unsuccessful pond clean-out :(

I am so bummed out about our pond clean-out. Mother's Day, we took every last drop of water out of our 600 or so gallon pond, scrubbed down the sides, scrubbed the rocks and sides of the plant pots, repotted a few plants and rearranged everything. This is our fourth summer with our pond and it's had algae problems and a certain pea soup quality to the water from too much organic matter collected that first year when we were greenhorns and let too many leaves fall in. We had never cleaned it this well, so we were pretty excited. Yesterday, I went out to check on it and lo and behold, there is a layer of sediment on every single surface. I thought one of the plants had actually tipped over. So, I got in and felt around the cloudy water to find all the pots where they belong. As instructed, we used heavy clay garden soil in our pots, same as before, with a layer of gravel over the top to keep the soil in place. I did punch a couple of air holes in the side of one container. That's the only thing I did differently from the last time I repotted plants. Yet, it's never leaked this much clay into the water.
My question is this....will this sediment filter out of the water or are we just out of luck? Is this normal, has anyone else experienced this? I can hardly stand the idea of draining all the water again, but after all that work, it's depressing to look at it the way it is now! If we drain it and put more in, is the same thing going to happen again?
Thanks for any expertise anyone can offer.

what kind of filter do you have?

i usally add some batting to mine after i move things around to catch all the free floating particals.

Well, I will try to offer some advise but remember it is my opinion and everyone has one.

Dont be too upset. You have a pond, an ecosystem, not a swimming pool. I doubt that it will every stay "crystal clear" water and bottom in an outdoor situation. Now, having said that - removing crud from the bottom is a very good thing and most agree this should be done at least yearly.

Green water/floating algea - I am a big fan of UV lights, it was one of the very best things I have bought for my pond.

The turbidity of your water will improve over time. You can help it along if you have a small waterfall. I made a small wooden rectangular frame, and attached a layer of quiltbatting to the frame and put this under the waterfall, you would be amazed at how much gunk it will catch in 12 hours time, rinse it out with a garden hose when it gets dirty. If you continue to do this for a few days it will help.

:)
charlotte

I agree totally on the batting and the UV light. Also, you can get a particulate binder at the fish store. Most "makes your water clear" additives are useless, but a particulate binder does just that - it makes tiny stuff stick together into bigger stuff so the filter can catch it easier. You also may be having a bacteria bloom from the 100% water change. Normal and it will settle down if that is what is going on. Do you have fish too? Watch them for signs of stress if so. They can tell you a lot about what is going on by the way they act.

"particulate binder " AKA flocculant :)

Really? Flocculant? Thanks!

Did you excuse yourself for that flocculant? Just teasing.
Anyway--all very good advice and thank you all so very much for responding. I love DG! I haven't visited the pond forum much because ours was such an embarrassment, with all it's issues. We were determined this year would be different, now this. Those are good ideas for the prevention of future algae problems. And the flocculant is probably the best solution for what just happened. Those particles of clay are extremely fine, of course. So I suspect the filter or quilt batting will catch very little of it. It's probably not a bloom, it's definitely sediment, reddish clay like our soil. I just can't imagine why so much of it leaked out of the pots.
Thanks again. Any more ideas are muchly appreciated.

Honestly, you would be amazed at what the quilt batting will catch. If you have a place to use it, I would use it even if you go with the flocc.

If it is just sediment suspended in the water, it should eventually settle to the bottom..... or someplace. Just how long will depend on many things. One of the biggies is the size of your pond vs the size/capacity of your pump and what type of filtration you are using. However... if your are pumping too much water, this might keep things stirred up, you might have to resort to a method of removing the clay particles as described in other posts. We have a small pond and had a little bit of a similar problem when we first filled it. I'm just not sure what we did to have crystal clear water now. We even went through a few days of pea soup water that cleared up. Good luck!!!

There are several things that can be or could be happening: you didn't say but do you have any fish in the pond? The reason I mention this is that a few years ago I changed my potting formula to include a "bit" of good, black, garden loam thinking this would help the lilies bloom a bit more! Unfortunately I'd forgotten that the Koi had learned that they REALLY, REALLY liked earthworms (the worms get into your pond after a rainfall anyway). So the smell/taste of that garden soil spelled out d-i-n-e-r i-s s-e-r-v-ed. I had even covered all of the pots with a layer of 1-2" stones. Fifteen minutes or so later after putting all the pots back into the pond it looked like a total mud hole - nothing anywhere near as 'clear' as your water!!! The Koi had gotten into the pots, pushed the stones aside and proceeded to pump the soil out through the gills so that they looked like squids squirting ink! The good news is that it will clump and settle with time even though you used clay. I've tried the clay route and now use only a very sandy loam (more sand than anything else) and then add several of the slow release plant tabs for water lilies in the bottom of the pot. I don't put holes in the pot so that all of the nutrients more or less stay in the pot and therefore available for the plant. For non-lilies/lotus I don't use plant tabs just a sandy mix at which point you can use slotted pots.

As to additives to help clear the water: You can go to your local aquarium store or Petsmart and look for a product such as "Crystal Clear" http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?cm_ven=Froogle&cm_ite=ProductFeed&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023693&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302030154&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441776886&bmUID=1115779923422
It contains a flocculant that may help. I've tried it a couple of times and it worked reasonably well but then I felt that being a bit patient works well too - and is cheaper!

