbery. I checked the pond which was filled with about two years worth of dead leaves. Low and behold I could see movement of fish in that pond! I felt so bad to have to leave those fish there. I guess I could have scooped them out and taken them down to the nearby Brandywine River. They wouldn't have lasted too long there though because of the local resident heron cranes but maybe they would have had a better quality of life.
These days which I often think of my soon to be demise and what will happen to the "things" I leave behind, I of course am again concerned about my goldfish. One would think I would have a problem down here in coastal Delaware with their heron cranes but so far, so good. I'm starting to have a problem with the local deer but that is a subject for another blog posting.
Have a great day everyone and try and stay cool this week! We're into summertime.
P.S.
The photo background is of Rehoboth Beach now. This one wasn't taken by me though. I took it from a Facebook posting that posts daily pictures of Rehoboth Beach. This photo was taken yesterday, June 21st, 2025. Even though I only live ten miles up the road from Rehoboth Beach, I do not visit the beach in summertime unless I go with someone else. This time last year Pat and Glenn were visiting me. Remember that? I ended up in the hospital for three days from heat exhaustion. I don't want no repeats this year. And I especially want to stay out of the hospital.