Dirty Water

[mrteach3]

Very helpful everyone. I am considering taking out at least the rocks from the bottom half of the pond. I really like the looks of them at the top part and on the waterfalls. Getting rid of some is better than none. Hopefully everything works out.

 

[koiguy1969]

the floor of the pond is the most important to clear of stone...but the more cleared the better...good luck...and take some pix of what the floor looks like with the rocks gone, before and after cleaning............just curious

 

[mrteach3]

Sure will. I am going to try to do it on Saturday if it doesn't rain.

 

[PS3]

i built a fine's filter to day and i will run it all day tomorrow

 

[mrteach3]

Okay, here we go. I drained the pond yesterday. Surprised at how fast the little pump I used drained it. Started taking river rocks(the small rocks) out. I couldn't believe how many of them had fallen all the way to the bottom of the pond. That wasn't so bad. I am going to leave some of them in there nearer the top to hide the wires for my lighting. Plus, I really like how they look(I know guys, they will hide the dirt and stuff). :lol:

Well, after cleaning out the top part I got closer to the bottom. I could not believe how much sludge there was at the very bottom of the pond. Disgusting. I need to do a better job of covering it during the fall so that the leaves don't fall to the bottom of the pond. Then, I wanted to take some of the bigger rocks out as well. That was the bad part. The way that we built the pond made it so I can't take the big rocks out of the bottom since the big rocks higher up rest on them. Such is life.

No matter what, The small changes I am making by taking out some of the big rocks and a lot of the river rocks should help to keep things cleaner. I added a couple of pictures of what it looked like before I started cleaning up. I still need to spray the rocks down to get rid of some extra dirt, drain that water out and then fill it again. Wish it would stop raining. I really want to finish it today.

Sorry for the long post. Does anyone know how long my decorative goldfish can stay out of the pond without water flowing? I have them in a bucket now.

Tyson

 

[koiguy1969]

POWER WASH IT NOW, while its empty.....

 

[mrteach3]

I am on it koiguy. Just needs to stop raining first. :lol:

 

[PS3]

mrteach3 for the winter. i use window screen to cover my pond
i have 3 huge pieces and stuff still finds its way in to the pond lol

 

[mrteach3]

I actually have a netting system that put across the pond in the fall and then take it off after the leaves fall. Unfortunately, there was a hole that developed that I didn't see and when I took off the netting, a crazy amount of leaves got into the pond. Never thought of screen. I might have to try that. Thanks.

 

[mrteach3]

Okay, update. I just got hailed on. Yes, hailed on. Not fun. Anyway, I got everything I could out of the bottom of the pond. There is still about one inch of yucky water, but I would hope by adding a about 1400 more gallons would take care of that problem. We will see. I am going to fill it tomorrow unless this dang rain stops later.

 

[mrteach3]

Last update...maybe. Filled the pond back up and everything looks great. Got as much dirt and gunk out of the bottom and from the waterfalls as I could. Still have some cloudiness, but I am sure that will be gone in a couple of days. Thanks for everyone's help. I think I made the right choice by draining and cleaning. Now I just have to hope that the fish will survive when I add them back to the water.

 

[PS3]

my pond water is black from the oak tree pollen its like tan stuff
i call it tumble weed its stringy and when u rake itup it sticks too each other.
and the pile gets bigger lol.. can i do a half water change or even a 20 pecnt
water change even though the bio filter is trying to kick in?
the water was 50 dregees today down from 60 from last week

 

[Donna F]

Its time for a laundry basket with pillow stuffing in it
Put it under the water fall....on a bucket, above the pond water level but under the water fall

This worked great. I have been fighting dirty water and sludge on the bottom for a couple of months. My filters were getting dirty, and I was cleaning them often, but the water was still filthy. I have a thick layer of gunk on the bottom.

Within an hour of putting this in the pond the water was noticeably clearer and the pillow was black. After the second pillow I could see the bottom in the shallow end - a huge improvement. I have the 3rd one in there now and will see what it looks like tomorrow - it's too hot to work anymore today.

I think this along with the new pond vac I just got is going to take care of my problem.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[Donna F]

my pond water is black from the oak tree pollen its like tan stuff
i call it tumble weed its stringy and when u rake itup it sticks too each other.
and the pile gets bigger lol.. can i do a half water change or even a 20 pecnt
water change even though the bio filter is trying to kick in?
the water was 50 dregees today down from 60 from last week

I bet this is my problem too. My water got really nasty this spring. We had an especially bad oak pollen season and I have several large trees in my yard - right over the pond in fact. The bottom of the pond is nasty and that's built up over a couple of years, but it really just became a problem this year.
I tried everything, including ordering a pond vac to get the gunk off of the bottom. That works pretty good, but what's clearing up the water is the pillow and laundry basket filter. that is clearing the water so I can see what I am trying to vacuum off the bottom.

 

[Lisak1]

@Donna F - you're responding to an 8 year old thread, which is fine as long as you don't expect a response from any of the original posters!

And this is good evidence that these threads can be valuable far into the future!