Filtration

[David Harrison]

Hello I hope you can advise me. I copied a design on Utube and built my own three barrel pond filter. All through the winter months my pond has remained crystal clear. The sun has now begun to shine and I have a situation whereby the water leaving my filter is still crystal clear when sampled into a clean glass. However the water in the pond is becoming murky and cloudy. My pond has 2200 gallons of water, 4 large koi carp which I have had for over 20 years and approx 12 to 14 golfish inbred in the pond. I would certainly appreciate any assistance or suggestions that may help. Kindest regards David

 

[budgenator]

What really helps us to help you are knowing things like the water temperature, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate test levels as well as kH and gH levels. Also knowing about any plants in your pond or bogs.
Without any real information to go on, my hunch is what you're seeing is just a routine algae bloom. As the water warms up the algae starts growing first, then your bio-filter kicks in later. I'd clean the bottom, then start 10% water changes each week. When the filters wakeup, the water should clear in short order.
you should have an API freshwater master test kit, and a API GH/KH Test Kit, those really tell us more about your water and what might be off with it.

 

[Waterbug]

The old water in the glass trick. You're looking through 2-5" of water in the glass. If your pond were 3-5" deep it would be just as clear. Or if the glass were 3' wide or deep it would be just as cloudy. If you look really, really close, maybe a magnifying glass, you will see particles. Looking though 3' of water you see many particles which block light and view.

Now, about the filters...people often say "filter" but that doesn't really tell the story. If these are bio filters they would have no effect on clarity. If these are mechanical filters then they clearly (pun intended) aren't working and that is very common. There are lots and lot of people proclaiming great filters and clear water which they tout as proof. But often other things are responsible for the clear water. For example, suspended particles are almost always from decayed organic matter. Stuff breaks down into smaller and smaller bits. That takes awhile. A year, two, ten. Depends on many things. So people install a filter, pond is clear, must be the filters the person was smart enough to install and sometime later not so clear and they don't understand why the filter doesn't work any more.

And of course the obvious...mechanical filters need to be cleaned. But I don't know what kind of filters you have.

If these are sand/gravel filters there could be a couple of things. There's problem with the sand/gravel like bio film has collected so the sand/gravel has to be replaced. Could be something happened to pump flow and the filter isn't flushing correctly. Or channelling. Or again, back to particle size...just too small for the grit you're using. There's a limit to what sand/gravel can remove.

 

[David Harrison]

Again thanks for the replies.
Water temp. currently 9 deg C or 48 deg f, Ph is 7.6, Ammonia is 0 mg/l, Nitrite 0 mg/l I test these readings regularly..
The filtration system is as previously described, a three barrel system, see photograph. Media as shown in photograph.

 

[Waterbug]

There are lots of barrel type filters, so unfortunately "three barrel system" doesn't tell much. There's a picture of bio media, so if each barrel contains that then this is a bio filter and wouldn't have any effect on water clarity. It's only for removing ammonia and nitrite.

It's very difficult in text, or even pics sometimes, to understand what murky, or even green, means. Kind of have to see it in person. There are many causes. All I can say for sure us if the barrels are all bio filters you don't have to suspect them for murky water. They'd be unrelated.