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[koiguy1969]

kitty litter is made from zeolite clay ...zeolite absorbs ammonias...

 

[Telkwa]

You could dump the Skippy and make a Trickle Tower. 10 to 30 times more efficient. Or a Shower filter or a moving bed filter. The Skippy can be converted to any of these.

Never heard of a trickle tower before. Will have to look into that.

 

[sissy]

zeolite is pdz horse stall refresher .I went 4 feet deep and a little over when i redid mine and it was because it was in full sun and it gets extremely hot and dry here .But since then I have designed a shade sail .Well not sail shaped but that idea .Also what kind of lights are those as regular pond lights give off a lot of heat and also can help algae grow by what i have seen .I now do not have my lights in the pond but got the LED's that shine down on the water makes for better viewing and have them on a timer that only lets them right now to stay on 4 hours ..I never thought about lights until i started reading alot on water quality in ponds and what can cause things to happen that you don't want .I googled it and there is just tons of info out there .

 

[j.w]

kitty litter is made from zeolite clay ...zeolite absorbs ammonias...

The kind I use is the Bentonite clay.

Types of litter box filler

Non-clumping conventional litter

One of the first commercially available cat litters was Kitty Litter, available in 1948 and marketed by Ed Lowe. This was the first large scale use of clay (in the form of Fuller's earth) in litter boxes; previously sand was used. Clay litter is much more absorbent than sand, and its larger grain makes it less likely to be tracked from the litter box. The brand name Kitty Litter has become a genericized trademark,[sup][where?][/sup] used by many to denote any type of cat litter. Today, cat litter can be obtained quite economically at a variety of retail stores, including "dollar" retail outlets. Conventional clay litter is indistinguishable from clay-based oil absorbent (used to clean oil spills); as the latter is far less expensive, it is often used as a substitute. Non-clumping cat litter is often made of zeolite, diatomite and sepiolite.
The cat-box that the litter is poured into can give off a bad odor. It is recommended that it is kept in an area in the home that is not used often, such as a basement or laundry room. There are special types of litter to cover or lessen the odor. They contain baking soda and odorized crystals. If kept in room with an intake vent, an air freshener may be added on the furnace filter to isolate the odor from the rest of the house.
Clumping litter

Litter clumps were first developed in the UK in the 1950s by the Fuller's Earth Union (FEU), later to become a part of Laporte Industries Ltd. The type of clumping litter developed by the FEU was calcium bentonite, a less swelling and less sticky type than American bentonite. Subsequently in America, clumping bentonite was developed in 1984 by biochemist Thomas Nelson. Most are made from granulated bentonite clay which clumps together when wet and forms a solid mass separate from the other litter in the box. This solid clumped material can be scooped out and disposed of without changing the entire contents of the litter box.
Clumping litter usually also contains quartz or diatomaceous earth (sometimes called diatomaceous silica, which causes it to be mistakenly confused with silica gel litter). Because of the clumping effect, the manufacturers usually instruct not to flush clumping litters down the toilet, because it could clog it.[sup][1][/sup]
Clumping clay cat litters also contain crystalline silica, or silica dust, which in California is treated as a known carcinogen under Proposition 65.[sup][2][/sup] Clay litter is also criticized by the more expensive manufacturers of non-clay litter as being commonly produced in a strip mine in an environmentally degrading process.[sup][3][/sup]

 

[lovinglife]

It sounds like you made your pond bigger, I did that and had the same problem you are having. So I added a large bog filter and a stream, made my water nice and clear. When I made my pond bigger my 50 gallon filter was just not big enough, so in went the bog and no more problems.

 

[JenH]

My pond has done the exact same thing yours has done, I've been assuming its dirt from the ridiculous wind yesterday, but I'm just not sure. If I fill a glass from the pond the water looks perfectly clear in the glass but does have a lot of whitish looking particles in it. My pond is in full sun, and I have no shade from water plants yet cause nothing is growing and I can't get water hyacinth till it gets warmer. But the preform sitting on my patio that I was holding my fish in before moving them back still looks exactly the same as it did when I moved the fish 2 weeks ago. Same conditions, so if it is an algae bloom wouldn't the water in the preform have it too? There isn't anything even moving the water in the preform, no filter, and since it's shallow the water is even warmer then the pond. Seems like it would be more likely to get a bloom then the big pond. Buying a UV light isn't an option for us, this year anyway, and I had the kitty litter last year and it didn't help.....

 

[brandonsdad02]

Well I gave in and on Easter weekend, I went and bought 2 UV lights. I got 2 8 watt Terrapond UV light kits. I made my own set up which is in the DIY UV light build. I had the lights on for 9 days and now I have clear water again!! My pond is about 3500 gallons and each of those 8 watt lights and handle up to 1500 gallons so I went with 2 lights and knew that it might take a day or 2 longer to clear it up.

 

[Waterbug]

I'd be interested to hear if you decide to turn off the UV at some point to see if the pond stays clear.

 

[brandonsdad02]

I turned the lights off yesterday and its still clear. Intact its getting a ton better. Quilt batting was staying pretty clean so I took that out at well.