Oh! and the fountain hasn't worked in years because everytime I open the valve it cloggs with the brown stuff within hours.

Hi- sounds like your pond is a prime candidate for quilt batting. I had a similar problem last year until I used the stuff, and it cleared it completely in a matter of days.

Not sure what your exact setup is, but I have a biofalls with 2 mesh pads for mechanical filtration; I simply cut some pieces of QB in the same shape as the pads, and place them in-between the pads. The more layers I use, the quicker the suspended particles are trapped.

Others might be able to give you a more complete and detailed answer, but the above works perfectly for me.

I keep my fountain tubing clear with regular maintenance during warmer months. I use a regular water hose nozzle that directs a strong stream of water in the hose end that I have disconnected from the pump. You'll want to watch out and NOT be near the fountain when you do this because it will discharge (think slime bombs ☺) a few (maybe many) lumps of the slimy stuff that accumulates in that tubing. Repeat a few times, to completely clear the tubing. We actually alternate the water with a burst of air from hubby's compressor (although you may not have access to one, it works nicely).

HTH,
Pam

Hi,
The first thing I would do is figure out where the suspended particulate is coming from. Is there a low area where dirt etc. can wash into the pond when you water or it rains. Do you have logs or driftwood in the pond that are decaying. What about a lot of leaves in the bottom. The quilt batting will help get rid of the really fine particulate but you should figure out where it is coming from, internal or external. You could also try running the water through gravel or better yet lava rock to help filter out the particulate. The fish or the pressure of the water coming in is what is likely keeping the stuff floating. A chemical that causes the stuff to clump so it gets trapped in the filter would help, can not think of the name of it, I'm sure someone knows it. Brown water is not always bad, but the particulate is. Hope this helps.

I wrap the pump with lots of quilt batting too and change it every couple of days and my water clears right up.

Hi Everyone!

This is the first spring with my pond and I, too, have brown/green water with lots of stuff suspended in the water. I've read where some of you use quilt batting. I see "mybusyfamily" wraps the pump and "bwalters" puts it in the biofall. What a great idea! This doesn't hurt anything?

It hasn't hurt my pump at all, and I have done this for two years with this pond and several years before with another pond. if you wrap directly around the pump remember to change it often cause it will clog your pump if it gets to gunked up. or you can get mesh cloth bags and stick the batting in it and wrap that around the pump instead.. both work great

Hi,
the batting works as a mechanical and biological filter. First it traps the stuff as it draws water into the filter, 2nd it will be colonized by beneficial bacteria which eats alot of the bad stuff in the pond. The only drawback to this system is that the batting can potentially become totally clogged and cause the pump to burn out, this should not be a problem with regular maintenance. You will have to check regularly until you work out how often it needs to be cleaned. You should be able to see the water flow slow when it gets clogged. You will likely get dirty/green water in the spring when the bacteria cycle starts up and possibly after heavy rains. I have read that thunder storms can cause blooms as well. Once the pond is cycled the problem should disappear. I am guessing that DW's problem is that the water flow is so strong that it is churning up the sediment. Hope this helps.

Any of you ever have quiklt batting break off and float around the pond? I'ma lways afraid to use it because of this (and burning out a pump) as the fish might get it stuck in them?

BUT... if there were a way to wrap the pump with no risk to having clump of batting break away that would be fantastic.

mybusyfamily6 - can you go into greater detail how you do this? We have to solid handling pumps and we coudl not just "wrap" them in batting becasue it would be instantly sucked into the pump.

Hi Again!

First, what does that "zone" optional mean? I'm thinking it means where you are. I'm in the Northeast, USA so I guess I'd be zone 4-5.

Anyways, I bought some QB yesterday and fit it into my waterfall filter and the pump filter. I thought you would change this every 1-2 days as the brown particles get caught in it. Some of you are saying that it colonizes the bacteria. Being we've have torrential rain storms my pond water is a deep brown and I can see algae forming. The water doesn't have to be crystal clear but I would like it to be alot better than it is now. I really don't want to add chemicals due to the wildlife (frogs, tadpoles, goldfish, snails, newts, etc) that live in it and I'm not sure at all what I'm doing. I'm hoping that this QB will help.

Do you have a skimmer or just a prefilter? There are very few prefilters that do any good on the market. A matala barrel filter is probably the best thing out there right now. Is the Genie a pressure filter or something else?

Certain situations just have a lot of silt and debris, especially with heavy rains. If it gets worse when it rains the first thing that you need to look at is if you are getting heavy run-off. Are you in the country? Any fields nearby? Large gardens that run into the pond?

The first thing I suggest is to just take a jar/glass of the pond water and leave it on a counter for 24 hours. If it settles out you need some type of floculent and good filtration. I wouldn't touch quilt batting, sorry to anyone that suggested it.

