For the last 10 years, I have 75% drained the pond in the spring, cleaned leaves and muck from the bottom, and refilled. This, along with partial water changes every 4-6 weeks through summer and keeping leaves, etc. cleaned out, has kept the pond looking good and the fish happy.

This year, however, things have changed. I can no longer do the spring cleaning and there has been a lot of algae growth as well, so I am considering installing a pond filter.

The options are confusing, but after a few weeks of study, I have decided on a gravity model Fish Mate #314 with a Fish Mate 1000 pump. The filter has both biological and mechanical filters and an 8w UV light. It may be a tad undersized for the size of my pond, but the next model up is $90 more (filter and pump combined) and is a bit too big.

Does this sound like a good choice? Or should I be looking into a pressurized filter? Or something else?

I am open to all suggestions, and would appreciate any help. Thanks! :)

Sounds to me like your biggest challange will be removing the leaves and gunk from the bottom every year. A pond net will take care of the leaves but the gunk will still be a problem. When you do your water changes try to remove the water from the bottom of the pond to get out some of that sludge.

Removing the sludge from the bottom of the pond--- I've seen those "vacuums" which you hook up to your garden hose and it creates a suction to remove the gunk. Would this work? I've also seen Muck Away tablets and wonder how well this would work? Or would I need to do both.

I tried covering the pond with a net once, since there is a large maple tree nearby (both leaves and the helicopter-like seeds) but our frogs kept getting tangled up in it, so I bought a (hand) net and try to remove the leaves often.

More suggestions? Ideas? Help?!?! :)