Want to go broke? Build a pond

I am exaggerating, but I never knew a pond could be so expensive! When my wife and I moved into our house, we set about redoing our backyard. We literally had a clean slate; the whole yard was mostly dead grass and mud pits. Our first project was building a small pond, which is 5x6 kidney shaped. Around it we extended our patio with natural stone and added beds around the entire yard. 2 years later we have just started adding foliage. It's been a long project.

Unfortunately, our pond has been a real money pit.

As it turns out, some drainage problems resulted in a lot of mud from a failed and unfinished elevated flower bed to wash into the pond. So for several months it has been completely clouded. We only see the 3 big fish and half a dozen babies they spawned when they come up to feed. So, this winter we are going to have to empty it all out, clean it, refill it, put the fish back in and start over. Let's not forget the huge string algae problem that developed over the summer.

Otherwise, the pond has been really expensive while we have tried everything imaginable to clear it; from chemicals to scrubbers to water changes to vacuums. Nothing has worked!