Pond water not clear.

[daveyboyaz]

Hello, I have a 3500 gallon koi pond. Lots of plants in it, also have a biological filter with uv light. I have tried to keep the dead plant material off the bottom of the pond by netting it out and also have tried muck remover and some clear water products to no avail. The pond also has a liner in it, so there is no dirt bottom. It just seems there is a lot of flocculant material floating in the pond. I clean out the filter on a regular basis. There is no algae in the pond just seems really murky at times. Sometimes it does clear up and it looks great for a day or so ,then it goes back to being murky looking. Does anyone have any ideas or any product that works for them. Tired of buying the clear water stuff that doesn't work. Thanks for any help.

 

[PH Number 9]

Koi are called Pond Pigs for a very good reason.

It doesn't matter how clean you try to make a pond there will always be sediment to disturb and if your fish are hungry they will search harder for food.

At different times of the year for no reason at all my Pond also becomes clouded.

How big is your pond, is your filtration system adequate, what plants do you have in your Pond and finally what is your stock level?

Also, a pond can be too clean you know.

 

[daveyboyaz]

Koi are called Pond Pigs for a very good reason.

It doesn't matter how clean you try to make a pond there will always be sediment to disturb and if your fish are hungry they will search harder for food.

At different times of the year for no reason at all my Pond also becomes clouded.

How big is your pond, is your filtration system adequate, what plants do you have in your Pond and finally what is your stock level?

Also, a pond can be too clean you know.

Thanks for the response. It's a 3500 gallon pond with a liner with a 4,000 gallon filter and pump. I have water hyacinth, water lettuce, water spinach and some iris plants also. I'm also redoing my two stage waterfall, the upper trough will be about 12' long, 3' tall and 3' wide,dropping down into the pond about 2 1/2' or so. I plan on putting lots of water hyacinth in the upper trough also. I belong to a koi rescue group here in Phoenix and have gotten most of the Koi from abandoned ponds after folks move out of their houses and just leave their fish there. I have a stock tank I use for a quarantine place and medicate them for the stress they were in and in case they have any diseases. It sounds like I might just have to put up with the cloudy water, lol. I have about 4 pretty large koi and some small goldfish in there. I gave up on having water lilies, these large koi if they feel the need, tear up all the rocks in the pot around the water lilies and root them out, lol. I have had my pond for many years, this is my second liner. It's about 25' long by 15' at the widest and about 4' deep and going up to about 2 1/2'. I have a screen over the top of the pond to keep the leaves from the trees out of it. And thanks for any and all help with this.

 

[brokensword]

Thanks for the response. It's a 3500 gallon pond with a liner with a 4,000 gallon filter and pump. I have water hyacinth, water lettuce, water spinach and some iris plants also. I'm also redoing my two stage waterfall, the upper trough will be about 12' long, 3' tall and 3' wide,dropping down into the pond about 2 1/2' or so. I plan on putting lots of water hyacinth in the upper trough also. I belong to a koi rescue group here in Phoenix and have gotten most of the Koi from abandoned ponds after folks move out of their houses and just leave their fish there. I have a stock tank I use for a quarantine place and medicate them for the stress they were in and in case they have any diseases. It sounds like I might just have to put up with the cloudy water, lol. I have about 4 pretty large koi and some small goldfish in there. I gave up on having water lilies, these large koi if they feel the need, tear up all the rocks in the pot around the water lilies and root them out, lol. I have had my pond for many years, this is my second liner. It's about 25' long by 15' at the widest and about 4' deep and going up to about 2 1/2'. I have a screen over the top of the pond to keep the leaves from the trees out of it. And thanks for any and all help with this.

you can run your pond water through a filter for fines by either additional filtration (with a fines sieve mesh) or putting some cotton batting in a container and letting your waterfall run through it. You'll need to clean/change the batting out as needed (often). In my case, I built (2) 55 gal drum 'sock' bog prefilters and have been just rinsing that out regularly as I'm overstocked and the fish are letting me know it! I have filter socks that can take out anything from 100 to 400 microns particles.

 

[WaterGardener]

I would clean the filter more often, and/or increase the filtration. Filters seem to be overrated for what they can handle. It is not unusual to need twice the amount that is generally recommended and I prefer to have as much as possible. You can't have too much filtration.

 

[j.w]

@daveyboyaz

 

[Lisak1]

I agree with the filter size - at 3500 gallons, you should be at 8000 GPH pump at least.

 

[brokensword]

I agree with the filter size - at 3500 gallons, you should be at 8000 GPH pump at least.

twice an hour, @Lisak1 ? Thought the rule of thumb was 1-1/2, no? That would put the pump size at closer to 5K gph. I know on my 7K pond, I'm using (2) 4K pumps.

 

[PH Number 9]

twice an hour, @Lisak1 ? Thought the rule of thumb was 1-1/2, no? That would put the pump size at closer to 5K gph. I know on my 7K pond, I'm using (2) 4K pumps.

My Pond has four pumps.

Three @ 15,000 litres per hour and One at 7,500 litres per hour...

My filtration systems are 2 x the Oase Biotec 24,000 with UV clarifier and I completely clean my units every four weeks leaving one sponge untouched to ensure the bio cultures remain.

 

[brokensword]

My Pond has four pumps.

Three @ 15,000 litres per hour and One at 7,500 litres per hour...

My filtration systems are 2 x the Oase Biotec 24,000 with UV clarifier and I completely clean my units every four weeks leaving one sponge untouched to ensure the bio cultures remain.

can't have too much filtration and if it's working for you, all the better. Most here like the natural wetland filters as they're very easy on maintenance (as in zero; just thinning plants periodically). You're in the UVU club; I don't use UV as it's not necessary and kills more than just free floating algae.

 

[GBBUDD]

I would clean the filter more often, and/or increase the filtration. Filters seem to be overrated for what they can handle. It is not unusual to need twice the amount that is generally recommended and I prefer to have as much as possible. You can't have too much filtration.

i'd also add your flow rate and turning the pond over more often could be higher. which i now see has already been brought up. A bog can be such a simple filter to build. Yes they can also become quiet the task but for a peastone and upflow bog there's not a lot to it

 

[daveyboyaz]

View attachment 141081@daveyboyaz

Thanks for the Welcome.

 

[poconojoe]

As suggested, it might be caused by your koi rooting around and stirring things up.

Or...
Try turning off the UV light for a while. The UV will kill all bacteria, even the good stuff and then the dead stuff just floats around. Maybe all the floating particles are all the stuff the UV has killed.

I suggest you stop adding any "snake oils" too.
At the very least you are wasting your money, but by adding those "fixes", you might eventually end up using something that will kill your fish. We get threads like that all the time. People add "fish friendly" chemicals and end up with a bunch of dead fish.

 

[addy1]

twice an hour, @Lisak1 ? Thought the rule of thumb was 1-1/2, no? That would put the pump size at closer to 5K gph. I know on my 7K pond, I'm using (2) 4K pumps.

My pump only moves the water about once every two hours. It does just fine, I do have a large bog filter and a lot of plants.