Clear to Brown overnight

[sissy]

I sealed my wagon wheel ones also and they still leached color out every time it rain .Plus they were very acidic and killed some of the grass around there edges .3 years later and sealed them each year and it finally stopped this past spring .

 

[Craig Brown]

Still brown as I would expect it will be for a while. Today's stats are as follows:

ph 8.1
Ammonia 2 ppm (bad?)
Nitrite not quite 0
Nitrate 0

 

[Lisak1]

I wonder if @sissy may be on the right track - could you be leaching dye from your bricks?
Have you tried scooping a jar of your pond water and just letting it sit - you can see what settles out and if the water starts to clear when it does settle.

 

[cas]

If your ammonia is 2 ppm, I would use an ammonia binder (Prime, Amquel, Amquel Plus, Ammo Lock, Chloram-X). Ammonia binders do not remove ammonia; they simply convert toxic ammonia to a nontoxic form. It will be effective immediately, but will only remain effective for 24 - 48 hours. Need to add again.
Also stop feeding the fish, since this causes them to produce more ammonia.
I went back and looked when you started your pond. Looks like your pond is cycling. Fish produce ammonia, a bio-filter converts ammonia to nitrite and then nitrite to nitrate. Plants then consume the nitrate. This cycle usually takes 4-6 weeks.

 

[sissy]

The safest solution is to use pdz which removes ammonia .It has been used for a long time in horse stalls .It captures ammonia and is safe .I buy mine at tractor supply just like I buy my crushed oyster shells there .They are safe and natural products .I did one time find the small rock form instead of the pulvarized at a horse show.I even used to use it in my cats litter box .It cuts the odor

 

[Craig Brown]

Oh man. I hope its not the bricks! But I don't think it is. Water only runs over the bricks and into the pond when it rains. The pond has been up for a while and the water collected in it was not like this. I'm trying the batting again. When I tried it the first time I put it in my waterfall filter. During the night it backed up and lost water. Fortunately, by daughter heard "a strange noise" which turned out to be the pump working without water (its in the skimmer, which was empty).

When building the pond, I got an EasyPro Skimmer extension tube and did not end up using it. I am using it to build a stand-alone filter for the batting. I have a Harbor Freight pump. I put the pump in a 5 gallon bucket (so as not to grind up and fish) and have that in the pond. A hose goes from the pump and into the bottom of the tube. In the tube are layers of batting. On top is a piece of lath (a stiff wire mesh used in masonry). Water is forced through the batting and comes out the top. It sits in the pond and projects about 6 inches above the surface. Water just spills back into the pond, so if it clogs, no harm. Its set up so that it only takes a few seconds to chance the batting.

I don’t know a lot of pond people, but the people I met (to buy Koi) all had pretty dark water. I’m starting to think that I just had a “perfect storm” situation. Record high pollen count. Hard rain crashing through Oak leaves. Maybe even an algal bloom that I can’t see because of all the dark brown.

All of the above is OK as long as this does eventually clear. I haven’t seen a fish for days and it feels more like I am using my expensive Koi for as a tribute to “the pond god” rather than feeding my fish. If that is the case “Pond God, I want to be rich!”

 

[callingcolleen1]

My water turns dark brown when the caterpillars are out in full force. Check and see if there is caterpillar's on the tree. Lay out a bowl of water next to pond and see if the next morning that water turns brown. The brown color comes from caterpillar dung, which looks like small brown pellets, very tiny but very plentiful when you have a lot of caterpillar's in trees. If it is the caterpillars, it should clear when the caterpillars cocoon and fly away. Nothing to really worry about as it happens every year to me, although this year there is much less caterpillars than what I had last year when we had the drought, then those bad caterpillars where everywhere!

Look also on the ground if it is paved, or deck, as you may find evidence of tiny little caterpillar pellets.

 

[Craig Brown]

We do have a lot of caterpillars this year as well. Attached is batting from one night in my skimmer. Yuch!

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Seeing the chewed on pieces of leaves in the photos is only more evidence that tannins are a major part of the problem, with caterpillar poop running a close second.

 

[Craig Brown]

Oh man. Pollen, tannin, caterpillar poop. My new pond is Mother Nature's toilet :-(

 

[Craig Brown]

callingcolleen1:
You are correct! It turns out that we are having some kind of caterpillar Armageddon. Four species of cyclic caterpillars are all active right now. It keeps getting worse every day. I also wonder if something else is being hidden by the deep brown color. With light shining up from the pond lights, there are clearly varying densities. Does your pond look like that? I am wondering if there is an algae outbreak as well.
Do you know if there is anything I can add to the water to help clean it up? I’ve got three locations where I am constantly changing quilt batting but over-all it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

Thanks!

 

[sissy]

Well I hope I don't get them here .

 

[Smaug]

How are the fish behaving? No flashing,no gulping air,no listlessness, are they eating and active? Of so,no problem for the fish equates to no problem for the keeper. Btw,my tree directly over my pond is loaded with caterpillars to the point it looks like a sparse rain on my water from all the caterpillar crap. Now that the pollen sacks have stopped so has my tannin coloration. I've never had bug crap color my water.

 

[Craig Brown]

I can't see the fish. The food is gone, but it could be sinking to the bottom. But no "Floaters". Chemistry is ok. Funny thing, people with pools have dead caterpillars floating in them. I have none. None in the filter as well. What could be happening to those caterpillars? Pay back's a bitch

 

[Smaug]

Maybe it's the rocks.