Help a newbie! What to do about fine, silty stuff in pond?

[CindyA]

I'm a newbie at ponding and have a question for you more experienced people... my pond seems to have a lot of fine silty gunk that will stir up and then settle on everything. My filter fills up with it and starts to decrease water flow within 3 weeks. It can not be scooped out as it is so fine. I've considered vacuuming it out but haven't tried that yet.
What is this stuff? Will snails clean it up?

 

[sissy]

What kind of filter do you have .I use quilt batting in a crate to pick up fine stuff .I use it in my stock tanks when I have baby fish also .I keep an extra hose going in a crate in my waterfall pond also .I also keep it in my temporary filter that one day i will get the permanent one in

 

[Richardspond]

First off you are not cleaning your filters enough. I clean my filters every week. Three weeks for sure they'd be clogged and burn up my pumps. Also I use a spa/pool lift vac you hook on to a hose. My wife got it for me for 25 bux at walmart. It has a bag that fills up with that mess then i toss it into my flower beds

 

[sissy]

But with those kind you need the hose with water and if you have city water it can lead to bad things .

 

[Richardspond]

Vacume it out as it fills with water, add in conditioner done. I've never had a problem with city water if I add conditioner, same with the in door fish