No new pictures to post, but man have I been busy! I tried to pull out the pebbles with the pond full, no dice. Who would have thought 24 little goldfish could poo so much!! I am assuming that was what the little brown floating particles were......gross!!! I had to drain 90% of the pond, get in and pull them that way. Unfortunately, I could not get all of the muck out of the bottom, but I got most of it. When I filled the pond back up, it was cloudy with all of the dirt and poo, but I cranked up the pump and figured Skippy would do the work for me! In two days it went from sediment stirred to pea soup! ARGH!!! I guess the 100+ Texas heat didn't help any. My pond mentor came over, gave me some suggestions, and I started making changes. First, I changed from using sump pump hosing from the pump to filter and used PVC. I have a 4800 gph pump, but was only getting about 1500 gph. After changing to PVC I am getting about 3700 gph! Then I branched off of my pump and went to an old sand filter that I have. The way it is set up, I can either run to the Skippy and waterfall, to the sand filter, or both at the same time. I currently have it running to both equally. I put the discharge from the sand filter at the bottom of the opposite side of the pond, to create a bit of a swirl on the bottom. The first two days it kept everything cloudy, but now it is clearing a bit. I also added four bubble stones around the pond, because I think the oxygen levels were low in the pond. (Fish hung out near the waterfall, nowhere else. Now they are EVERYWHERE!!) Things have started clearing, the whole setup has been running for about 60 hours now. The pond is still a bit cloudy, kind of light green, I can see a few of the big rocks at the bottom. I have been checking my levels in the pond...everything is perfect but my water is a bit alkaline. That has come down some the last few days...what does that mean? Hoping to get a UV running this weekend, maybe that will really make a difference. I am concerned at how slowly things are clearing....is it because my pond is around 10,000 gallons? Bigger will clear more slowly? I have another pump that was given to me. I am considering hooking it up to another skippy to replace the sand filter. Should I need two skippy's and pumps? WILL I EVER BE DONE WITH THIS STINKING POND?????
