How can my pond be this bad?

Hi all,

I'm new to pond keeping and this forum so be gentle with me (please) ;-)

I have a pond that is around 2000 litres, at the deepest it's only about 50cm deep.

The pond has about 15 fish with one about 20cm and the rest much smaller.

It has one Hozelock EasyClear 9000, a Hozelock Aquaforce 15000 pump and a Hozelock Bioforce 12000 filter, a Oase SwimSkim 25 Pond Skimmer and a couple of airballs. As I understand it this is a huge amount of filtration / UV / air for a pond of this size.

So why on earth is it so dirty? I would have thought it should be crystal clear.

I've started cleaning the filters in the Bioforce every week. I cleaned the UV domes (or whatever they're called) and replaced both UV bulbs (13w in each filter).

Any advice gratefully received!

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner John.

Not brilliant with ponds but has it been filled with tap water recently?

 

Hello John Kitching, First thing to ask, what do you mean by "dirt" what colour is the water?
A picture or two would really help.

2) How old is the pond

3) Sorry to say, but at 50cm its far too shallow, it should be 65cm minimum, 75 cm is the average. (more about that later)

4) Sorry to ask, how long do you leave the filters and pumps on for?




Pictures:

Take pictures, up load them to some where like Photo bucket then link back to here. Other free picture hosting websites are available

The picture hosting site will show the link to add to any other site.

Gardeners corner also hosts pictures, you click on control panel> album

 

Pictures to follow thank you.

There is a bit of history to the pond. I'll try and give what I think is relevant (and not get boring!)

got the pond (with free house) just over a year ago
it had easyclear 6000 and no fish
maybe late 2009 added a few fish from a friend's pond
last winter's frost killed the 6000
this spring added an easyclear 9000 and a few more fish
the pond starts to look green (algae and weed I think)
added bioforce filter and aquaforce pump (massively oversized for the pond but that can't be a bad thing can it? ;-))
pond clears quite nicely
I read that a dirty filter is a good filter so decided not to clean it out until flow reduces (I realise this was a mistake now as filters got blocked and water bypassed them)
a couple of months ago pond is very green with weed and algae, I try various products to try and clear it, some work a bit but not for long
maybe a month ago I cleaned the UV shrouds on both filters and changed the bulbs
a few weeks ago I spoke to hozelock and started cleaning the filters weekly on the bioforce filter
pond is now very cloudy (not as green as it was)

I do top it up with tap water (untreated) but not very much, I don't loose much water so doubt I add 1% per week on average.

I'll get some pictures this afternoon and add them, thanks again for the help.

Both pumps and filters are on 24 x 7

 

Pictures are here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/John.K...&authkey=Gv1sRgCK26_ev4lcu8TA&feat=directlink

 

The water looks brown.

If it is, then it's agitated sediment. (Too much force in the pump.)

 

I have never owned a pond ... however, as a child, I used to breed tropical fish and had several large fishtanks for several years

and have owned 4 homes with swimming pools

the 1st thing to do, is to take a ph reading of the water and then work from there

as mentioned, perhaps the pump is incorrectly placed, and the suction pipe is too close to the bottom where the sediment is situated?

but saying that, the filter should stop and filter the sediment from returning to the pond?

there is loads of info on google ... keep us informed though as this is an interesting thread

so perhaps the problem lies with the filter you are using? ... am just guessing though

 

I did wonder about the sediment in the bottom, the skimmer stirs it up a bit.

I was assuming the filter would clear it as it's so oversized for the pond, I calculated I turn over the volume of the pond about every thirty minutes.

Should I raise the pump off the bottom?

Return the water via a hose under the surface instead of down the waterfall?

The easyclear is moving a fair bit of water around the pond by bypassing the fountain, is that a mistake?

 

It could be that the pump is two powerful as others have said it's just constantly cycling the sediment around the pond on a separate note if this is happening the fish will probably be stressed as well:(

 

So why doesn't the filter remove it? Sorry if that's a stupid question.

 

John, you appear to be running virtually every electrical gadget that's available.

If I was you, I'd just turn the lot off and watch what happens.

Its getting colder now so things are slowing down.

Fish stop feeding and pooing, blanket weed and algae stop growing.
So turn it all off and have a re think next spring.

 

Might not actually being sucking it up but the force of the water leaving the filter might be forcing it up and round:o

if that makes sense

 

Hello John Kitching. Thanks for the pictures. My eyesight is not as good as it used to be, any chance of bigger pictures?

But from what I can see, I suggest the following.

A skimmer is useful, but there does not seem to be any debris in yours, and as some skimmers have a high out put, I would turn it off.

Returning the water via a waterfall does two things.
It returns the water (funny that) and it oxygenates the water, putting the return pipe under water does not add oxygen.

Since the waterfall is adding oxygen, you can turn off the air pump.


Clean / dirty filter

I think I know why you thought this, and technically, being dirty is better.

Good bacteria live on / in the filter bio media (the plastic lumpy bits) some will live in / on the sponges.

The confusion comes from the filter media.
You should never clean the media as you will kill all the good bacteria.

However, you SHOULD clean the sponges as they literally block with algae. BUT you should only clean them with pond water. Some filters have a knob and handle for this reason.

(You turn the knob to the waste position the pull the lever up and down. This cleans the sponges and the really dirty water goes to waste (or the flower beds, which it is good for) Put the lever down and turn the knob to run. )

But you should use a bucket of pond water, as tap water will kill the good bacteria in the sponges, but more importantly the trapped water will kill the bacteria in the media.

You should change the sponges and the uv lamp once a year any way. (I note you have changed the lamps)

Bio-filters have media for the good bacteria to grow, and filter parts (sponges, brushes etc) to filter out particles which the UV lamp cause to floculate (clump together) They are not designed to catch fine dirt. Fine dirt will pass through the filters simply because the dirt is too fine. BUT if you put a very fine filter in (they do exist) it will block within minutes.

Having done all the above, I would give it a couple of weeks, and if you still have problems, turn the pump output down, or buy a smaller pump.


"Useless facts"

Green water is caused by sunlight making micro organisms multiply. These organisms just happen to be green.
A UV light causes them to clump together, they are are big enough to get caught in filter sponges.
Since there is less sunshine in winter than summer, post pond owners switch the UV off.
The filters should be left running 24/7 as if not you will kill the good bacteria. (Some new pond owners switch the filter off when its dark, then wonder why they get problems)

When its gets very cold its not unusual for pond water to freeze to a depth over 40 cm. That is part of the reason ponds should be around 75cm deep minimum.

Its a popular misconception that fish hibernate in winter. They don't hibernate, their metabolism does slow down a great deal, but they do not hibernate. Because of this, you should not feed the fish in winter, even if its a sunny day, as the food may not get digested quick enough and rot inside their gut.
Fish will also seek out the warmer parts of a pond, the deepest being not so cold, again this is a good reason the pond should be deep.(ish)

It sounds logical to switch things off for the winter, but that is the worse thing to do, as you kill all the good bacteria in the filter.

The pump for the filter should be as far away from the return as possible.

 

Thanks very much everybody, that gives me loads to think about!

There wasn't much debris in the skimmer because I emptied it today.

I have a spare set of filters for the bioforce and I've been swapping them weekly and pressure washing the dirty ones ... sorry ... I won't do it again, pond water it is!

If you follow this link to the pictures they should be bigger.

https://picasaweb.google.com/106108122823069936001/20111030Pond?authkey=Gv1sRgCK26_ev4lcu8TA