Trees for shade, good or bad?

[Daytongirl]

Hello everyone,
This is my first post and I have to say I'm excited that I found this forum. Great info that I have read so far.
Here is my problem...
Pond is 15x25x4 (approx 10,000) gal.
About 40 Koi (ten years old.)
Husband planted willows along back side of pond for shade. These are not the weeping kind but fast growing errect ones. They are already 20-30 feet high, look amazing in the summer, and shade the pond throughout much of the day cutting down on algae growth. Sounds great right? Now for the bad part... The leaves drop all spring summer and fall. The pond bottom has so many leaves and small branches that the water is very cloudy. I have two pumps moving water through a biological filter (irisis, marsh marigolds, etc)
So..... cut down the trees while husband is out of town or try to find something to filter the bottom?
PS I don't think netting is not an option due to the size of the pond

 

[DrDave]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[koikeepr]

Yo DaytonGirl! I know the willows you speak of--they grow like a foot per day!

You should not have any leaves/stems in the pond as it poisons the water. As a compromise to cutting the trees down and saving a marriage, you could put a pond net/cover on--otherwise you pretty well have to cut the trees down.

 

[Waterbug]

The leaves can be vacuumed along with other stuff. Here's my vacuum page.

You can also add a bottom drain with some directed pump outflow. For that size pond and such a high fish load I'm surprised you don't have a bottom drain.