If it does not settle out the first thought is tanin. Are there a lot of leaves in the pond or were there over the winter? Heavy leaves can put tanins in the water and give it a brownish tinge to dark coloring. Activated carbon in a FINE mesh bag placed in the leaf basket in the skimmer or in the fall will clear it up shortly often times. Good Luck!

Unfortunately, there is alot of leaves on the bottom. There will definitely be a net next year! When I tried to get them out to many living things came up with the leaves so I just left them until mid-summer.

I've been using the QB and I really like it. I seems to be clearing the water although it is still tea colored due to those leaves. I have a Savio filter and bio fall. The QB (one layer) in the filter pad behind the pump and two layers of QB in the bio-fall under the bio fall filter. I've changed it out once since Tuesday and the QB was VERY dirty.

I'm going to try that jar idea Watershaper suggested.

If there are leaves in the bottom I'm sure it is a combo of silt/sediment and tanin. If the QB works you will get out a lot of the suspended sediment, but until those leaves are out you will need lots of activated carbon to keep that water anything but tea colored. Wish there was another answer. Good Luck.

When I got home last night went right out to the pond to check the QB. The one layer that in front of the pump was absolutely filled with sediment. YUCK! I couldn't believe how much was in there. I pulled that piece out and replaced in with another. I'm sure that will fill up today. I did notice that the water is much better. WHAT A GREAT IDEA THIS IS!!!

mondotomhead, that's great news- I'm glad it's working for you. Especially at this time of the year, it's always a challenge, but I've found that this is one of the cheapest and most efficient ways of keeping the water free of suspended particles.

I need to change out mine soon; in addition to 8 layers of QB in the biofalls, I also have a supplemental 55 gal drum filter with another 6 layers there; they both need to be changed out, because the water is starting to get cloudy again. Weekend project...

In addition to QB at my pump intakes, I stuff mesh bags with the QB and place them under falls, spillways, wherever flowing water is located. The large amounts of QB absorb a lot of sediment and don't need to be changed as often. Really collect a lot of material.
Mike

I suggest you should NOT use the bags of trimmings sold as stuffing. Those contain loose fibers that can get into the pump and wrap around the impeller shaft. I know there are several posters who do use it and who don't have a problem but I won't take the chance. I have found plant fiber, hair and those horrible coconut strands when I clean the pump. All of them are hard to remove and hair and strands of polyester have to be the worst culprits. They have to be cut away with a razor or craft knife. Sandy

I have to agree with sleepless, I know a lot of people have had good luck with batting, but you will be taking a risk. There is a reason people in the industry spend millions to make the filter media they produce. If you are comfortable with it, okay, but we would be negligent in not saying what sleepless is saying. Temporary may or may not accumulate enough to cause issues, but long term I would be concerned. Sorry to everyone who's had good luck with it, but I, as well as sleepless, have our reservations.

In my pond I have as a waterfall the "streamlets" from Lowe's. It is a series of 3 connected bowls. In the top one I place a MOUNDED pile of pea gravel. That strains the biggest particles of gunk. In the second bowl I put a piece of wadded up quilt batting with a couple of bricks on top to keep it in place. Then in the bottom I put more pea gravel with some water Iris. About any marginal will do great in this area, even a regular tomato will do wonderful if you can rig a tomato cage to support it as it grows (make sure you rinse off ALL the dirt from the roots first or you will get a magnificent algae bloom.)

Okay, once I made my pond substantially larger last year I had the obligatory algae bloom and then Clear Clear water. That was until I had an early autumn here in the midwest and a maple tree filled my pond with leaves (prior to me netting the pond). Since that time I've only had tea-colored water (!!!), and it has confounded me! I've cleared the leaves from the pond long ago but I still have tea colored water, it is now almost June of the following year. The Professor has pointed out that a nearby mulched garden bed could be fouling my water. It's a long shot but maybe. I'm working on curing that now by introducing a larger rock-lined edge around the pond.

But I'm interested in some things that Sandy has said in another post about anerobic bacteria / die off of good bacteria / sulphur smell and lack of oxygen. It has made me think of this above posting by Watershaper talking about flocculent (sp)-- I think I know what this (flocculent) is but I'll have to do more research-- and activated carbon, as well as oxygenation.

My setup is a 2800 gal pond focusing on aquatic plants, I have about 8 large marginals, and 8 hardy water lilies. I have a large Savio skimmer and an Atlantic Bio-Falls. The plants in the bio-falls are starting to root now. The other plants are doing so-so; larger ones have gotten fertilized with Highland Rim tabs for the first time this spring ( I didn't do this last year), but smaller plants seem to struggle.

