Tea Colored / Brown Cloudy Water / general questions on if I'm doing things right

[laurabeth]

(I asked this question in my introduction but I'm thinking maybe I should have here... sorry if this is the wrong place, I just thought it made more sense)

Hi, I live in Massachusetts , It's been pretty mild out.
We bought a house with a pond. The old owner took his fish with him, and told us to just clean it out once a year and start out by throwing 20 goldfish in. He took his fish in every year. And he took his with him when he left.

The previous owner told us, the pond started out concrete, then it leaked because it did it incorrectly and now it has a liner over the concrete.

we lost our fish from last year over the winter when we tried to leave them in there. Obviously we didn't do that right. We figured we could just drill holes in the ice, but the ice go super thick. The plants lived, the fish did not...

this spring we cleaned it out and got 10 little gold fish. We then thought they had all died becuase we didn't see them anywhere. So we got 10 more and 5 tiny koi. and now there are a ton of fish so obviously they were just hiding and lethargic because the water was still chilly.

Once things heated up the water started getting cloudy and a little brown
The previous owner had no sort of filtration. Just a pump and waterfall.
about 2 weeks ago i added in a bio filter that is in the waterfall:

It's not dirty, the water doesn't smell. I can see the fish ... it's just not crystal clear, I mean I want it to look perfect... Can I get a bag of activated charcoal and have the water pass through that when it goes into the biofilter? Or will that mess up the biofilter?

Also I didn't fee the goldfish last year at all. The previous owner told me he never fed his fish. I have not fed the gold fish or the koi yet this year... is that bad? they swim around and eat the millions of bugs that are on the surface ever day ...

Anyway I just am having so much fun taking care of the pond and I'd love for it to get better. thanks so much!

 

[koikeepr]

It will take 6-8 weeks for the beneficial bacteria to get going and clear up water. You can rush this process.

If you have a 1683g pond, you will need at least 1 55g barrel of bio filtration. Your bio container looks small. If it's undersized, you'll never have enough bio to solve the problem. In fact, with your size pond, and the fact that you say you're overpopulated, you should have around 70g of bio filtration to get really great quality water.

 

[laurabeth]

thanks.
shoot. I just bought that. I completely under estimated the size of my pond, I wish I could say it was the guy at the pond stores fault but I had never measured the thing and completely guessed the size.

Is it possible to just add something in behind the scenes? I just spent 60 bucks on this one and I'm not sure I'll be able to convince the husband to just get a new one. BUT this is something I could make myself right? and just add on.

And one more question, would you agree I'm overpopulated? I could just grab out a bunch of the gold fish and keep them in a tank indoors if I had to.

thanks so so much for you're help!

 

[koikeepr]

You don't need to get rid of what you have, you just need to add more.

I don't think you're overpopulated now, you will be in 2 or 3 years when those fish grow. Don't buy any more fish.

 

[laurabeth]

great thanks! no I won't be buying any more fish

 

[koikeepr]

If you are handy, you just need to build a 55g filter.

 

[koiguy1969]

or a skippy style stocktank filter for a lower profile. koikeepr has one stickied in the DIY section...why mine isnt there I"ll never know! so heres a link...
https://www.gardenpondforum.com/koiguys-70-gal-skippy-style-filter-t5089.html
just build with the outlet instead of weir, or you could add a bigger falls............MINE KEEPS MY 1200+ GAL PONDWATER CRYSTAL CLEAR !!!

 

[laurabeth]

oh man. i'm slightly handy ... i'm not sure that would fit behind my waterfall like that it's close to the fence. can you build these so the output is a hose? then I might be able to put the while thing behind the fence, have my pump feed into the barrell ... then have that go down my waterfall. does that make sense?

these look fairly inexpensive to make am I correct?


This is the location of the water fall

The only spot, besides behind the fence for something that big would be to the side where all the foliage is maybe ... but I'm not sure It would work with the current waterfall ... haha oh man I feel like i'm going to be in for some work if I want clear water! I wish it could be as easy as the pool! I was joking with my husband we should just hook the pond up to the pool filter haha

 

[koiguy1969]

That will work.....absolutely either the 55 gallon barrel or the stocktank.....looking at the pics, it looks like a stocktank would fit...you could build a second larger falls in the top right area. but either will do fine behind the fence feeding your existing filter falls. plenty of 55 gal designs in the DIY section. heres mine...https://www.gardenpondforum.com/koiguys-55-gallon-bio-filter-skippy-style-t4339.html

 

[laurabeth]

OK I see. I would have to try to figure something out that wouldn't get in the way of my veggie garden though. :lol:

 

[koikeepr]

or a skippy style stocktank filter for a lower profile. koikeepr has one stickied in the DIY section...why mine isnt there I"ll never know! so heres a link...
https://www.gardenpondforum.com/koiguys-70-gal-skippy-style-filter-t5089.html
just build with the outlet instead of weir, or you could add a bigger falls............MINE KEEPS MY 1200+ GAL PONDWATER CRYSTAL CLEAR !!!

It's now stickied, koiguy.

 

[koikeepr]

what stops the water from overflowing is a well placed swing (flapper style) check valve in case of a power outage and your pump goes out.

 

[laurabeth]

what stops the water from overflowing is a well placed swing (flapper style) check valve in case of a power outage and your pump goes out.

oookkk.

Nice link by the way! Thanks! I'm sure i'm going to be buggin this forum with a million questions.

 

[koiguy1969]

a tee on the down pipe or a check valve keep the filter from BACKFLOWING or flushing back into your pond in the event of power failure. OVERFLOW is kept in check by using larger plumbing "out" of the filter than" in"...one of my 9" weirs is equivalent to a 4" square or 16 square inches opening.. will 'easily' handle any flow up to 3000 gal per hour.
pond side i would plumb filter my way.. remotely located (other side of the fence etc..)i would plumb koikeeprs way...........thanx for the stickie...koikeepr.....

 

[laurabeth]

Ok great.
Another question.
Would it be possible ... to just use A trash can? Mabye a stupid question but I don't see why a cheep trash can wouldn't work?