First home, first pond.. water is dirty!

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Hey everyone! No pictures right now but ive discovered the lower tub is filled with lava rock and a mesh type net... AND that I can siphon both tanks without a pump using a hose trick. We drained the water on both and scooped the gunk out the tall large stock tank, throwing it to the plants. Also a small water change was made a day ago as well.

The previous owner finally came over after a few attempts to reach him and said my green water is fine but I'll need to buy a sump pump to keep changing the water gradually because the koi have been "fertilizing" the water and the weather has been extremely humid and rainy. I was also recommended to use a type of barley to control the algae too.

It has been two days and the water in my pond went from a muddy brownish dirty green to a shade lighter green. I think I'll purchase a pump for this summer and keep changing the water little by little.
 
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Hi and welcome! I haven't read every post in this thread but I looked at your pictures and read your concerns.

It sounds like your set up is similar to mine, so I'll try and provide some tips based on the set up you have.

I net out the bottom of my pond once in the spring and again in the fall, sometimes Ill give it a third netting out in mid summer if I feel ambitious. I use a pool net and dump the "gunk" into a wheel barrel, take it back to the garden and dump it in the soil.

I have two skippy filters and a small bog. Two pumps sit in the pond. The hoses to the skippies should take the water into the bottom of the skippy in a circular direction. The water should spin in a circle up through the filter media then out the top into the pond.

I have clean out valves at the bottom of the tanks so I can flush the gunk out of the bottom when needed. This is the only cleaning I do to mine. The tanks come with a drain. I simply added a fitting and ball valve to the drain. Then I hook a hose up to the drain and turn the valve. The gunk flushes out through the hose to whichever flower beds gets lucky that day.

I do wonder about the one tank flowing into the second tank. It seems if the water enters and exits the top of the second tank you aren't getting much filtration from it. You want the water to enter in the bottom then force its way up through the media and out the top.

This year I drilled a small hole in the pvc that takes the water into the bottom of the skippies and ran air hoses from a small air pump. I actually think that made a huge difference in water clarity this year though I wasn't really having issues to begin with. Oxygen in the filter media helps promote the growth of beneficial bacteria.

If I were you, I'd start by scooping out the bottom of the pond, and flushing the gunk out of the tanks. I'd probably do this several times since each time you will stir stuff up and it will settle again. Maybe 2-3 times to get it fairly clean. I'd also do small water changes frequently. After that I'd watch your system to see if changes should be made.

Changes I might consider is putting a separate hose to each tank (you can either get a splitter or a second pump) and making sure the water enters through through the bottom.

I'd inspect the filter media to see if maybe its old and has degraded over time. Depending on the media that can happen.

I'd pump oxygen into the bottom of the tanks.

I'd look at the amount and size of koi and see if it's possibly over stocked.

Maintenance, I'd do small weekly water changes and larger water changes in the spring and fall when I scoop out the bottom. That's all I do since when I do the water changes it flushes the skippies. I added a picture below for you to see my set up. The water from my skippies overflows out the top into the small bog. The small bog also has water pumped under the gravel, then all the water flows down the waterfall and into the pond. I built a deck over my skippies with access panels from the sides and top to open and close valves when needed.

I have 9 koi in about 5000 gallons with this filtration. I also have about 15 comets in there.

View attachment 83408 View attachment 83410
View attachment 83409

Edit: I'll add before I added the drain to my skippies I cleaned them with a shop vac. I let as much water drain from them as possible using a siphon, then stuck the shop vac in the bottom to get the gunk. This was not ideal and messy and annoying so I added the flush out valves. Now I simply open them and leave every thing running. Let them drain about 10% of the water volume of the pond through the drain valves and set the garden hose in the bog to add the 10% back.

Second edit: :) Also I noted that you said you could see gunk in the top of the tanks looking down. I can as well as the gunk coats the filter media. that doesn't necessarily mean the tank is filled solid with gunk up to that level. But either way with the smell of the tanks I'd definitely clean the gunk out.

I found out after turning off the pump and draining it was maybe 5 inches of goop remaining on the bottom that I cleaned out.. And TONs of snails!
 

sissy

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I use a pump in the bottom of my filter to clean it out and used an old bread rack to put over top of the pump and then have lava rock in mesh laundry bags from the dollar store and keep an airstone in the filter from my aerator .It keeps the water moving and aerated
 
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Current update, it's been really humid and rainy here. Things are just starting to clear up with some sun and clear skies.

I've previously cleaned the stock tanks and recently purchased a sump pump. Did an additional water change for the pond and sucked up some more goop and added some barley.

The murkiness hasn't improved as much as I hoped. I don't mind green hued water as long as I can see a fish deeper than 1-2 inches from the water. The fish are pretty healthy, social and acting normal.

