strange pond water

[talal101]

hello,
ok there is something that is just driving me crazy with ideas of why it is occuring,
i have my large pond outside which seems to give me a hard time to keep the water clear, it is only 2-3 feet deep and about 1000 gallons and has a filter and pump but since winter is here i have put my 4 goldfish in a 55 gallon pond in the garage with just a heater and 20-40% water changes every 3-4 weeks{i know i should do it more often}, yet the water is crystal clear, i have only a small 5 watt bulb and the water is 4 feet deep {cylindrical container} but i can clearly see all the way to the bottom and i have no filter or anything and the fish have been in there since september so it's not recent or anything like that.
my best guess could be that since their is such a low amount of light algae cannot grow but i never had a problem with algae outside either just cloudy water, but my pond outside is under a tree{no leaves fall into the water} and receives less than an hour of direct light a day and is always cloudy as opposed to my much smaller, unfiltered, un-water changed container with clear water.
can someone help please?
thank you
btw it is the same amount of fish and everything

 

[coolwind2003a]

Try using Barley Straw or barley extract that works Great & will not harm Plants or fish it take a few weeks to work after your water temp gets up
Coolwind Alabama

 

[addy1]

There is dust, dirt, plant pollen etc that fall into ponds. All help in making the water cloudy. Barley straw does a nice job, what kind of filter?

 

[talal101]

wow you just reminded me, i should be putting in barley straw into the filter thanks guys.
and addy, i have a homemade filter, basically it is an external container filter filled with filter media...i tried adding lilies and it didn't work out so well but im working on it.

 

[addy1]

What kind of media? Sometimes the fine dirt won't be removed by the filter.

 

[talal101]

im not exactly sure what its called but its basically that spongy kind of media that looks like sponges