Cleaning a pond from fish and algae

Hi,
a friend of mine asked me how to "clean" a pond where fish has found their way inside and a lots of algae have grown around.
The idea is to use the water for irrigation purposes. So I guess that, if drip irrigation is used, to make sure the pipeline doesn't get clogged.
What would be the best way to filter out fish (without killing it) and algae?
I guess what could be difficult is if there are baby fish which might get squashed into a water filter.
I am not sure if they want to just use the filtered water as it comes out filtered or just get rid of fish and algae and keep the "cleaned" water stored in the pond, for later usage.

Depending on how big (or deep) the pond is, I guess that the algae can be raked out. At least the ones that are easier to reach.

Maybe there is a time of the year when the fish is already grown (not sure though if there are only one type of fish) so that it can just be screened out together with the more coarse pieces of algae, and the rest of the algae could be screened out by a regular water filter (like those with lots of rings inside....can't remember what they are called )

Or maybe there are commercial filters that take care of all this, no matter how small the fish are....however, in this case there should be a "place" that is, a water container where the fish should be deposited after being filtered out... humm...

Any ideas?

In moderation the algae and fish manure should be excellent for any plants. My main concern would be pathogens on anything eaten fresh (ie leafy greens). Where feasible, i water everything i can in the spring with my pond water, which has a colony of goldfish from the prior owners’ grandkids’ bring some home as a prize from the fair. The pond is overflowing often then, and plants benefit most from nitrogen rich fish manure in spring-early summer.

I do share your question about pond water filtration for drip irrigation though, as I do have drip irrigation on about an acre of gardens and trees, and would like to install it for establishing several hundred more trees in my zones 3-4. Until now 200+ trees planted last winter have been hand watered with pond water pumped into an IBC tank in my truck, which gets hauled to the top of my hill and gravity fed to the trees via a hose. This is obviously not very time efficient, though I do enjoy listening to the night sounds or audiobooks under the stars and hanging with my little trees, especially Steinbeck and Hemingway’s stuff set in similar country to mine. However its getting to the point i just dont have the time to do so many trees this way, and drip with pond water seems my best option. I do also have several hundred more trees that just go without irrigation altogether, but their survival rates are less than 10% here, whereas trees that got 2” every two weeks had 65%+ survival.

I am thinking a settling tank and prescreening setup would be helpful for any final filter, but somebody must have already solved this problem before.

My

Your friend’s pond may be much bigger than mine but I have two really low tech approaches for cleaning 2 small (~100 and ~500 gal ponds with ~20 goldfish each) that could be scaled up. Each pond has plant, fish and shade features that prevent excessive algae growth. What I’m gathering is the bottom sediment. I mix this with regular compost.
Pond 1: Free-form pond with liner and pump. Using a recirculating submergible pump placed at the bottom of the below ground fish pond, the pump draws in pond water and releases it into a 10 gal bucket above the main pond. Residues sink to the bottom of the bucket and clear water overflows out the bucket then trickle over a “falls” and back into the main pond. When the 10 gal bucket is about 5 gal full of pond sediment, I turn off the pump, pour off the clear water then harvest the residue using an improvised scoop for the compost pile (2x per year).
Pond 2: A round water trough without a pump. I put a garden hose at the bottom of the pond when topping off (1x per week in summer). The hose pressure causes the muck at the bottom to mix with the clear water then overflow (water plus residue) into a trench compost system around the trough. Fish seem to enjoy feeding on the debris that gets stirred up from the bottom of the pond.

P.S.  The best small pond rake you probably already own!
Working on the above ponds today, I discovered that the bottom of my flexible liner pond (pond 1 described above) is a mesh of slender plant roots about 10” thick. The bucket filter clean up is not effective against that this dense mat. Looking around in my shed for a tool to remove fibrous entanglement that wouldn't harm the liner I found the ideal tool: an apple picker on a pole.
The coated tines on a fruit picker are ideal for safely clawing up the roots at the bottom of the pond without cutting the liner. The basket and hooked prong arrangement is perfect for grabbing globs of roots. Just rake, twist and dump into the compost pile. Easiest clean up ever!

Nice Mcguyvering Amy! I have also used an apple picker for removing rattle snakes from under my deck.

We use a pool scoop on a long pole.  Our pond is about an acre and it gets various things on it depending on the year.   It gets collected in a muck bucket with holes drilled in the bottom.  Let it drain for a day then take it to the compost pile.

The birds love the bugs that are in the muck bucket pile.

If we have to do the whole pond, or go around the edges,  we have a pedal boat that tows a little floating raft with the muck bucket.  The pedal boat can be stabilized with the pedals, leaves both hands free, whereas a row boat gets pushed away with every gesture into the water.

Sometimes we get the dreaded blue-green algae, and although the pool scoop just breaks it apart as it goes through the netting, that seems to disturb it enough that it doesn't go crazy.

Everything taken off the pond is excellent compost material, so we think of it more like harvesting composting materials than a chore.