Get a 5-gallon bucket, put your pump in it then stuff quilt batting around it & some screen material if you want, put it in the pond and turn pump back on.

You'll have to clean batting & screen off after a couple of days ... take it out of the bucket & just hose it off with the water hose & put it back in the bucket & the pond ... you'll probably have to clean every couple of days for a little while but it does clear up your water. When you take the bucket out of the pond to clean the batting & screening I pour the ucky water on my ground plants.
It cleared mine up, not perfect but I can see to the bottom.

Credit goes to catfishsam

Thankyou missa!

That sounds a lot like what I have going on, except instead of a bucket I used a watercooler jug. The silt just passes straight through. :(

I checked both pet stores for pond clear or accu clear today and YIKES! Talk about expensive! Walmart sells the stuff for 6$ a bottle, and one pet store had it for 25$ and the bottle was only 2 oz bigger. One had it for 16$ but the bottle is twice as big and I didn't get it, but hubby is now telling me to. I guess I'll go get that later today.
If it bonds the silt particles together they'll be big enough to get caught in the filter, or sink to the bottom. Fingers crossed!!!

Use the batting as a pre-filter and get yourself some Poly Filter sheets by Poly-Bio-Marine, Inc. The Poly Filter will not only clear your water of the silt but also remove toxins *rapidly*!

It is very commonly used by freshwater and marine tank people. I believe that NASA also used it for air purification in the space program.

It is not the cheapest product around but it does work well. We always have it on hand for our aquariums and pond(s).

Here's a link I found for the product. There are many Internet sites and aquarium shops that sell it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Poly Filter

Destany.......Sorry to hear about your problems. What kind of filter medium are you using? I'm sure you can trap that silt with the suggestions made above. You may have to hose it off several times a day, but I'm sure it will trap that silt. Good luck.
(In one of my little ponds I use the quilt batting wrapped around the pump, and it works well).

I have to agree with the Quilt Batting, it works with clearing the water! We're new to ponding and I put some in our skimmer net which is in front of the pumps just last night and it has made a big difference. I can see the bottom for the first time since we built the pond last fall. I picked mine up at Walmart in the craft section. :)

Good Luck!

Yeah..........I gave up ever making a quilt.....and use it for a different hobby now!

:-)

I think maybe I'm not cleaning the filter often enough. I thought once a week should do, or whenever it gets clogged. I will try daily, or twice a day if I'm able. I couldn't get the flocculant, DH has asked me to hold off again.
I actually have foam (like they stuff couches with), in 2" thicknesses in the filter, wrapped in batting. I think I'm going to just take the casing (the cooler) off, and wrap the foam and batting directly around the filter intake. That will make it MUCH easier to clean!

One of my big fishes turned up dead today. :( I'm really heartbroken about it, I only had 2 larger ones, about 6" long. I dunno what caused it, but this is rather ominous since I'm not seeing any of the others (only an inch long) or the large orange one. Too sad! I looked him over closely and saw no signs of trauma, but he was missing some of his scales.

Fish naturally carry parasites.. and can live with that.. when fish experience stress their resistance to the parasites is weakened and this can affect their health and well-being... and yes, the parasite can cause death, too. If your pond went through a murky period, this can cause a drop in sufficient oxygen, which can stress the fish. Shutting off the pump may have caused even more stress and the water was not being arearated like it should.

With cooler temperatures the water's bacteria level may not be high enough to breakdown ammonia buildup and debris that has accummulated in the pond. You have a deciduious tree, I assume with this comes leaf drop in the fall, these leaves will breakdown, settle in the bottom of the pond, and as they breakdown, plus the fish waste, can all result in an increase in ammonia levels, which is also a problem for the fish.. stress and low levels of oxygen.

Since I am not a resident fish doctor, I can't say for certain what might have caused the death of your fish.. just wanted to share some info about fish health and stress, etc. Thanks.