Of my overall 2800 gals most of this is in the lower pool, where I have the water lilies. The depth is about 34 inches with several shelves. I have a wide but short height falls between the upper and lower pools, only about six inches of falls by 40 inches wide (weir). The upper pool is approximately 200 gals. This is where I've put most of the marginals, the depth is only about 18 inches (deepest) with about 12" the norm. I have everything in pots in sandy-clay soil with pebbles or sand tops.

I have the bio-falls up stream from the upper pool and about a five foot quick descending stream between them. It is lined with rounded cobbles. I have been fighting string algae all winter and spring. Again, I've been fighting STRING ALGAE ALL WINTER & SPRING! While I've gotten a hold of it in the lower (larger) pool, the stuff is still forming anew in the upper pool around the plants and rocks of the stream... this is coming right off the bio-falls! I haven't been able to figure this out. Why would the water coming off the vegetative filtration be the most prone to develop the algae?! I'VE ADDED SOME HYDROGEN PEROXIDE TO THE MORE STILL WATERS AND IT SEEMS TO KILL THE ALGAE, AT LEAST IT CLUMPS AND I CAN SCOOP IT OUT IN A DAY OR TWO. But why would my bio-falls and stream bed coming off the falls be so prone to algae just when the vegetative filter is starting to really grow? This should be the exact opposite, should it not! :(

Next, I actually have two pumps in my Savio skimmer basin. One I have going to the Bio-Falls and the other I have going to a pipe with cut out holes that discharges just under the weir of the bio-falls to create a rapids effect. Both pumps are Laguna 3500 gph (I would estimate a 12 foot head, so they what, discharge about like a 2800 gph pump).

Okay, so that's the setup.

A few fish, 12 to 15. Mainly Fancy Goldfish of medium size, less than four inches. I test the water chemistry almost weekly.

Here it is, without fail:

pH: 8.5 ( I no longer try adjusting pH down )
KH: 9.25 degrees or 166ppm ( I buffer with Baking Soda as needed)
GH: 3 to 5 degrees
Nitrite: Nitrate: (hard to read the scale but no more than this) CO2: (not sure if the chart the Tetra Pond Test Kit gives is good for ponds because it says for aquariums on the CO2 sheet, but given the pH and KH it would be 0.8mg/lf
Water Temp.: fluctuating this spring between 64 F and 73 F. The above results were from yesterday (almost any day) at 73 F in the late afternoon.

So...

Okay, I've had the "rapids-creating pump" off for a few days just to save electricity dollars. But I turn it on today after a good 2 weeks off. I get a huge plum of fine muck like sediment discharged thru my rapids pipe and into my stream & upper pool and there is a very strong sulphur smell that lingers for about 4 or 5 minutes, it makes me think of Sandy's previous post about anerobic bacteria creating the smell and killing the beneficial bacteria. Would this account for why my bio-falls is not "eating-up" my excess nutrients that cause my string algae (occurring IN and close to the falls)???

I have a lot of fine sediment on the bottom of my pond. It is only about quarter of an inch deep sediment but it seems to be stirred-up quickly by any kind of movement. Is this causing my water to be tea-colored? It's so fine. If I move the net into the lily pool to remove string algae I get a cloud of fine, brown debris. I believe this is what my second pump, when I turned it on for the rapids, sucked up the pipe to the cloud and stink-up (sulphur) my stream bed.

So Watershaper says use a flocculent. I haven't goggled "flocculant" yet but I imagine it is something to bind particulate together. Okay. Might work. He also says add "activated carbon" which I believe is a form of charcoal. Where do you get this? I mean besides the pond store that sells it like gold?

What else am I missing?

Professor?

Oh I know, I want to ask about Oxygen that's dispersed in the water. I believe the pond gets an oxygen boost from three sources in my pools. First I have the falls from the vegetative bio-filter, this is the Atlantic Bio-Falls; then I get oxygen (I think) from the rapids of the steep stream; then, I believe I get oxygen from the 6 inch falls located between the small upper pool and lily pond pool. My question is this: how does oxygen travel in a larger pool of water? If my lower pool is roughly 2400 gal. and all of the turbulence is on the west side, is the far east side of that lower pool being oxygentated? I wonder.

Sandy indicated that she cleared water by adding a bubbler to smaller pools. Can it be that with one or two 2800 to 3500 gph pumps in this roughly 3000 gal pond that I'm still not getting enough oxygen to make things balance???

What you say?

Hi all,
thanks for all your responses.

I have taken a big step and it seems to have cured the problem completely.

I went and bought a big pump and a big filter, four times the size of the original, and a suitably sized pipe.
Within three weeks the water has cleared, all of the suspended particles as well as all of the brown stuff that had settled on the ledges has disappeared.

