Lots of fine particles

[adamfrey]

I moved and have a great pond. But I did a little cleaning up and have been rinsing my filters about every 3-4 days. They have been getting TONS of dark sediment out. I even stir the pond up a little bit so a bunch of it gets over to the filter. However, I still keep getting a bunch of it and it gets back on the rocks and pipe within about 3-4 hours after I stir it up. Some small algae on the rocks but nothing major. I put in some Algaefix, bateria and pondzyme to eat it up.

Accuclear next or other advice?

 

[poconojoe]

I'm in that camp against adding chemicals. There have been too many tragedies from the use of so-called fish safe chemicals.
It's best to just give it some time and keep cleaning your filter. Try not to rinse the filter with chlorinated water. The chlorine will kill the beneficial bacteria.
Stirring up the pond and having your filter take in the solids is a good thing, so you can keep doing that. Once you stop doing that, it could take a few days for things to settle and clear up.
There are natural ways to clear up your water. I see you have plants in there, that's great. Plants, filtration and patience are the keys to clear water.
Patience is a big one. Changes don't happen overnight with ponds.
Maybe your filter is not adequate.
Tell us more about your pond. How many gallons, how many fish, what kind of fish, what size fish and details on your filter.

 

[adamfrey]

Thank you Joe! Seems like it is about 1200-1300 gallons based on the 16 x 6 and 2 feet deep. I have 11 goldfish (all pretty small 5" except one big one about 14 inches). I just have a crate with some filter media in it. I have probably stirred and rinsed, etc probably 8 times in the past 2 weeks and they are always really dirty. Maybe I just need to vacuum everything out?. I do use my outside hose to rinse them. So I don't think it is an algae issue?

 

[addy1]

You could also do like some have done. Put some quilt batting into a crate, run water through it. It does a great job gathering up the fine particles. You will need to rinse it a lot but it will work.

 

[j.w]

@adamfrey

 

[addy1]

and Welcome to our forum!

 

[Lisak1]

Welcome to the GPF! And let me add one point to the good advice you've already gotten - algae free should never be the goal. You want a good layer of what is often called carpet algae to cover your pond surfaces. It forms an essential part of the biofiltration for your pond.

 

[poconojoe]

Welcome to the GPF! And let me add one point to the good advice you've already gotten - algae free should never be the goal. You want a good layer of what is often called carpet algae to cover your pond surfaces. It forms an essential part of the biofiltration for your pond.

This is a great point.
Now that my water is clear from my new bog build, I can see my liner is completely covered in a wonderful layer of green. That layer is an important part of the pond's ecology. I welcome it. I would never scrub it off or add algaecide or any other chemicals. It's completely natural.