AboutJonathan Cauble Expertise I can answer all questions relating to outdoor water gardens. Anything from fish & plant health, water chemistry, and pond construction to equipment recommendations.
Experience I worked in a water garden specialty store for three years as assistant manager. I am also founder and president of Aquatech, LLC Aquarium Services of Virginia. I have personally troubleshooted over 100 ponds and countless aquariums.
Question We have a pond, approx. 1200 gal. which was installed in the early spring. It was fine at first, but we have had never ending problems with the water clarity. It seems we initially had algae, which we treated several times with algaefix. The problem we have now is that the water is very dark and cloudy and when we scoop some out it is an orangey-brown color. We have tried Accu clear by pondcare and so far not much improvement after one dose. There are approx. 12 fish in it, some 6 in. long, but most smaller and some only about 1 1/2 in. we have a pre-filter, an external filter with a 16 watt uv light and a 2900 gph pump. we also have an extra small pump with fountain head attachment. The pond is approx. 50% covered by water hyacinth and is in a mostly sunny location with about 1/3 of the pond getting afternoon shade. Our ph level runs about 8.5-9 and about 300 ppm of alkalinity, which I realize is high. Our water is softened because we have a lot of iron in our water here in central illinois. The fish are all happy, but I hate the lack of clarity of the water. We have also added some activated carbon to the filter without much success. Any suggestions? We clean our pre-filter every day or every other day and they are usually pretty dirty.
Answer This is fixed in 3 easy steps.
1) Locate the source of the problem. (what type of liner do you have?) (Is there clay in the ground near the pond?) (is there runoff water entering the pond or is there a hole in the liner?)
2) Fix the problem.
3) Clean up. Carbon removes some things from the water but water changes or siphon-vacuuming work better for most things.
The alkalinity issue is probably related to whatever is clouding up the water.
