Tea coloured pond water

[sotiris]

Hi, im a new member and i want to ask a question.

I have built a small backyard pond, around 600litres.It was finished in October, and since then i haven't achieved to maintain a crystal clear water for more than 4 days.

First of all, it has no rocks in the bottom to trap any debris.

It has 2 small 20cm Koi fish each, 4 small 5-6 cm goldfish,and 4 tiny mosquito fish.

The filter was at first in a D.I Y 10 litre tank, but now i have upgraded it to 20liters.

The water runs from top, running through a layer of a special filtering cotton, like a quilt battling, then it goes through a two layer filter mats, the a have a 3 medium sized meshed bags full of sera bio balls for the bacteria to live, and then in the bottom of the filter tank i have added a layer of lava rocks.

I added activated charcoal as well but with no results at all.

The water comes out of the tank in a small stream and goes back in the pond.

The submersible pump i have is 1300 liters per hour which runs 24/7 which is more than enough i suppose,

I have tried everything so far, i had more fish in the past, the were removed, i have tried water changes and then added liquid waterlife bacterlife many many times, i have a clean pond for a couple of days and then starts going back to cloudy brown as you can see in the pics.

No leaved are in the bottom of the liner.

Any suggestions are highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Sot

 

[sissy]

Is the water green or does it just look green from the liner .It gets built up muck on it which is good for the fish .Do you have liquid test kit as koi produce a lot of waste and if your ammonia is high it will help feed green algae .What are your temps and do you have enough oxygen going into the water .Plants use up oxygen at night but give it off during the day .

 

[sotiris]

Sissy it looks tea coloured. I doesnt look like algae. I suppose the pond gets enough oxygen from the small stream. Shouldnt it? To add some oxygen i added a water hose coming from the bottom of the filter directing water back to the other side of the pond. The water getting dropped in the pond produces some bubbles that i suppose its oxygen. You can see it in the second and in the last pic..

No i dont have a liquid test kit, but i know Koi produce a lot of waste. But they are only two and they are still small. Im planning to remove them when they get bigger.

But if the issue is the Koi, im willing to remove them now...
The water temp is around 18-19 celcius

 

[sissy]

That is disolved organic stuff from fish poo .Are you on city water

 

[pecan]

Brown tea colored water is caused by decaying organic matter. Green floating algae is caused by nutrients in the water (fish poop) feeding the algae bloom. New ponds normally go through a green water phase and even ponds that start back up in spring do as well.

By the look of your pictures it looks more like an algae bloom than decaying organic matter. You need something to steal the nutrients from the algae. Like a bio filter or plants. With a high fish load of 2 koi and 4 comets in a small body of water they will put off a lot of waste and need something to handle that waste. Right now it appears to be the floating algae handling the waste. Which is actually a good thing, other then the looks.

General rule of thumb is Koi need at least 3785 liters or 1000 US gallons. I hope I did that math right. They are very messy and get get very big.

Note of caution. Mosquitofish reproduce LIKE CRAZY! I started out my first year with 12, yep 12, by the end of the year I had thousands! They produce live young rather than eggs so their survival rate is much higher. It takes draining a pond completely and leaving it completely dry for days if not weeks to completely eradicate them. Each summer around July I net out buckets full and dump them in the garden as fertilizer.

 

[Big Lou]

If your water is from a private well it could be minerals changing the waters color. Since you are running a DIY filter it could be emitting certain particles. Consider a retail filter unit. Try changing out the water. Tanin from leaves and bark will turn the water tea colored. Your primary photo has the water looking green. Even an off shad gree could be algae. Many treatments for that. Consult other pond owners in your area for pond water comparisons. Take a jar full of pond water to a pond/fish store for testing. Try to determine if there is any buildup on the pond bottom and what it is. Good luck

 

[callingcolleen1]

If you are using the benificial bacteria it can take a month or more to get working. I also think you do not have enough water movement and it appears you have nice hot weather where you are as you have nice tropical plants growing... grrr I am freezing to death here in Canada!!! If your weather is very hot, I would say you need a bigger pump or another pump and good filter to get that water cleared up. Also you can use "Laguna Green water Clarifier" that will help the filter pick up the very tiny pea or tea colored water. Also some good Sedges growing inside the pond will help lots too. Sedges are plants like aquatic grasses, rushes, irises and cattails.
Love your pretty pond and rocks and hooe you can get it cleared up soon too!

 

[Lisak1]

Scoop up a glass full in a clear glass and see what it looks like - are there particles floating? Or is the water clear of floating matter but just discolored? From the pictures I would not describe your water as tea-colored, but rather green... but pictures don't always tell the whole story.

Truly tea-colored water is generally from tannins from leaves or other organic material that drop into the pond. Our pond gets that tea-color every spring when we put fresh mulch around the edges and we get rain - the tannins from the mulch find their way into the pond. Not harmful and it generally dissipates on it's own in a few days time. But if you have floating debris in your water causing the discoloration you need to filter it out - quilt batting is a good, inexpensive tool for that.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

But if the issue is the Koi, im willing to remove them now...

That looks like a pretty small pond for Koi. You might want to try Shubunkins or Comets, not to say that it'll solve your green water issue.

I've heard adding more plants can help with green water. I've had occasional green water issues myself.

 

[sotiris]

Sissy, yeah im on City water.

