Newbie here. Does this look brown or green to you?

[civicsurfer]

Hello all. I built my first real pond using a kit I purchased online. So far so good. The first 3 weeks the water was crystal clear and looked great. Then all of a sudden it became really stained. The water looks a combination of brownish green. Almost like an olive color. I read that a brown color can be fixed with activated carbon and a green color with a uv clarifier, but what does this look like to you?

My pond is 3 ft deep at the deepest spot and has largemouth bass in it. I’m in Southern California in Long Beach where it rarely get below 50 degrees in the winter.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our Forum!

It looks like your pond is doing a normal new pond cycle. It takes time for it to establish a balance. Add more plants. Get a test kit so you can tell us the numbers. A liquid API test kit is the best.

 

[Gemma]

Welcome to the forum!

I use this in my skimmer box, along with the Matala pads and rinse it daily! It works fast, you'll start to see the difference within a few hours

https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Expe...456710&sr=8-13&keywords=filter+pads+for+ponds

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome!

Agree, it’s normal, and best not to do anything. Activated carbon will remove tannins, the cola color, but be sure you don’t have a lot of leaves or contact with wood.

Just curious as to why you have large mouth bass in a decorative pond. Just be sure you have good filtration if you are keeping a lot of fish.

 

[j.w]

@civicsurfer I have something similar to that black rolled stuff in a big container w/a pump running water from the bottom of the pond sucking up gunk and running it up into the pot. I just have mine sitting on the top edge of my pond covered w/a decorative rock to hold the tubing in place. Works great at sucking up the muck! I do have the pot lined w/fiberglass screen that I bought at Lowes. That keeps the finer gunk from flowing back into the pond.

 

[civicsurfer]

Hello and welcome!

Agree, it’s normal, and best not to do anything. Activated carbon will remove tannins, the cola color, but be sure you don’t have a lot of leaves or contact with wood.

Just curious as to why you have large mouth bass in a decorative pond. Just be sure you have good filtration if you are keeping a lot of fish.

Although there is a tree nearby, it’s not like there’s an excessive amount of leaves that fall into the water. Also the skimmer does a great of picking them all up. So perhaps it’s just algae.

As for your second question, I’ve always been intrigued by largemouth bass since I was a kid watching Sunday morning bass fishing shows before church. I think they are a beautiful and interesting fish.

 

[MitchM]

Tannins (humic substances) are good for your water quality.
Measure your water quality with a good testing kit, including KH and GH, as @addy1 mentioned above.