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?

I can't believe it. Been waiting all this time for my water to clear. It's has been so green with suspended algae you could only see into the water about 2 feet. So I get home last night, and suddenly, for no apparent reason, the water has become crystal clear. Beautiful, can see every spec of dirt on the bottom! hahaha...just sat by the pond all evening, actually being able to see what all the fish were doing in there. It WAS so nice for one day! Went out to give it the morning check up like I always do before heading to work, and half of my plants are knocked over and uprooted, dirt and gravel all mixed into the water, water a nice murky brown! Damn it!!!!! All heads accounted for except one, and might not have seen him as I didn't have much time to look. I don't think it was a raccoon. I am thinking the culprit was a big dog that sometimes runs loose in the neighborhood! Needless to say, if I ever catch the thing on my property...... Now I have to get home from work, fish all my plants out and repot them, and clean it up as much as I can. On top of that it is cold and wet out today. Moral of the story: enjoy what you have, green water never hurt anything, and when you finally get it to where you want it, somebody or something is going to make a mess of it for you and you will have to start all over! Derrick

I just started a 7x7 koi pond with three levels. I thought all I needed was the liner, and a pump with a fountain. I eventually got some plants, but I couldn't find pond plants. Luckily I looked on line and knew what to look for. The nurseries I went to didn't have "pond plants", but I noticed they had the plants I needed listed under "tropical plants". I found a few aquatic plants from the pet store. I have 3 koi and 2 goldfish so far. But a week after setting up my pond it turned into pea soup. After trying out different products on the shelf and nothing seem to be getting better, I looked up different pumps and filters. The biological filters were so expensive, so I checked out how they were made and had my husband help me make one ourselves instead. I think it's prettier, and heavier duty. The fountain sucks up the water and shoots up at the top so you can see the water above the vase (which was green but has gotten really lighter..lol), then it falls back into the vase met by a layer of those barley squares, a two inch thick wide webbed filter, then another thick tight webbed filter, and at the bottom of the vase are bags of charcoal filter rocks. There is a contrast between the green water shooting up at the top, and the clear water spitting out from the bottom of the vase. The pond so far is getting cleaner every day. I am just waiting for it to get clearer like it was when we first started the pond. Luckily I didn't give up and kept trying, or I wouldn't have come up with that convenient and money saving idea. I would love to hear more about money saving ideas. Or if there is anything else I am missing in my vase to filter. Oh, I also added a scoop of that enzyme powder with algae. I think that is everything other than getting a UV light filter. Any suggestions or tips that won't harm my plants or my fish?

I was lucky and scored the last dozen on clearance from my local store recently. I hadn't seen in in ages, then suddenly it showed up again already discontinued. Still in date too. So happy to have found it, and already trying to figure out homemade, lol. I think in cooking to make the texture, it's mostly just the split green peas and broth. Cook till tender and remove a bunch, then puree the rest... and add the more whole peas back in. I think one could leave as chunky or smooth as they want, I do like the ratio Campbells uses. And it's definitely a different density and mix than the Campbells Split Pea with Ham... The two soups have different formulations.