One of the many services we provide here at Backyard Blessings is what we like to call a PC. A “PC” or ” Pond Clean” is where we simply clean out your pond very thoroughly. When we arrive on scene, we immediately start draining your pond. We first fill up our tub with pond water to house your fish life, some plants, and sometimes even frogs and add an aerator which omits oxygen into the water for your fish. We then let the pond water drain into the desired spot of the yard. Fish and plants are transported to the tub as the pond level lowers, and once our pump has taken out as much water as possible, we then use our shop vac specifically made for ponds, to extract the remaining water and muck from the bottom of the pond. Using a pressure washer, we then proceed to carefully spray the surface of your pond rocks, waterfall stones, and/or pond liner. We strive to get the pond at least 75% to ­85% clean when we do PC’s. Of course you will still have a small amount of muck that wasn’t reached and some dirt tucked in between stones. Realistically we can’t do a 95%­ to 100% clean out job or we would have to take apart your pond!

After pressure washing the whole pond, we do a thorough rinse ­off, still using the pond vac to extract the dirty water. Once most of the dirt gets pushed out of the vac we start the filling up process! We can then start our tool clean up and add plants back into the pond before the water level gets too high. The de-chlorination process is the most important for your fish life. The majority of the city is running off of city water which has chlorine in it. Chlorine can kill your fish so we add a de-chlorination to eliminate chlorine. As we de-chlorinate your pond, we also need to acclimate the fish to the water that’s being added to the pond. In doing that, we add water to the tub as it’s being taken out, slowly introducing the fish to the new temperature. Once the temperature in the tub is almost the same as your pond we can then add transport your fish back into there home! Throughout the clean out process, there are more steps that have taken place. Some ponds have filtration systems, skimmer boxes and water fall filters that need to be cleaned out. Some ponds have filter mats that are necessary for filtering and pond clarity that need replaced. Overtime, some of your pond and waterfall stones may settle, or fall into the pond and look out of place, so we may have to do some stone moving. The most important step however, is for us to watch our step around your property, making sure plants or trinkets are not getting stepped on!