I don't know why, but my pond has gone from a nice clear, to a dirty river brown. It's cycled, has been for a couple months. I'm doing a large water change, and I'm going to rinse all the filter stuff in old water. Is this a normal pond thing? Or is it just me?

Erika-Mom's pond is looking a tad on the brown side today also, We had a lot of rain this past weekend though, I wonder if that stirred up some gunk at the bottom. Have you had much rain?

I just noticed a bottle of something to clear up the pond in the shed..I should lookie what it is.

Thanks Dells, we have had a bit of rain, but nothing excessive. I DID figure out what the deal is though. I took the filter apart, and there was about 1 inch of brownish grey sludge in the bottom. I drained about 90% of the pond, rinsed all the media in old water, cleaned the gunk out and refilled. It's still brown. I guess it needs to filter thru? I dunno. I miss seeing my fish!!! On the plus side, I found 2 more frogs.

FROGS, Make everything better.

I'll run out to the shed and see what they have for clearing up the pond, I don't know if you use anything but this might help.

http://koivet.com/html/articles/articles_d...Water%20Quality

maybe?

What do you have as filter media?
Mine was like that and I just have a sponge in my filter.. so after the 50% water change I cut a dip out of the middle of the sponge and shoved some filter floss in there to catch little bits and it seems to have helped a lot.

THanks Gollie, but it's not leaf tannins.

Thanks to you too Lucy! I got it clearing up now though. Once I got rid of the sludge, and reworked a few things in the filter, it's much better today. I can actually SEE them, LOL.

NERD, Do you want me to run out and look at what that stuff is just in case you need it sometime in the future?

I've found that Microbe lift pl and microber lift theraP are the best things to keep the pond clear. It helps keep the good microbes built up in the filter system. It sounds like you found the problem with the sludge build up in the filter. That'll do it. I know when I had a pond if I let that build up in the water fall bio filter my water would get murky and brownish. After cleaning it it would take a day again to clear back up.

Scott

THanks Scott, where can I get that stuff?




Do you know if it works for her? If so, yeah, lemme know what it is..... PUNK!

Alright I will do that for ya, GEEK! Yeah it works for her.

azponds.com is the cheapest place I've found that sale microbe lift. If you decide to go with a water clarifier make sure it's NOT a chemical. That is bad for you pond and the fish, I know they say they are safe for fish believe me they are risky.

Scott

Not to rub it in, Erika - okay, maybe a little bit... - I am sure you'll get Microbelift at the IL show this month....

You such a dork.... I'll be there!!!!!! That stuff is a tad pricey, isn't it?

Pond-Zyme has worked for me too. It's similar to the MicrobeLift, but comes in a powder.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000255N1...6498328-7914300