On top of cleaning the pond I am currently cutting all the surrounding vegetation the previous owner had planted. They are about 5+ feet high tall leafy plants and I feel like they are all dying and falling into the pond, rotting down there. They don't filter anything because it's just planted around the borders and accumulate.

I may be interested in purchasing a new filter and uv kit and remove the skippy setup next year. Something more compact. It's not a nice scenery having the tanks placed beside our window to look at the waste after all and seems to be attracting mosquitos. I may be looking into info for that soon.

Working hard on my end here!
 
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For what it's worth if it helps - barley can work, but I've never had a great deal of success with it myself. Barley supposedly takes a little while (a few weeks) before it activates, and you need quite a lot, and it's a bit dependant on your water, varies from pond to pond. If the fish are acting normal then that's a very good sign, more important than the cosmetic appearance of the water. I do appreciate that you might like to see them too though ;). The plants - yes you don't want them rotting at the bottom of the water. But on the flipside, sun makes more algae - if they're providing shade it may work against your goal of water clarity. Looking at waste isn't great, agreed. Lots of filters to choose from depending on the budget and I'm sure someone will be able to advise you. Keep it up - it's a marathon not a sprint :)
 
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For what it's worth if it helps - barley can work, but I've never had a great deal of success with it myself. Barley supposedly takes a little while (a few weeks) before it activates, and you need quite a lot, and it's a bit dependant on your water, varies from pond to pond. If the fish are acting normal then that's a very good sign, more important than the cosmetic appearance of the water. I do appreciate that you might like to see them too though ;). The plants - yes you don't want them rotting at the bottom of the water. But on the flipside, sun makes more algae - if they're providing shade it may work against your goal of water clarity. Looking at waste isn't great, agreed. Lots of filters to choose from depending on the budget and I'm sure someone will be able to advise you. Keep it up - it's a marathon not a sprint :)

The plants offered no shade only more material to rot and get dragged underwater by the koi unfortunately. The previous owner added a lily and the koi would peck at it so it's only like one leaf!

I've just pulled out the vegetation today and found a corner that dirt had been falling in from the plants rooting. There's so much debris! I would purchase a uv light but I would rather replace the skippy entirely.

What else can I do to relieve all this algae in the water? There's only one lily in the pond and the fish just tear it apart. I do agree in adding more shade.
 
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You could consider sail cloths for shade. Purchasing a UV light doesn't preclude you changing the pond's filtration at a later date...you could add it as a stand along UV.
 
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I took a glass of my pond water out of curiosity and left it on my counter for a day. The water cleared out with maybe a tinge of green and a thick fibrous layer of organics sat at the bottom. Does that mean my water is actually clear but the fish are stirring excess organics up?
 
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I think you need to concentrate on removing as much of the remaining organic material as you can. Your sump pump should be helpful for that, if the matter is somewhat broken down. Larger stuff I would just keep scooping.

Any idea how much gunk is still down there?
 
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I think you need to concentrate on removing as much of the remaining organic material as you can. Your sump pump should be helpful for that, if the matter is somewhat broken down. Larger stuff I would just keep scooping.

Any idea how much gunk is still down there?

Not really. I just know the water is a dense opacity of green. The water I scooped out and left on my counter settled and it was clear 90% and 10% green filler material. My net doesn't catch anything and I don't want to dig too hard into the bottom. I'm guessing all that green are a combination of fallen plants and dead algae.
 
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If the net won't scoop it, then your pump should be able to handle it. I would drop it to the bottom and just start pumping - see what comes up. The pump shouldn't stir the water up too much, so most of the debris should remain on the bottom making it easier to pump. If you are ambitious and want to return the water to the pond, you could construct a filter made of quilt batting and pump the water through it and let it drain back into the pond. I made one that I use occasionally out of an old kitchen trash can. I drilled holes on the one side about 4 inches from the bottom. I slipped a plastic basket in to hold the quilt batting off the bottom and pump the water into the batting. Depending on how much debris you have (and it sounds like you might have a lot!) you'll need to rinse the batting out as it fills with gunk. Maybe have a few pieces going at a time - one in the filter, one that you're rinsing - to keep the process moving.

This is obviously more effort than simply pumping the water out and replacing it. However the benefits to this are 1. you won't have to treat the water that goes back into the pond 2. no water wasted 3. you can work more quickly as I wouldn't hesitate to do this process all day long if necessary. If you were going to pump out and replace water, I would suggest you limit yourself to 10% or so per day, to avoid stressing your fish. It appears the quality of the water is good since the fish seem to be fine. It's just the clarity that's an issue. By filtering and returning, you should start seeing clearer water within a relatively short period of time.
 

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