Pecan, i thought my D.I.Y filter was a bio filter.. sorry im a bit amateur to this.. The mosquito fish were added (7 in total), in order to control the mosquito problems i get in my area during the summer. If i see them overtaking my pond they will be removed in my huge fathers in law pond he uses for his fields... he is a farmer you see There is where the Koi fish will end if i will be advised to do so.. (if not now, for sure later on when they get bigger).

I have planted some papyrus plants and a few lillys that sleeping now i was told as its still winter.

I have tried a chemical treatment for algae with no results at all.

I added two days ago, two tiny Golden algae eaters, in order to prevent algae. Dont know if they are still alive, as i cant see them due to water colour,.

callingcoleen1, it looks like i dont have enough of water movemnet, but spending more money on a pump and another filter right now, is not something i want to do, as i already spend more than i expected, in building filters, changeing filters, spending money on chemicals (i bought 5 bottles of bacterlife so far), and the results are still the same.. Its now winter so my banana trees are Not at their best. You should see them in Summer. I will post pics when the weather gets warmer and they become alive..

Planting more plants in the bottom of my pond maybe is an issue as its a small one, and adding more pots will restrict water circulation..

Lisak1 i did that test with the glass, and no particles are visible

 

[Dave's pond Indiana]

It appears you need more water movement and plants in your pond. Then be patient ( this is usually the hardest part )

 

[sotiris]

Dave, as i said before, getting another pump for the moment is not something i want to do.. Is there a way i can achieve more water movement with the equipment i have?
Adding more pots with plants at the bottom will restrict water movement.. im i right?
If adding floating pots with plant a solution or planting them at the bottom of the pond is a must?
Is papyrus a good plant for absorbing minerals?

 

[sotiris]

How about adding more plants in my small stream?

 

[JBtheExplorer]

If your pond gets a lot of sun you'll want to get plants that help cover the surface like water lilies or water hyacinth. Under water you'll want plants like Hornwort.

 

[sotiris]

so my solution is only with plants?

btw thanks so much for taking your time to assist me!!

 

[j.w]

Looks like algae to me and you have to give time for this pond to mature and if you keep trying to fix it by changing the water it will just be a continuous problem. You need more plants to suck up the nutrients provided by the fish poo. Plants will compete w/ the algae in your pond and in your stream and eventually hopefully correct the problem. You could shade your pond somewhat w/ an umbrella or some sort of cover as the sun will make the algae bloom like crazy. That batting you are using should help too and change or clean it often. You should buy a liquid test kit and they are not expensive so you know what your pond is doing. Some here use Hydrogen Peroxide to kill the algae but I have never used it so will not speak about it. Chime in here now somebody who uses it

 

[Lisak1]

We use both hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate, which breaks down into hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate (soda ash) when it comes in contact with water. Several companies package this product as a "waterfall scrub" to remove string algae from rocks and waterfalls. We buy it from a soap making company for about 1/10 the price - same stuff, same effect.

 

[sotiris]

wow, i might try hydrogen peroxide then, but under what is the recommended dosage should i use..

 

[Lisak1]

You'll find lots of varying opinions on that. I can only tell you what we have done in our pond with good results - we add 1 gallon of 3% H2O2 in liquid form every other week during the growing season. Our entire system is 4000 gallons. This is the ordinary brown bottle hydrogen peroxide you can buy at the pharmacy or big box store for $2-3 a quart. Very inexpensive and safe to use. We brush our teeth and rinse with it daily and have for years. It also kills anaerobic bacteria, so that may be an added benefit.

The sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate is granular. To use that we turn off the water falls, sprinkle enough to cover any string algae on the rocks or in the shallow shelf areas, and allow it to sit for 20-30 minutes. You will see the algae die off (it oxidizes) in front of your eyes. When we restart the falls we are prepared to scoop up the dead algae. Allowing it to remain in the pond would only continue the cycle as it would decompose and provide more nutrients for algae to thrive on.

 

[shakaho]

I think your problem is filtration. It appears your water is cloudy, which means there is either algae or small particles floating in the water. Since you say the water is not green, we have to assume it has fine particles in it.

Looking at your filter makes it clear you are a good DIYer. The problem is the size and design. A good rule of thumb for a small pond is that the filter should be 1/10 the volume of the pond, although I have used some half that size successfully. Yours needs to be at least twice as big as what you have.

If you look at the filters in our DIY forum or look at commercial container filters, you will find that the water flows up through the filter, not down. There is a reason for this. Upflow makes gravity your friend, while downflow makes it your enemy. When water is flowing up through a filter, particles are pulled down by gravity and stopped when they hit filter medium. If you use a "swirler," the particles settle to the bottom so well that you don't need filter pads for mechanical filtration. When I dump the water from the bottom of my upflow filters, it's black with mulm, while a glass of water from the outflow at the top looks like drinking water.

When water is going down, gravity pulls particles down. Large debris gets stopped by filter medium until it decomposes and washes down, but the tiny particles that make water cloudy just go right through. Since water is flowing out at the bottom, virtually no particles settle, so the fine stuff goes back to the pond.

Go to the DIY and look at the pinned filters. These are for 55 gallon barrels or larger, but are easily scaled down. I built my first in a 10 gallon flowerpot, which would work for your pond.

While you do need to remove the koi, I don't see any other problems. Your pump is plenty big enough for your pond. Plants are good, and with an upflow biofilter, you can put plants in pots of gravel at the top of the filter. They will absorb lots of plant/algae nutrients. Papyrus absorbs nutrients and grows very aggressively. It looks great too.