New filter. Water still murky

[Jhn]

Filter won’t catch the free floating algae until it is “killed”and clumps. If it did there wouldn’t be a need for the UV light as the filter would catch it alive or dead.

The UV kills everything that passes by it good bad or otherwise, with enough exposure time. If you are going for a natural pond then don’t use the Uv as it kills the phytoplankton, which is the base of the food chain.

Either way you need to increase your flow in the pond.

Orfes can get over a foot long very quickly with in a year from a few inches long start. They like large well oxygenated ponds so they can speed around as you noticed.

 

[Lisak1]

What a pretty pond!

One thing you might be experiencing is some runoff into the pond, since it's bowl shaped and lower than the surrounding terrain. WHEN you get ready to rebuild, we can talk about how to berm the edges so you don't get runoff into the pond. (And we all know you will! )

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our group! Nice pond you built.

 

[IanS]

.What a pretty pond!

One thing you might be experiencing is some runoff into the pond, since it's bowl shaped and lower than the surrounding terrain. WHEN you get ready to rebuild, we can talk about how to berm the edges so you don't get runoff into the pond. (And we all know you will! )

When I built the pond I planned on cementing rocks and slate/slabs all the way round so the water level would have been around 6 inches higher than the surrounding soil surface. But I never got round to doing that. Maybe one day I will.

At the moment the concrete is still around an inch or so higher than the lawn. It's hard to see that because the turf slopes up towards the edge of the pond and I allow the grass and weeds to grow over the rim . This picture should show what I mean.

The blue line shows roughly the extent of the concrete and the red shows the slope away from the pond down to the main area of the lawn.

Before building the pond water would collect in that area when it rained hard and took quite a while to dry so the lawn was quite boggy in that area. I installed a 'French Drain' mainly to drain the lawn quickly but that also prevents water collecting and run into the pond.

My original question though wasn't about the color of the water in the pond. It was about the visible particles coming back into the pond from the filter. I kind of assumed a filter would be feeding crystal clear water.

I've never had a filter before so just didn't know what to expect from it. This thread has taught me about 'fines' and free floating algae etc. Thanks.

 

[Lisak1]

Ah! Gotcha! You're right - a picture can be deceptive.

Glad you got some helpful answers! And remember - your goal isn't necessarily crystal clear water. Clear water isn't necessarily healthy water, and a well balanced pond will always have algae.

Keep us posted on how things go!

 

[sissy]

fertilizer helps our plants but runoff of it does not help our ponds