Mud in the filter

[Sushi Prohibited]

Hi all.
Newbie here. My first post.

I have a 5,000 gallon pond with koi and a waterfall. I have had it for 9 years.
For almost 18 months, I have been getting mud in my filter.
It covers the whole white 2 x 3 filter pad.
I have to spray it out at least every 3 days.
I don't lose any water (out of the ordinary). No leaks.
No plants in the pond.
Checked the water conditions (PH, etc.) and everything is fine.
Nothing changed to cause this to happen
.
I had a pondperson come out, clean everything (emptying the pond) and he couldn't find anything that could have caused it.
It's still muddying up even after he cleaned it all.

Any ideas?

Thanks everyone.
Am excited to join!

 

[peter hillman]

Could it be fish waste? Or has it been real windy lately? Also, welcome to the forum!

 

[Tula]

Welcome to the forum, love you user name Can you post a picture of what the pad looks like?

 

[sissy]

welcome and could it just look like mud and be dead algae .Bad thing to really clean a pond and change out all the water .Even when I have had to rebuild I saved all my pond water .Have you had heavy rain .

 

[CometKeith]

Welcome. I don't know a lot about your pond but I know filters get dirtier when the pump is placed too close to the bottom of the pond. Maybe try raising it up a little and rest it on a rock. Also if you ever have a hose get damaged you will be happy if the pump doesn't pump all the water out of the pond!

 

[cas]

How are the sides of your pond? I swore I wasn't getting any rain run off from the yard into the pond because I had made sure to raise the liner up above the edge. Finally I went all around the pond and found areas where after much walking and standing on certain rocks over the years had sunk a few lower than originally placed.

 

[sissy]

Even in heavy rain water can splash when it hits the ground and splashing water pics up lots of stuff on the edge of a pond .

 

[Mmathis]

Sometimes when I clean my filters, the crud can look like mud -- at least it's that consistency. Can you post a few pictures so we can see what it looks like?

 

[Sushi Prohibited]

I attached a before and after. The before is one week from when I cleaned it last.

Rain or shine, summer or winter, the filter looks like this after a couple of days. The weather does not matter. It's so weird that this happened after 6 years of no problems. And there's nothing I have done differently. No new fish.

Everything is running fine.

Thanks all for your help. And thanks for all the greetings.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Fish poop and assorted organics.

 

[Mmathis]

Even if you haven't added any fish or changed anything, the fish you have are growing. Bigger fish result in more "debris."

 

[MitchM]

Good for you noticing the change in what your filter is catching.

Many people don't notice these things and later curse an unknown reason for an algae bloom.
Check your wind patterns. You may have received a load of dust from nearby construction projects.

 

[Sushi Prohibited]

Thanks everyone.
What would you all recommend I do?

 

[sissy]

Same as you are doing .How much are you feeding your fish .The amount of food may be too much .I feed mine only 2 or 3 times a week ,there is plenty of stuff in the pond to eat

 

[mrsclem]

I get the same with my filters. What looks like mud is fish poo! So many people say I've had my pond for years and haven't changed anything! Your fish have gotten larger and possibly reproduced! You may need to upgrade your filter or reduce number of fish.