Plagued by brown "tea" water

[Ktank]

Hi all!
We're fairly new pond owners - inherited two ponds when we bought this house about 18 months ago. The ponds were completely overrun and neglected and we paid the pros to come and rehab them. They were beautiful for the first few months.

The issue is with our large backyard pond. Specs: about 1000 gallons, about 4 feet deep. We live in the Atlanta area.

Last fall (our first fall as pond owners) we took the advice from this site and built a great DIY PVC netted frame but the net we used was too large of a hole size so too much got through. We smartened up but not until winter. We're surrounded by trees and tons of acorns.

We've been dealing with dark and cloudy and mucky water since. We bought aerators (2), we already had a UV filter and waterfall (that the pros installed). We tried using muck away tablets but they did nothing. We have plants - four large bogs of irises and other plants plus water lilies that survived the winter. We also recently (about 2 weeks ago) bought trapdoor snails - we have no idea if they're alive because we can't see them. Lately, we've been wrapping our pump in a wire basket wrapped with sewing batting (seen on empress of dirt blog). It helps with the cloudiness but not the dark brown tea color which makes visibility limited. Just this week we added bags of activated charcoal... No improvement yet.

We have fish and frogs but can barely see anyone because the water is so dark.

We test the water regularly and all seems ok.

We recently emptied about 25% of the water and used a shop vac to clean the first two levels of muck but that didn't do anything. We also tried scooping muck and leaves and acorns out of the bottom but we didn't vacuum down there for fear of vaccuming up fish or snails.

We're at our wits end! We'd really like to be able to enjoy the fish and this dark water is frustrating!

Any other recommendations? I've seen pond vacuums - maybe that would work better than a shop vac to get all the crap from the bottom of the pond without removing all the water? (Our shop vac is so strong if we put it down there now it would suck everything up!)

Your advice is appreciated. We feel like we're constantly trying something and nothing's working.

 

[GBBUDD]

You mentioned bogs but with iris these are not the greatest of bog plants. Some pictures truely speak novels for what may be wrong

 

[Mmathis]

It sounds like you are dealing with tannins if there are lots of trees around. The best way to clear the water is to introduce activated carbon at some point in the filtration. It might take a lot of it, but it will eventually clear the “tea” out of the water. If I recall, AC can’t be recharged, so you’ll have to replace it with a fresh batch as needed.

 

[GBBUDD]

Activated carbon removes the tea color because of its pours nature so yes your right it can't be reactivated sorta speak.

 

[mrsclem]

It's the acorns causing the dark water. A pond vac would work or just keep scooping with a net to remove as much as possible. The big thing is to keep this from happening again you need a tighter weave net over the pond. I use fiberglass window screen material. You can order large rolls- depending on the size of your pond you may need to stitch several pieces together. Can you post some pics of the pond? What are the dimensions and what kind of fish?

 

[Ktank]

It sounds like you are dealing with tannins if there are lots of trees around. The best way to clear the water is to introduce activated carbon at some point in the filtration. It might take a lot of it, but it will eventually clear the “tea” out of the water. If I recall, AC can’t be recharged, so you’ll have to replace it with a fresh batch as needed.

Thank you for that POV! Yes, I failed to mention that we did the overnight water test in a jar and there was no sediment just tea colored water. So tannins sounds right.

Ok, I'm glad we're on the right track with the AC! We didn't put enough, honestly, since we didn't order enough mesh bags originally. So I'll get a larger bag and add to the waterfall and/or the pump cage with the batting.

 

[Ktank]

You mentioned bogs but with iris these are not the greatest of bog plants. Some pictures truely speak novels for what may be wrong

I'll take and post pictures today. I haven't taken any since the water turned brown. Thank you!

 

[Ktank]

You mentioned bogs but with iris these are not the greatest of bog plants. Some pictures truely speak novels for what may be wrong

I'll take and post pictures today. I haven't taken any since the water turned brown. Thank you!

 

[bagsmom]

If you have oak trees that throw acorns in your pond, you also have those danged oak "doodles" that start falling in April, clogging gutters and making big piles all over the place, like southern tumbleweeds! They look like little caterpillar-ish tassels. They are so annoying. I am in an area with tons of oak and pine trees, TONS of pollen, a bunch of acorns, and way too many oak doodles. At this time of year, my pond water looks like tea. It's a normal part of having a pond in the south.

 

[mrsclem]

We have oak trees and have the "doodles" but never any acorns! I've seen acorns once in 30 years.

 

[Mmathis]

“Oak doodles!” I love it, and that is a good description! Our Oak doodle season has just passed, as I’m not having to pull any more out of the skimmer. And now that you mention it, @mrsclem, we’ve been in our current house about 2 1/2 years. There are several well established oak trees, but I haven’t seen acorns since we’ve been here. The oak trees at our previous house ( which is only about 10 miles north of where we are now) put out tons, but it was cyclical. Some years you could stock a deer blind, and some years there were barely enough to notice. Now, I do have a big sweet gum tree — free to good home, please! That thing puts out sweet gum balls!

 

[mrsclem]

Hate gum balls! They are just the right size to plug my solids handling pump not to mention how many times i have twisted my ankles from stepping on them.

 

[Ktank]

If you have oak trees that throw acorns in your pond, you also have those danged oak "doodles" that start falling in April, clogging gutters and making big piles all over the place, like southern tumbleweeds! They look like little caterpillar-ish tassels. They are so annoying. I am in an area with tons of oak and pine trees, TONS of pollen, a bunch of acorns, and way too many oak doodles. At this time of year, my pond water looks like tea. It's a normal part of having a pond in the south.

Thank you! Yes, tons of acorns and oak "doodles" that's such a great description. The winds earlier this week blew a ton into the pond.

Thank you saying it's normal! This is our first spring with the pond since we had it redone in May of last year.

Do you typically just ride it out?

 

[Ktank]

Thank you for everyone's info! I finally took a picture this afternoon of the pond including the irises and some of the waterfall. It's hard to see but the water is so so dark.

 

[bagsmom]

Thank you! Yes, tons of acorns and oak "doodles" that's such a great description. The winds earlier this week blew a ton into the pond.

Thank you saying it's normal! This is our first spring with the pond since we had it redone in May of last year.

Do you typically just ride it out?

I have a skimmer with a matala pad so that helps catch some of the doodles. During this time of the year, I also try to get my net (skimmer net with very fine mesh) out and get as much of them out as I can, before they have a chance to possibly sink. I have a drain pipe at the bottom of my waterfall filter receptacle, so it is very easy for me to do small water changes. I don't really know if it makes that much difference, though. Using a carbon filter, as others have suggested, might be more effective. I think the most helpful thing is to prevent stuff from getting into the water. In the fall, I use a net for leaves. In addition, I have covered the top of the net with tulle to keep acorns from falling through. It looks ridiculous, but the year I didn't do it -- I had major regrets. (Mostly while standing in cold water and trying to hand collect a gazillion slimy acorns from the bottom of the cold pond.
One plus with the tannin-darkened water: it makes beautiful reflections!!!!!