I do use a product that removes sludge from the bottom of the pond. It appears to have worked well. It is called Natural Pond cleaner, which puts back good bacteria when applied. The sellers of these products depend on users seeing an improvement. But of course there's no actual way to tell by looking. If the pond is doing well owners attribute the goodness to whatever they did, like add a bottle of something. Human nature and a pretty good selling scheme. It is possible the product added the tannins, but I doubt it would color the entire pond...or the upper pool only...or whatever is going on. We had this same brown color last year, for a month, but when the green algae appeared on the rocks edges, the brown water went completely away. That is what I need. All things are possible...but since we have no idea what this brown color is there certainly isn't any way to draw the conclusion that some algae removed the brown. There are a lot of scenarios that could explain it. Is there such as thing as brown algae? I do not see any residual on the rocks. There are brown algae species but none that I would call tea brown. The brown kinds are generally macro type, like plants. I could do a water change again, maybe 20% but I am not sure if that would help. See, now to me that's really interesting. You call this tea brown...but it only appears in the upper pool. No comment on doing the color test, no explanation on how two connected pools can have different colored water. But you doubt a water change would effect water color. That leads me to think you know something you're not wanting to comment on. But you would like help on fixing the problem. Fascinating. thanks for the feedback. A little clarification. The PH is about 9.0. I added baking soda last night, it did reduce the PH to around the 8.0 mark. Baking soda in water has a pH of around 9 to 8.3. Adding baking soda would not reduce pH from 9 to 8. Other things, like GH is what interacts with baking soda to get a 8.3 pH. But most people don't mess with GH since the chemicals are scary sounding and 9 pH is fine. What likely happened is the pH in each test just happen to be different. Different time of day, different depth, different location, difficult to tell the difference in colors, etc. pH tests are very hard to get right and confuse a lot of people into doing harmful things to the pond. Adding baking soda isn't normally harmful unless ammonia is present but I'm sure you tested ammonia first and found it to be 0. I suggest to people who don't really want to know too much about pH that it would be way better for the pond and fish if they threw out their pH test kit and just use a KH test. KH is how you determine how much baking soda to use. pH test result just cause way more harm than good. Unless of course a person is studying how pH works. I assume the 9 pH is what was called "high" in the first post. It's up to each pond keeper to determine what pH they want. I for example wouldn't call 9 high in a Water Garden or Koi Pond. Many pretty serious fish keepers allow pH to be around 9. Not perfect, but fine. At any rate I wish you good luck with whatever is going on.

The only thing that will remove the discoloration from tannic acid is Activated Charcoal or AC. Place a bag of it in the water at the top of the waterfall or any other place where it is in moving water. Please note that AC is not the same thing as charcoal briquets. You can find it where Aquarium supplies are sold or in the plant supplies. It is sold there for african violets. Sandy

Thank you, Aspedsm, That is very kind! I would like to get some leaves, but will have to wait. Because just now I had to toss a plant as itt had thrips. So I will wait until I can get everything cleaned up and am sure my collection is safe. (I brought in some plants from a store that I guess I did not isolate long enough.) @ Karin, The resolution of the discussion of tea was not to use either tea water or tea bags on indoor plants. The used tea bags can be used as compost in a garden in the summer. But they are not sterile and might contain bacteria. Joanne

Hi. I have purchased many older HT's. I generally get suckered in by fragrance descriptions, so most of what I have was purchased w/ fragrance in mind. I have lost some due to winter cold and others have been just very feeble and have just faded away. Aside from the Radiance clan, in Maryland's hot humid weather most get BS as often as modern roses - maybe more often. Here's what i have in no particular order ** are particular favorites for fragrance and repeat: Julia's Rose Governor Roselini ** nice sweet fragrance,amazing repeat Legendary - poor repeat, only 2 yrs old, though Heart's Desire - wonderful, very tender, died 2nd winter Radiance ** Red radiance ** Song of Paris The Doctor** Amazing color, fragrance, bloom size!!! very tender, died in winter, Must reorder! Enchantress Catalonia Clair de Lune - ** very nice fragrance and color! tender Gruss an Coberg - smells like beer to me... Papa Meilland - simply the best in every way September Morn ** Sutter's Gold - ** Ophelia Erotika ** Herzogin... My Choice Dame Edith Helen Invitation ** fragrant, very fast repeat Grace de Monaco ** a must have, super huge blooms, very fragrant, saw in Vintage Garden's garden and HAD to have. Cymbeline - not an old HT, but an old Austin that I fear will be lost - one of my favorites for color, form and fragrance, great over a short arch Sunday Lemonade ** Talisman - just faded away... lovely, though Catalonia - also faded away after a harsh winter That's all I can remember for now... : ) These are very new ones from last season's order, so I'm still evaluating: Betty Uprichard Lady Luck Mme Jules Bouche Mrs. Wakefield C.M. Tally Ho Lili Marlene - slight fragrance, but very BS resistant so far - really taking off for a new band. Mission Bells Hope this helps! feel free to email w/ any ?? Jennifer