Brown water.....please help

[fishin4cars]

Any bead pr pressure type filter almost HAS to have a good pre-filter or sieve to before it to be effective, without your doing more flushing out than filtering, that's not a cheap piece of equipment. To get the full potential out of it it's almost a necessity to have something before it to remove the debris before it gets in there, also running the UV before a bead filter is just causing more clogging issues as it's such a fine filter that it try and catch all the dead cells and break them down, In some situations it doesn't matter if the UV is before or after the filter, in your case it really needs to either be after or run on a completely separate line.

 

[bobsox]

Thanks for the reply again. The UV Light is after my Aquadyne Filter. I has a shed where I keep the Bead Filter and UV Light. Then the two lines go out to the back end of pond and into the bottom of Bio Filter where I have the egg crate and the strapping filling up the whole 3' by 3' bio filter with egg crate on top and the two (50 & 100 ) media filter pads that constantly collect the black & green slime with the small brown leeches attached to them. I did dump a couple pints of Barley Extract in a week ago as well as do a water change (about 2') and it is a little clearer. Clear for about 2' down but still can't see the bottom or the fish really clear when they are below the 1' to 2' level. I put the 40 Watt UV lamp in new at beginng of season and wsn't sure if I needed to change it with a new one. I bought about 4 of them at once last year.

 

[fishin4cars]

Have you checked the bottom to see if you have much build up? I went back and read through the thread, I still think you need more plants, a couple of hardy lily's would look nice and lots of colors to pick from. You need more surface shade, and need to make sure you don't have to much waste in the bottom of the pond, Muck and decaying leaves are 90% of what causes brown water. If there is a good bit instead of vacumning it you can run a sump pump to a bucket that has lots of holes in the bottom, fill the bucket with batting material and just move the pump around to clean out some of the gunk on the bottom, I wouldn't run it through your primary filetr as it will be pretty nasty. but keep the primary filter running while you do this. there is always the shop vac option, or a inline pump and do a good size water change filtering from the bottom. You have good equipment but your probably going to have to assist it a little to help it balance out.

 

[bobsox]

Thanks again: I do have several plants including lilly's that are doing real good. I will work on cleaning the bottom of pond but it is difficult because of not being able to see the bottom. I'm sure there are a lot of decaying leaves as there are a lot of trees around and I'm always skimming the leaves from top when I see them. Especially a Rusian Olive tree right over the pond that sheds quite a bit including the small olives. It really looks good bent over the pond but I;m sure it contributes to problem. The pond also is in the sun all day and I have a large umbrella kind of over it and try to open it up when I can during hot and sunny days. I do have a sump pump and will set it up like you suggest and try that as well. Thanks a lot..

Have you checked the bottom to see if you have much build up? I went back and read through the thread, I still think you need more plants, a couple of hardy lily's would look nice and lots of colors to pick from. You need more surface shade, and need to make sure you don't have to much waste in the bottom of the pond, Muck and decaying leaves are 90% of what causes brown water. If there is a good bit instead of vacumning it you can run a sump pump to a bucket that has lots of holes in the bottom, fill the bucket with batting material and just move the pump around to clean out some of the gunk on the bottom, I wouldn't run it through your primary filetr as it will be pretty nasty. but keep the primary filter running while you do this. there is always the shop vac option, or a inline pump and do a good size water change filtering from the bottom. You have good equipment but your probably going to have to assist it a little to help it balance out

 

[bobsox]

Hi Fishin4cars: I just wanted to mention that the pond water has actually been clearing up little by little. I can actually see the bottom and see the leave particles and other sediment. I did put in two pints of Barley Extract about a week or two ago. I wonder if that is what has helped and it just took awhile for it to work? Anyway I dredged the bottom with a net and got out a lot of sediment along with a few large snails I didn't know I still had as I couldn't see the bottom. Threw them back in of course. I did a couple good water changes as well this past week. Thanks...

 

[addy1]

Great bobsox, glad it is clearing up, the barley does help.

 

[fishin4cars]

Sounds like it's coming around for you. learn a little apply a little and little by little it all comes together. Always a work in progress. Barley extract really from my understanding only works on attached Algae like for example string algae. But by adding that, clearing out rotting debris and getting green floating algae under control, all those put together really make a huge impact in the long run. Great to hear you found some of the big snails and it slowly getting better!

 

[bobsox]

Thanks for your help and ideas. It is coming around. I did order a couple of the Matala (black & Grey) media pads to replace the two filter pads i have been using the past two years at the top of waterfall. Hopefully these will work as well or better. The 50 & 100 Micron pads I'm using now are really a pain to clean especially with all the small lecches that are attatched to the pads and hard to wash off.

 

[mikeinpgh]

I can see the bottom and the water VERY clear.
I think what did the trick is the water changes and back flushing the filter falls. I did three 20% (200gal each) water changes, two days in between each. Each time I dumped 10-15 five gallon buckets through the filter falls through the back flush pipe(very dirty). I also doubled up my filter pads in my skimmer and added a few more plants. I'm also using pondzyme.
How often should I do water changes now that I am somewhat stable?
Thanks,
Mike

 

[fishin4cars]

The true best way to do water changes is to change what is needed to maintain the nitrate levels below 20ppm. Ponds with higher fish loads need water changes more often than low stocking levels. So really the water itself tells how often and how much is needed.