This might be a little long, but I just want to make sure I give all the details. Me and my son are new to ponds. He made his own in ground duck pond, has a liner in it, has a waterfall pump going from the pond into a self-made filter that is made out of a 55 gallon drum. The water goes into the bottom of the drum which sits a milk crate. On top of that are stones, rocks and gravel. What's supposed to be on top is crushed gravel but we couldn't find it so we bought sand. I don't remember what type but it wasn't play sand. To me, it kind of resembles salt.
Everything was working beautifully for a couple of days until my son noticed that a little sand was going into the pond. That bothered him so he put a layer of felt paper on top of the sand with large rocks around the edge thinking that was going to keep the sand from getting into the pond. That didn't seem to work because eventually the sand got on top of the felt paper, but not a big deal. I also noticed that less water was coming out of the pipes. Thats because the level of the water in the filter was barely reaching the pipes. I told him that the felt paper, and possibly the sand might be too much and is clogging the filter. He took the paper and as much of the sand as he can get out of the filter and backwashed it.
The next day I noticed the water on the top of the filter, right before coming out of the pipes, was a dark brown, the water coming out of the pipes into the pond had a tinge of brown, and the water in the pond was getting darker and darker, almost black. Today we noticed it wasnt any better so my son shut the pump off and we saw all this sludge that was sitting on the pipes in the filter and on top of the sand (the sand that he couldn't get a couple of days ago). He back washed again, emptied the pond and refilled it with fresh water. Tonight it's brown again. I'm thinking it has to do with the filter. Maybe there's so much sludge sitting on the bottom that it's getting pushed up? We don't know what to do next. Should he take everything out of the filter so he can rinse it all off and see what's at the bottom?
I would like to add that before he put the milk crate in, he cut some off to make it shorter because the drum that we got isn't that tall and he wanted to make sure that he had enough room for all the layers of gravel. I'm wondering if that was a big mistake on his part. I'm not sure how, but just food for thought.
Everything was working beautifully for a couple of days until my son noticed that a little sand was going into the pond. That bothered him so he put a layer of felt paper on top of the sand with large rocks around the edge thinking that was going to keep the sand from getting into the pond. That didn't seem to work because eventually the sand got on top of the felt paper, but not a big deal. I also noticed that less water was coming out of the pipes. Thats because the level of the water in the filter was barely reaching the pipes. I told him that the felt paper, and possibly the sand might be too much and is clogging the filter. He took the paper and as much of the sand as he can get out of the filter and backwashed it.
The next day I noticed the water on the top of the filter, right before coming out of the pipes, was a dark brown, the water coming out of the pipes into the pond had a tinge of brown, and the water in the pond was getting darker and darker, almost black. Today we noticed it wasnt any better so my son shut the pump off and we saw all this sludge that was sitting on the pipes in the filter and on top of the sand (the sand that he couldn't get a couple of days ago). He back washed again, emptied the pond and refilled it with fresh water. Tonight it's brown again. I'm thinking it has to do with the filter. Maybe there's so much sludge sitting on the bottom that it's getting pushed up? We don't know what to do next. Should he take everything out of the filter so he can rinse it all off and see what's at the bottom?
I would like to add that before he put the milk crate in, he cut some off to make it shorter because the drum that we got isn't that tall and he wanted to make sure that he had enough room for all the layers of gravel. I'm wondering if that was a big mistake on his part. I'm not sure how, but just food for thought.
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