Colour of water

[koiguy1969]

you should not rinse your filter media with the hose, fill a container with pond water and swish it around... the chlorine in the tap water will kill your beneficial bacterial colonization off and your filter has to start over again

 

[kirscp]

For what it's worth, my pond water has always been a light tea color. The local pond supply store near here said that tea color is fine and won't cause any problems. They did suggest using barley pads in my filter reservor. I put the Barley in about three weeks ago and haven't noticed any clearing. They said it would take a month or longer before I would notice any change.

Anyone else use barley in thier ponds?

Tea color can be caused by the "potting soil" used for plants in your pond. I had this issue last spring when I planted new lilly pads, water turned tea color. It went away after a month or so and now back to clear.

 

[kirscp]

you should not rinse your filter media with the hose, fill a container with pond water and swish it around... the chlorine in the tap water will kill your beneficial bacterial colonization off and your filter has to start over again

You'll want a larger filter if you have to "rinse" your filter media off. My bio filter media hasnt' been cleaned since I installed it ... err .. last spring. Then again I have a pretty large bio fliter.

It's a 100 gallon stock tank filled with those floor stripper/polisher pads. IIRC it took 4 cases.

 

[Janers]

My water was clear as a bell for a few weeks after my spring clean. It's in nearly full shade, so I never have an algae problem. But, we've had nothing but RAIN for weeks and now the water is a brownish-red. I believe it's probably run-off from a bank near the pond. I think I've solved that problem, but in the meantime, how can I get the get rid of that brownish-red tint?

 

[DrDave]

Activated charcoal will speed up clearing the tint. That and time.

I would fix the runnoff problem so toxins don't get into the pond during the rains.

 

[Janers]

That's the first thing I did. Thanks.

 

[robertryan1988]

what are everyones thaughts on pond snails? have done a bit of research and people tend to have poro's and cons on this,

that they eat excess algee but tend to eat pond plants too....

 

[Olee]

I am also interested in the snail question. There is a local guy that sell large ones on Ebay. I can drive over and pick them up / no shipping.

 

[koiguy1969]

trapdoor snails are fine just dont get the egg layers.. you might find alot more than you wanted. trapdoor snails are live bearers and dont procreate like the egg layers.

 

[Olee]

Thank you sir. I will call this gentleman today and purchase a few.

 

[oldmarine]

I have twenty five Japanese live bearing / trap door snails in my 365 Gallon pond, and they are doing a fine job of keeping the algee growth in check, and they are good at finding and cleaning up any uneaten fish food.

They also seem to add to the overall balance in the my small ecosystem, (pond).

 

[pohlmeyr]

I have a newly installed (4wks old) pond 135gal and everyting was going good until i cleaned the filter with my hose water. Now i am getting algea. I placed 2 lillie plants in there. I have a 325gal filter and pump from lowes in there. I am thinking about getting on of these Tetra-pond pumps with the built in UV clarifier.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[koiguy1969]

when you use city water the chlorine kills the bacterias that have colonized your filter. now your starting all over again. never use the hose to clean your filter or its media swish your media in a bucket of pond water,