From the color of your water in your picture (assuming the color balance is about right) and assuming this only occurred within a few hours I'm inclined to think that this is not due to algae. It doesn't mean that the release of nutrients into the pond may not stimulate a later bloom but that color is typical of clay-particle suspension in which case a UV light would be of little or no help until the clay particles are removed. Having an aerator handy is always good advice, however - not any significant impact on removing the particles (in fact the turbulence may help keep them suspended) but if you run into a low oxygen condition it's great to have as backup. Good luck

This message was edited May 10, 2005 11:28 PM

Wow, you guys are awesome. Thanks so much.
Charlotte, I will definitely try the quilt batting, now for the clay particles, esp. if/when I add the flocculant, and then later for the algae that can tend to make it pea soupy.
Silver--DH already suspected our very strong pump was keeping thing stirred up too much, so he turned it off yesterday. Things should settle a little more now. It's encouraging to know similar things have happened to others and they now have clear water.
DRH, we do have fish. I didn't put anything loamy in, but they may have smelled a tiny bit of earthwormyness in the clay I put in, that's worth investigating. I wish now I had used sand and fertilizer tabs. I will defintely keep that in mind for next time. I punched the holes because I have a hard time imagining how oxygen will make it down into the plant roots without some sort of water flow there. I remember last time I repotted some plants, last summer, and the bottom of the pots smelled so foul from all that anaerobic activity. I would imagine the water can move much more freely in pots of sand, as the pore spaces are so much larger than with clay, so the holes would not be necessary to keep the bottom of the pot healthy.

The quilt batting will help remove particles from your water. If you have alot of the pea soup problems, spring for the UV light. I think you can get small ones from AZponds for less than $100.
:)

I'm not sure what turning off the pump would do for you. It may let the clay settle, and then you will know for sure it was clay and not algae, but when you turn on the pump it just might all get stirred up again... maybe not??? Let us know what happens in either case and good luck!!! Tom

Water movement is really important in your pond. I certainly understand wanting to stop stirring up the particles, but you need to keep the water moving for gas exchange at the surface and to keep the water from settling into warm and cool layers. Some pumps can be turned down to a lower flow rate, or maybe you can place it somewhere that will disturb things less but still move the water. Possibly you need a smaller pump.

So as to not scare off other potential pond people I must state that:

Our pond is 4 years old. We did go thru the pea soup stage. We do use clay in our pots with stones on top, and have no problems. With PROPER biological systems in place, you do not have to shock the system with UV lights, chemicals, or draining. When you drain the water, you are introducing chlorine and all of the other chemically treated water back into your pond, fish and plants. You must start over to obtain a balance in that biology. After our second year, things started to get better, and now we merely have to keep the waterflow cleared so that the flow can reach the filter station so that it naturally cleans the water returning back into the pond.

The quilt batting sounds like a similar system to what we have in place in our skimmer box. There is a net to catch larger debris, which we clean weekly, sometimes more often depending on how much stirring activity is going on. After the net is a thick (1 1/2") mesh, like a plastic batting that lays on top of the pump, filtering the water before it is pumped 40' away to a bag of lava rocks that filter water coming in to the top waterfall system. This is enough to keep the water filtered easily.

The ONE thing that we have found keeps our water clear, with very little effort, is adding 1/4 cup of a liquid organic product called AquaClearer by Aquascape Designs. It is a liquid bacteria & Enzymes. A mixture of beneficial bacteria. We buy one gallon of AquaClearer for $45. This lasts for a full year. We try to add this to the skimmer box every Sunday evening.

I would suspect that Earthworm is deeply lacking beneficial bacteria at this point, and should see pea soup very shortly!

I hope that this helps to comfort those that are considering a pond and are afraid of the maintenance.We are TOTALLY enjoying ours!

melanie

Melanie, I love your pond. Good for you for managing it without all the equipment. I agree that with a PROPER biological balance, you can maintain a pond very naturally. However, most people (including me I am sorry to admit) keep way too many fish in way too small a pond for the situation to ever approach proper balance.
However, we do need to reinforce that ponds are great to have and not really very hard to maintain MOST of the time. I think sometimes our pond problems get posted more than our pond successes. :)

Beautiful pond! I agree with you about the biological system. I have been keeping fish tanks indoors for years and understand the value of microbes and aerating the water. We shan't leave the pump off for long. We did pump about 150 gallons of water out and into 50 gallon barrels and then put that water back. Our water isn't chlorinated, so the system should be able to reestablish itself shortly. I do agree we will probably have a period of time where levels of nitrogen spike, but hopefully it will be okay. We only have four small fish in a 600 gallon pond. I did start a thread with a photo of the pond this morning. I'll post here too since my other photo showed only the water and sediment, not the whole thing ;) Hopefully, the water will clear up soon.

My pond is really not alot of trouble.
However, it is an ecosystem. Not a natural one because I am recirculating water instead of having fresh water flowing in and old water flowing out.

I have good water now, and the only chemical I put in it (other than chlorine remover of course) is baking soda and maybe some Koi clay occassionally if I have any.

I have alot of plants and not too many fish but I do have ALOT of sun. After spending, a year fighting green water (the more natural way) , I got the UV and I love it. The fish seem well, and the water stays clear. Now I agree, that from what I have heard, you dont want to drain your water alot. You are having to start over in reference to your bacterial balance. I have never had to drain my pond- just suck the muck off the bottom.

That brings up another point. There has been discussion about pond vacs. Do you have a vac system that works, and that you like?

I use my Python water changer from indoor aquarium use in my pond. It works fine on "muck" but clogs with leaves or other big debris. Works well enough that it hasn't been a problem. I use a net to scoop out fallen leaves.