All that work..

[leeannecastro]

I am hoping I can get some insight from you guys as I feel like I have tried everything.
I have a 1600 gallon pond that is in two connected ponds. I built a 55 gallon bio-filter this spring. I started it up and my water cleared in 3 days. about 3 weeks later it started to get murky again and now is so murky I can only see 6 inches. I have not made any changes that I can think of. I have way more water than fish so I know it is not over crowded.
I thought maybe it was because I kept adding chlorinated tap water as I have a small leak that I can't find. Is the chlorine killing my beneficial bacteria? I tried not adding ANY new water for 5 days with no change.
I have added some more bacteria to the filter with still no change. My pond is not in full sun as it has a large tree over it. I hate to add unnecessary chemicals but I can if needed. Am I doing something wrong with the bio-filter?
I am stumped. :banghead3:
Thanks!

 

[FredrikAnderson]

Well if you go to the thread in the "newbies to garden ponds" section that is titled "Cleaning debris with laguana hoover" you will see the infromation I received just recently regarding killing off my beneficial bacteria with chlorinated water. Maybe that could help you. I think that you are going to have a problem if you have a leak to keep the water that is added to your pond to a small enough amount that the chlorine wont hurt anything (unless it is a small leak). If you have added water that is chlorinated to the point that it killed off your bacteria, likely adding more bacteria before removing the chlorine with just be useless. You probably will have to nutrilize the chlorine and then add the bacteria and then still limit the addition of chlorinated water. Hope that helps. I am still learning as well.

 

[MassKoi]

You can try adding quilt batting to your filter or spillway. It will filter out the small particles that is clouding your water. It will need to be cleaned often and replaced when worn out.

 

[koiguy1969]

the easy way to do that is tie up a laundry basket under your falls or filter return... fill it with batting and change as needed!!
or if you have an extra pump build a fines filter like dr.Cases .. you could build a simpler one out of a 5 gallon bucket,tub or trash can

 

[DrCase]

Each week this time of year i open my dump valves on the bottom of my drums to let the muck out,

 

[Airic]

Have you tested to see what your chlorine levels are in your pond the day of and a few days after you have added water? How many plants are in your pond and are they showing any effect from the added water?

 

[leeannecastro]

Thanks for the tips. I think I will try the batting. I add dechlorinator each time I add any significant amoount of tap water so I thought that would fix the problem. All of my plants seem to be thriving and so do my fish. I have tested all of the levels except chlorine (not in my testing kit) and they are all normal. I have also purged my filter every 2 weeks and it runs clear after about 3 seconds.
I was thinking last night that maybe I don't have enough media in my filter. I have a hodge-podge of items including the plastic scrubbies, pieces of cut irrigation tubing and a thick wad of deer netting and my filter is about 3/4 full of that stuff but maybe I need to really pack it tightly. How tightly is the media packed in your bio filters?
Thanks!

 

[DrCase]

From the bottom of my drum i have a 1ft space for the solids to settle.
then i have about 2 ft of media then open water to the outlet.
when mine drain i get a lot of dark water, and a lot right at the end

 

[leeannecastro]

grrr, I am so frustrated. I added quilt batting and it cleared up a bit but then it went right back to green. I have made sure that my tap water is added with dechlor. I have a 55 gal drim bio filter and I thought my water was running through too quickly so I adjusted the ball valve and slowed it way down... nothing.
I also liberated a shopping basket from a store and added 1 whole roll of quilt batting. I have had my spare 3000gph pump running through it for 3 days... bupkis.
I have 1800 gallons and about 30 fish. 20 of them are 6 inches or less. 5 of them are koi. I have a bunch of babies but they will not be in there permanently.
what am I missing?

 

[DrCase]

What kind of media do you have in the drum ?
and did you make it like the pics ?
I am running 750 to 800 gal per hr thru mine..

 

[Olee]

I understand you don't want to use chemicals but my experience sounds a bit like what you are going through now. Search my posts and you will see what I did. Mind you I only used the chemicals for a short period of time. I am now thoroughly enjoying a very happy pond with many baby koi, tadpoles snails and plants, and no longer use any chemicals.

Good luck.
Olee

 

[nc0gnet0]

While maybe not viewed as ideal, a 13-18 watt UV Will take care of your problem in about 3-4 days. Maybe not viewed as good as a proper drum filter, it will beat attacking the problems with chemicals. They can be had on fleabay for about 50-100 bucks.Once you get your filtration figured out, remove it.

 

[Olee]

"fleabay" lol

 

[leeannecastro]

I am using a combination of media. I have about 200' of irrigation tubing cut into 1" pieces. I also have about 100 pot scrubbers from the dollar store and 3 rolls of deer netting scrunched up. I figured at least one of them would work pretty well.
I did notice today that my water is less green and is slowly starting to clear. Hopefully either the reduced flow through my filter or the quilt batting is working. I will keep you guys posted. Thanks for the help.

 

[DrCase]

Glad to here it going the right way for you...