cloudy water

[fish pond Den]

Ok here is the problem I'm having when I first did my pond I had problems with the water turning green on me so I went out and bought a pondmaster uv clarifier light.

I drained the pond out I had no fish in it so I basically started all over again. I connected everything and the pond has been running for about 2 weeks with the uv light but my
water is not clearing up and I don't know why it's not green it's just cloudy and it's driving me crazy and I have no idea what the problem is someone please help with some options for me.

 

[Mmathis]

Not saying this is your problem, but first time around you were experiencing an algae bloom, which is normal. With patience, it usually resolves. It's a normal part of "cycling" for a pond. There is also a bacterial bloom that can happen which causes cloudy water. I've had it with my aquarium and once with my pond. If I'm right, it too will resolve on its own.

What you shouldn't do is empty and clean the pond. The organisms that make your pond water healthy are algae and bacteria -- they all work together, but it takes time for all of this to balance out.

Having a pond is always a game of patience......lots of patience!

 

[fish pond Den]

Thanks so I guess I'll empty it and start all over and see what happens thanks for the info I'm new at this.

 

[Mmathis]

Thanks so I guess I'll empty it and start all over and see what happens thanks for the info I'm new at this.

No, what I meant was NOT to empty it and start over. Leave it alone for now as it should resolve on its own. Every time you "empty and start over," you are going to go through this period of algae bloom/bacterial bloom.

 

[fish pond Den]

Got ya I think too that I have to get some plant life.

 

[Lisak1]

If you have no fish and no plants then you really just have a hole filled with water. You could clear it with filtration, but you may battle to get it to stay clear. I don't know that I've ever heard of a pond that had neither plants nor fish. Do you intend to have fish eventually? Because if you add plants without fish the plants will struggle because the water will essentially be void of any nutrition. Plants you plant in the ground get their nutrients from the soil - plants in your pond need nutrient rich water. Those nutrients come from the fish waste.

Hope that all made sense!

 

[peter hillman]

I had this issue when I had a lifeless pond also, it wasn't a pretty sight. When I got plants they had algae on them from the nursery and soon my pond was thick with hair algae. I also drained and actually scrubbed the growth of the liner with a stiff brush, even tho I'd heard not to.... I ended up doing a bleach treatment to finally rid the imported algae. I've stayed away from nursery plants now, all I really have is something from land that creeps into the pond and roots underwater. It's a life cycle, once you get it going things get so much easier, I only need to clean my filter for debris blown in from the wind maybe twice a month and the only algae I get is on my submersible light.
And don't start out with expensive fish, you'll most likely loose the first round. Start with some pond comets, their active and hardy, they'll help get your water stabilized. Hope you don't get discouraged, I've seen people fill in their ponds because they couldn't get them to work. I couldn't be without mine.

 

[Rosenbeck]

I'm with @TurtleMommy: Patience.

Add plants and fish and wait for your pond to do its work. Our first year was cloudy, by the middle of year two, our water cleared up. No treatments of any kind. Lots of goldfish that we don't feed, and lots of local frogs that showed up. Algae grows on the liner and on the plant stems, and to a limited extent, on the plants, but the fish eat that algae, and the water clarity isn't affected. We're on year 3 with no problems.

Maintenance: At the bottom of the pond, we have a fairly powerful pump with an inlet attached to a 5 gallon drum filled with plastic netting and a few scrunchies. The outlet is a flexible plastic tube that goes above the water line and is hidden in the rocks to create a short waterfall. When the waterfall slows down every 2 to 4 weeks, I superficially clean out the netting with pond water.

 

[sissy]

I use quilt batting and just rinse it off and put it back in the crate I use

 

[tbendl]

Ok here is the problem I'm having when I first did my pond I had problems with the water turning green on me so I went out and bought a pondmaster uv clarifier light.

I drained the pond out I had no fish in it so I basically started all over again. I connected everything and the pond has been running for about 2 weeks with the uv light but my
water is not clearing up and I don't know why it's not green it's just cloudy and it's driving me crazy and I have no idea what the problem is someone please help with some options for me.

I went though exactly the same thing. I started my pond last year around August, no fish just some plants, ran a small pump into a bog/waterfall setup. I had cloudy water then green water then 3 days of brilliantly clear water then murk again for months. I left it alone over the winter and ended up draining it and starting all over again thinking that would help. I have since determined that the pond has to go through the awkward growing stages of murk, algae, and cloud before finding a balance of clarity. It took adding a lot of plants and also using what Sissy recommended and using an upflow pot filled with quilt batting to remove the smaller particulates that was helping cause the cloudy and green. The biggest thing is being patient. Draining and starting over, while expedient, actually caused the whole process to have to restart. Do you have any type of filtration?

 

[sissy]

everything that you want badly just takes time

 

[tbendl]

Except cookies, they take 8-11 minutes.

 

[Mmathis]

Except cookies, they take 8-11 minutes.

Unless you're making them from scratch.....

 

[fish pond Den]

Hey tbendl,
I do its a filter box I think it's a little smalland it has few bio balls and 2 different kind of cloth on the top of it with a fountain like thing on top so I wanted to do another one some how.

 

[tbendl]

So it goes from your pump through this filter box (through the few bio balls and 2 different types of cloth as a filter) into a fountain right?