Brown water

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so, we had string algae as well as the fuzzy green stuff on all surfaces. Fish all ate it, but the pond didn't look great. We had a service call and was shown how we needed to clean off the copper leads. Did that and the service man recommended a product called SAB to clear out the algae. It did, but water turned brown. Then I added poly quilt batting to help clean out the brown. My concern now is whether I removed the main food source of the fish. I add fish food every three days.
 
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Hi @Chumley! Long time no see.

Algae in the pond means one thing - nutrients in the water. Algae also means nature is trying to give you a helping hand. You killed the algae. Now nature is mad at you.

Just kidding! The brown water could be dead algae or it could be tannins. Or both. By "copper leads" do you mean on an iongen? SAB is sodium percarbonate, I think. Very effective at killing algae, pretty harmless to fish, but it will leave you with a pond full of dead algae. And guess what loves dead algae? More algae. And you know the green stuff on the rocks is good, right?

Are you asking if you should feed the fish? Or what to do about the brown water?
 
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Aquascapes gave me the best design ideas and the pond digger sensible workability
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Hi @Chumley! Long time no see.

Algae in the pond means one thing - nutrients in the water. Algae also means nature is trying to give you a helping hand. You killed the algae. Now nature is mad at you.

Just kidding! The brown water could be dead algae or it could be tannins. Or both. By "copper leads" do you mean on an iongen? SAB is sodium percarbonate, I think. Very effective at killing algae, pretty harmless to fish, but it will leave you with a pond full of dead algae. And guess what loves dead algae? More algae. And you know the green stuff on the rocks is good, right?

Are you asking if you should feed the fish? Or what to do about the brown water?

Thanks Lisa,
I guess both. I am thinking I should feed every couple days until I see some green again. The algae was so heavy coating everything, I probably acted too quickly. It was gone in like two days. How to get rid of brown.....I added a piece of quilting but that will take forever and I think I am going to have to stir up the bottom, brush off the rocks, etc.???
 

sissy

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You can soak your quilt batting in peroxide and use a reusable furnace filter ontop of quilt batting
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OK - so you have a lot of algae killing going on. You may want to reconsider the IonGen. It works by emitting copper, which is toxic to fish at high enough levels. But that's a personal choice - some people swear by them.

If the brown is from tannins, it will clear in time as long as the source is removed from the water. If you scoop a glass of water from the pond and the water is clear but stained, that's tannins. If you have floating debris which settles out and leaves clear water, you can filter that out with quilt batting as @sissy suggested.
 
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OK - so you have a lot of algae killing going on. You may want to reconsider the IonGen. It works by emitting copper, which is toxic to fish at high enough levels. But that's a personal choice - some people swear by them.

If the brown is from tannins, it will clear in time as long as the source is removed from the water. If you scoop a glass of water from the pond and the water is clear but stained, that's tannins. If you have floating debris which settles out and leaves clear water, you can filter that out with quilt batting as @sissy suggested.


Here are a couple of pictures. The water is actually pretty clear, but you can see all the brown settlement on the bottom. I think I will just unplug the ion gen for a couple weeks to see if I get any algae back. I will Feed the fish every other day until I see them eating algae again. Unless, you suggest something different.....
 

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Here is a picture about a month ago when you could see the green on the rocks
 

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@Chumley - that's clear water. Your goal is healthy pond water, not a swimming pool. You can filter sediment if it bothers you, but man - I think that water looks pretty darn good!
 
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Based upon your picture from a month ago, You should have never touched it. Clear water, and algae on the rocks, and pond bottom is nothing to be concerned with. Now, your pond bottom is covered with dead algae, which will rot, and give off methane. I no nothing about ionizers, so I have no comment there.
If you saw my pond water, you'd have a cow!, It's kinda green, but I can still see the bottom, which has a coat of algae, and the fish are quite happy with it.
 
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Valuable lesson learned. I turned the iongen down, so maybe I will get some green back. No more SAB. I will go back to the healthy bacteria I was adding once a week.
 

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