Pond Water

[Charles R]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum and I'm hoping someone can help point me in the right direction. I have a 1000 to 1500 pond which I have acquired when moving into my house in summer of 2007. I have been learning by experience, things seemed to have going well for me with this new hobby until this year. The pond has a large 6 foot waterfall which falls into a 30 foot stream area and then to a small waterfall which leads into an 8'x6' round pond. Currently the pond has one lagre pump which cycles about 1000 gallons ph underground and up to a Tetra green round bio filter which is placed behind the large waterfall. I have a pvc connection that comes up from the ground and rises to the bio filter and another hose which leads dirctly in the waterfalls. I can adjust the flow to each. This year I had to replace on of the connections due to leakage and crack. Now I am getting very good flow to both the waterfall and filter as compared to 2007-2008. Just a little history bear with me. The summer of 2007 & 8 the flow was less coming from the filter and fall. This year my flow is very good between the two I believe that this is a result of the adjustments I have made with the flow control values and replacing one them. My problem is that this year since the end of Arpil I went from a crystle clear pond to a murky cloudy water, my fish are doing well but I have not been able to see to the bottom in over two months. I have also noticed that foam is forming at times in the pond area, it comes and goes. In the spring frogs laid eggs in a small plant at the base of the pond and I had very small tadpoles all over, this was around the same time that my pond went cloudy. I can not see if the tadpoles are at the bottom since I can not see to the bottom. I am not using a UV filter. The pond does not receive much sun in the summer because of large trees. I feed the fish 2 to 3 times daily and I recently checked my filter pads for blockage everythis seems oK. In adavance thanks for any help. I very much want to clear up the water so I can see whats going on in my pond. Thanks

Charles R
PA.

 

[DrCase]

Are you draining your filter when you check your pads ?
and how big is your filter ?
Welcome to the forum

 

[Charles R]

Hello,

The filter is a ClearChoice® Biofilter PF-2 Tetra for up to 1000 gallons. dia 15.25” height17.5” Gravity feed bio filter with a carbon and foam pad at the top. No I am not draining the filter. I leave everything in place and just clean the pads when needed. I only drained it i time this season in April. I'm not doing anything different then in the previous years. I checked it again today and the water has a dark color to it. Thhe pond has also taken on lots of rain water in the last mont. Thanks for the help.

 

[DrCase]

Slow up on the feed to 2 times a day and see if that helps ..
make sure your stream & pond is clear of old leaves..
keep in touch..

 

[DrDave]

Welcome to the Forum! Please add your location to the UserCP so we can better help you.

 

[Charles R]

Ok will do. I'll try that. I'll check back with my progress.

Thanks

 

[MassKoi]

Welcome to the forum. I would love to see pictures of your pond.
Part of your problem could the rain you have had recently. You did not mention the amount and size of any fish in the pond.
Also, how are your water parameters?

 

[koiguy1969]

i also have that filter as paert of my basement pond setup... if your cleaning the pads with tap water.. ring them out good and float the pads in the pond for 5 minutes before putting trhem back into tho filter so you dont give a blast of chlorine to the bio spheres, and if its a good idea to replace those with scrubby pads, and fill the chamber until the pads are within 2" of the top dispersion bar. and if your not use the venturi inlet.

 

[Charles R]

Hello,

Thanks to you both. Sure, I have some recent photos I can attach to a reply.
The problem has been bothering me and as I mentioned it just cropped up this year. I have not tested the water at all. I know, I should be doing that, so I have no idea where the parameters are at. Just getting the hang of this hobby. I have the test kit on my things to get for the pond list. I also wondering if the force of the water flow into the pond or feeding As DrDave mentioned has anything to do with it. I noticed that since I increased the flow to the falls that there is not much sediment or debris in the stream area where before with lower flow the stream I was always cleaning it out with a shop vac.

 

[Charles R]

Here is picture of the pond top from a hill on the right.

Welcome to the forum. I would love to see pictures of your pond.
Part of your problem could the rain you have had recently. You did not mention the amount and size of any fish in the pond.
Also, how are your water parameters?

 

[Stouty109]

sweet, i was picturing ur pond but i didnt picture that long curvy stream that looks real nice.:icon_smile:

 

[bunnymp]

I do not want to hijack your post, but I am having a similar issue and it is frustrating the heck out of me. My 2200, rock bottomed pond was crystal clear until the pump failed. It was down for 4 days at a crucial time. This was a few weeks ago when the maple trees were dropping all sorts of little flowers and what not. Ever since then I can't clear the water. I never had a problem like this before.

Here are some details. The pond is 2200 gals, with three layers. It has a waterfall and a skimmer basket. The skimmer has a filter pad plus I keep a layer of quilt batting over that. I hose that out daily. The falls have 2 mesh bags containing springflo followed by 2 heavy black filter pads. This weekend I added quilt batting to those pads too. I have a aerator in the opposite end. It houses 13 koi and goldfish between 5 and 12". They eat twice a day. I also have 9 water lilies (just added 3 yesterday), 2 grasses and some anacharis. I added 10 floaters yesterday too. I live on Long Island NY.

The first couple of weeks I tried water changes followed by a double dose of Green Clear, followed by a large dose of EcoExtreme dry bacteria. I did that weekly and just when it was starting to clear a tiny bit ( I could see the rocks on the first layer). Then it got bad again. This Saturday, I performed a large water change, added a double dose of Green Clear plus cleaned out the filter pads in the biofalls and skimmer basket. I did not clean the springflo. The water in the biofalls was black. I couldn't see a thing, I bailed it out and hosed out the filter pads which were caked with dirt. I guess it was dirt, it was brown. Sunday I added the heavy dose of bacteria. This morning it didn't look like I performed the water change. Is there anything else I can do short of installing a uv light? Could it be an algae issue if the water is brown?

Thanks.