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?

How are are your hyacinths doing? Healthy hyacinths should be growing rapidly at this time of year. They should be doubling their mass every two to three weeks. They should be a vibrant green. The plant tops should be robust, with compact root structures. They should have lots of plantlets sprouting from the plants. If the above description doesn't sound like your plants, it is likely that your pond is deficient in potash, nitrogen, or maybe iron. If your pond is missing any one of these nutrients, the hyacinths cannot process phosphates, which is likely the nutrient that is currently in surplus. Phosphate equals algae. Since you have very few fish for the size pond you have, the fish aren't contributing significant nutrients to the pond. The nutrients you do have likely came from the water you filled your pond with. Water nutrients vary widely from one water source to another. We fill our ponds with the water we have, but sometimes it is necessary to make adjustments if the water contains too much phosphate, or too little potash, iron, or even nitrogen. Take a good look at your hyacinths. They are good indicators of the nutrient status of your pond. Check for the things mentioned at the beginning of this post and let me know how they are doing. If the hyacinths are doing really well, you might need to add some more. Twenty-five plants isn't that many in a 3,800 gallon pond. Many ponders are now composting excess plants, so you might be able to find a ponder in your area that will give you a bunch.

lilacs of may - I agree w/the "need more greens" opinions above (which is not to say that I disagree w/the "need more water" opinions - I just don't have an opinion about the water thing b/c my bin is in a container & I tend to have too much moisture more often than not). The way you described it - 1 thin green, 1 thick brown of mostly leaves - seems like it would take a real long time to decompose. I've noticed leaves in my bin take a long time, which I didn't expect. But, my bin takes a short time to decompose when I've used mostly garden/kitchen waste, intense greens (such as UCG/dried blood/alfalfa), and some browns such as (leaves/paper towels/napkins/shredded moistened cardboard) - IF I turn it ALOT (again it's in a bin so this might not be as crucial to your formula). Plus, I also find that we each have a preferred "formula" for our individual systems, lifestyles & area of the country. I've added below a link to my list of 201 Compost Ingredients, if you want to brainstorm about more "greens." BTW, we just got our first Starbucks (10 min away) - prior to that the nearest starbucks was 1 hour away & that was just in a bookstore. I am already collecting from a local coffee shop (actually, they were new about 2 yrs ago - pre-local-Starbucks - and I told them about Starbucks' habit of bagging & offering UCG for peoples' gardens & so now they're doing it! yippee!). And, actually, most of the UCG I gather go directly onto soil (under the store-bought pine/other bark/shredded mulch) or onto the grass. So, do it again this year & keep experimenting to see what works! polly in IL - that is BEAUTIFUL! Thanks for the pix! All the Best, Tree Here is a link that might be useful: 201 Compost ingredients

Thanks, everyone! Barb, I've collected numerous bags from Starbuck's so far but they don't save it regularly... they throw it all away!!! What a travesty! I did a little research and dbm2009 is right that adding already composted material will provide more of the micro-organisms that break stuff down. tiffy_z5_6_can, I'm in Atlanta... Unfortunately, I'm about four hours to the beach or else I'd be all over the seaweed!!! I did, however, find a horse rescue farm nearby that gives away manure for free!!!! Heading there tomorrow to pick up a few bags of it. My wife is thrilled!!!