I fugure the original pump was only capable of maintaining the water with no head to pump and no koi.

We can now sit out and take great pleasure from watching the fish, and now we can see what's going on it's time to buy more fish,

thanks again
David

Pondbucket, you got the strong "sulfur" smell (hydrogen sulfide/rotten egg smell) because all the water in that part of the system you had turned off went anaerobic. It used up all of the oxygen and the anaerobes took over converting sulfates or other sources of sulfur over to hydrogen sulfide. When you turned your pump back on all the dead solids which came loose in the anaerobic conditions were flushed out into your pond. If you must save electricity you might think of using a two stage pump. Do not turn it off except for short periods of time (up to an hour if the water is very cold but only 10-15 minutes if the water is very warm). As to flocculants? There are numerous products on the market that you can purchase - either over the internet or at a local aquarium store. Many times it will be listed as a water clarifier. There are several different types that can be used, one group uses a long-chain organic compound called a polymer to actually bind the particles together so they are then bigger and settle out. Hope this helps.
---David

Thanks, it does help, Drh1. I cleaned all my filters today, even the ones at the bottom of my bio-falls -- I was careful to keep one bag of my lava rocks "dirty" so that I saved more beneficial bacteria. But I cleaned most everything else and I turned on that other pump for good now that the warmer weather has hit.

I'm going to try a flocculant, probably Accu-Clear, tomorrow.

I've never seen a two stage pump like you described...

Pondbucket, I should have said "two-speed" pumps. Oh well. Actually, there are two stage pumps but not for water gardens (that I know of)...they're mostly for generating very high pressures. Below is a website that sells two-speed pumps. There are many websites and pumps out there...the one listed below is neither the best nor the worst from what I can determine but does give you an idea of what is possible. With a two-speed unit you could turn down the electrical demands somewhat while keeping everything functioning. The pumps tend to be a bit pricey (as you might expect) and also tend to be external pumps rather than submersible.
---David

Here is a link that might be useful: Example link to two-speed pumps

At the risk of confusing you over the question about quilt batting I am putting a link below that may explain it better. Sandy

Here is a link that might be useful: Batting discussion

Okay, Im a little confused pond bucket? WhoÂs the Professor? AnywayÂ

Drh1 is right, the sulfur smells is anaerobic crap that builds up when you donÂt have proper aeration and circulation. The same stuff that sits underneath and between rock bottom ponds and causes so many issues. It is impossible to completely eliminate, but can be controlled.

Flocculent or flocculant? My sister is the English teacher, not me. Either way it is a generic term for a pond treatment that binds small algae particles together so the filter media can pull them out easily. So, instead of using quilt batting and getting who knows what else into your pump, you bind the small particles and pull them out with the media made for ponds. Not a colossal jump of logic, larger chunks are more easily taken out of a pond.

Fighting string algae in the winter isnÂt all that uncommon, there are certain algae types that like colder temps, thatÂs another reason I like Aqua-One so much, its one of the few cold weather treatments out there. And hydrogen peroxide is a great way to handle it, donÂt go crazy on the dosing, but IÂve heard if you could make an IV drip with hydrogen peroxide, it would be just about the best treatment you could find for many issues.

From what you are saying, it isnÂt that the water coming from the Âvegetative filtration that is most prone to algae, its just the simple fact that it is a stream/fall. ThatÂs where string algae thrives. It likes anywhere it can latch onto something, but stream/fall areas are their favorite hang outs.

Activated carbon or charcoal can be purchased at any standard pet or fish store. Petsmart to your local mom and pop fish place.

Any time you turn off a pump you have to assume that something is sitting in there and getting dirty or becoming anaerobic. This is one of the few draw backs to a redundant or multi outlet pump system. As far as the sediment on the bottom, thatÂs going to happen also. You can either vac it out or live with it. It will settle out eventually. That is where the jar test tells you if it is stirred up sediment, algae, or tanin. If both pumps are in the skimmer, than turning one on or the other shouldnÂt create a cloud, from the intake that is. From the output is to be expected since the flow has changed.

Oxygenating the water will help all sections of the pond to some degree. But just like anything else it dissipates over distance. Just like how it is always a good rule of thumb to put the skimmer opposite the fall or else you can get a dead spot, if all the aeration happens in one location, it will lessen by the time it gets to an area further away. Nothing extensive if it isnÂt cut off from the natural flow or a large distance away. I wouldnÂt worry about that.

I hope this clears up anything that may still be confusing. Something like an Accu-Clear is what I am talking about when I say Âflocculent or ÂflocculantÂ. I donÂt know which is right or wrong, but my spell check says the Âe is right? I honestly donÂt really care either.

Good luck with your pond.