How do I get rid of this "mud"?

[Paula Basnett]

We gouth a house last spring that had an existing small garden pond with a water way. I've been combatting string algae all year. But, now I have a new problem. There is this brown muddy looking stuff that collects in the crevices of the water way. It is terrible on the filter foam media. It literally looks like a mud film.

The basin of the pond looks pretty clean. I have a prefilter at the bottom of the pool. The filter has a UV light, porous foam, fine foam and bio balls - in that order. The problem seems to start in the porous filter media in the actual filter? And it settles on the rocks in the water way (the sections under water.) It settles like sludge and sprays off very easily, It's just a lot of work to clean it off of the media and spillway so often.

The water is quite warm. We have had days over 90 degrees for the last 3 weeks, but this seemed to have started before then.

I am cleaning the gunk out of and off of the filter media a couple of times a week.

Any suggestions as to how to keep this cleaner would be a great help.

 

[MitchM]

If you have been combatting string algae all year, it could be dead algae.
Could you tell us a bit about your pond?
Size, how many fish, how much you feed, what you have been doing to combat the algae.
Pictures are always helpful.

 

[Paula Basnett]

We gouth a house last spring that had an existing small garden pond with a water way. I've been combatting string algae all year. But, now I have a new problem. There is this brown muddy looking stuff that collects in the crevices of the water way. It is terrible on the filter foam media. It literally looks like a mud film.

The basin of the pond looks pretty clean. I have a prefilter at the bottom of the pool. The filter has a UV light, porous foam, fine foam and bio balls - in that order. The problem seems to start in the porous filter media in the actual filter? And it settles on the rocks in the water way (the sections under water.) It settles like sludge and sprays off very easily, It's just a lot of work to clean it off of the media and spillway so often.

If you have been combatting string algae all year, it could be dead algae.
Could you tell us a bit about your pond?
Size, how many fish, how much you feed, what you have been doing to combat the algae.
Pictures are always helpful.

If you have been combatting string algae all year, it could be dead algae.
Could you tell us a bit about your pond?
Size, how many fish, how much you feed, what you have been doing to combat the algae.
Pictures are always helpful.

The water is quite warm. We have had days over 90 degrees for the last 3 weeks, but this seemed to have started before then.

I am cleaning the gunk out of and off of the filter media a couple of times a week.

Any suggestions as to how to keep this cleaner would be a great help.

 

[Paula Basnett]

I think we finally got the string algae under control.

If you have been combatting string algae all year, it could be dead algae.
Could you tell us a bit about your pond?
Size, how many fish, how much you feed, what you have been doing to combat the algae.
Pictures are always helpful.

 

[Paula Basnett]

We only have 3 fish, 2 koi about 10 inches long and a goldfish about 5 inches long. Feeding 1/day with pellet food. We haven't actually measured the water volume, but I would guess around 150 gallons. The basin is about 6 feet in diameter and 2.5 feet deep in the middle. The deepest part is about 3.5 feet in diameter. There is a shelf around this basin that makes up the rest of the basin. The spillway / water fall is about 25 feet long, dropping approx 9 feet to the pool.

I have used AlgeFix two times. The last time was approx a week ago. I have been pulling the string algae out when I find it growing.

I don't know what else to try.

 

[Paula Basnett]

We only have 3 fish, 2 koi about 10 inches long and a goldfish about 5 inches long. Feeding 1/day with pellet food. We haven't actually measured the water volume, but I would guess around 150 gallons. The basin is about 6 feet in diameter and 2.5 feet deep in the middle. The deepest part is about 3.5 feet in diameter. There is a shelf around this basin that makes up the rest of the basin. The spillway / water fall is about 25 feet long, dropping approx 9 feet to the pool.

I have used AlgeFix two times. The last time was approx a week ago. I have been pulling the string algae out when I find it growing.

I don't know what else to try.

I would take a photo, but I just rinsed it all out, AGAIN. And it's getting dark here.

 

[Paula Basnett]

I think we finally got the string algae under control.

We only have 3 fish, 2 koi about 10 inches long and a goldfish about 5 inches long. Feeding 1/day with pellet food. We haven't actually measured the water volume, but I would guess around 150 gallons. The basin is about 6 feet in diameter and 2.5 feet deep in the middle. The deepest part is about 3.5 feet in diameter. There is a shelf around this basin that makes up the rest of the basin. The spillway / water fall is about 25 feet long, dropping approx 9 feet to the pool.

I have used AlgeFix two times. The last time was approx a week ago. I have been pulling the string algae out when I find it growing.

I don't know what else to try.

 

[MitchM]

Using this pond calculator, your pond sound like it's closer to 600 gallons.
http://www.gardenponds.com/Pondcalculators.htm

It sounds like it's dead algae that you will need to keep removing via the filter.
2 koi in that size of a pond means that excess nutrients are going to be an ongoing problem.
Any chance you could exchange them somewhere for a few goldfish instead?
The algae will always be an issue with the daily feedings and the mess that koi produce.
Weekly 20% water changes will help a bit with keeping the nutrient level reduced.

 

[Paula Basnett]

Honestly, the first time I saw it, we had an extremely hard rain and I thought mud had backwashed into the pond.

Thank you. I was considering getting rid of the koi anyway. They are so big that there isn't a lot of swimming room for them. And I actually like the goldfish better.