Nepen said:
It's the leaves do the...berry tree next to the pond (blank of what it is at the moment) I netted them out this morning, most of them anyway.
I'll start my pump and change the water...want to at least have a nice water for my fish for the winter to come.
Nepen,
That sounds as though the tanins from the leaves are just discoloring your pond water, like tea leaves impart their specific color to your cup of water. If so, it is probably not a problem on its own, other than it is not aethetically pleasing, but it should not be harmful to any fish. Of course, too much of any thing is not normally good. The decaying leaves also add other items besides just the tanins, so it would be best to clean them out.
In natures's lab, these things are not cleaned up or out with a pond vac. Nature has her own way of dealing with them. And they seem to function quite well. But, in our little ponds, the ecosystem is not so functional. We need to step in and apply some other control measures.
I wanted to join in this discussion for a moment as it reminded me of a PBS series from years ago called something like "Swamp Smarts". The host brought forward all sorts of interesting and highly useful knowledge about swamps and living in the swamps. One of those items I recall is that the leaf litter from all the Cypress trees created a "tea" in the swamp and the tanins and other stuff from their decay actually purified the water to the point that it was safe for humans to consume. It created its own anti-bacterial and anti-microbial elixer in the swamp. At one point, the host dipped his big gulp mug in the swamp water and drank it on down! Citing that it was totally safe. I suppose that depends a lot on the specific swamp you are in.
He also went into the plants you can eat, those you can use for soap for bathing (that act just like bath soap and suds up) and specific leaves that when rubbed on the skin make a natural insect repellent, etc, etc, etc. It was a GREAT program to watch and I wish I could see it again, but I am not sure of the true name of the show and haven't seen it since and haven't been able to find any references to it on the net. If anyone remembers it and knows something, please make a post about it here so I can track it down.
Anyway, thought you might like this info.
Catfishnut
