Murky Water

Just edited my post.

Is your pond muddy or is it green?

 

Looking at it i would say it is green with a muddy looking tinge - hard to describe!!

I have never had problems before- it has always been crystal clear but since i made the pond bigger last august it has never cleared...

 

perhaps it needs a summer to settle down, August is a bit late for the plants to extract much nutrient from the water. So its gone through the winter as almost a new pond.
Just a thought.

 

Sounds the exact problem we had - crystal clear, then after some work, yucky green muddy colour!!!

It was algae and required treatment as its not been cold enough to kill it. We are hoping the lillies grow quickly and the marginals spread before too much sun makes the algae bloom again, but we had to resort to a water treatment to kick start the recovery.

Pete - I threw in some watercress from a mixed salad. It is growing, but still too cold to go rampant, but indeeed it doesn't need planting - I just slung it over the edge, draped over the gravel. Found a frog in it at the weekend!!

 

When its been in for a season,(ha ha mixed salad),you will find it starts growing much earlier than elodea.

 

Thanks for all your concern over my damaged pond.
I think I'll have to give up on it for now as I work full time, but I'll put it on my list of projects for when I retire in 2009. I was looking for an excuse to have a new one.
Don't know yet what to do about the chickens as I hate causing bother, but I think I will have to speak to neighbour re the problem.

 

Thanks for the help.
I think I have found a cause.
Looking carefully the elodea has been stirred up.Probably by the heron and is only just sprouting for this year. Because of the murky water since late last year it looks pretty awful.
I have ordered some more from ebay (at a great price) and I hope it helps the pond to clear when it arrives. Will keep you posted!

 

Honey Bee /although you say the u.v. is working, after a year the strength of the light will have deteriorated. I would suggest before you try anything else, change the uv

 

Uv lamps should be changed once a year, also the quartz sleeve should be cleaned too