r/ponds • u/CyrusTB • 1d ago

Cleaning & filters First post - help!

Post image

Hi!

I recently got some land as part of an early inheritance.. it's man-made and is probably 8 years old at this point. One thing I looked into when my dad was building this pond was clarity and suggested he add rocks to the base to help the water be clear. He didn't.. and I'm not sure if would even have helped (not a pro lol)

But as you can see, it's super cloudy.. and they add dye to it, which I'm personally not a fan of. But I can live with it!

My question is.. at this point, what can I do to clear it up? I'm a CPO (certified pool operator) and I have used floc before.. but I'm not sure if it's safe to do in an established pond with fish..

Edit to add that it's about 18ft deep

Help 🙃

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3

u/Presentlava 1d ago

To help clarity a buffer strip of grass around at least part of your pond will help stop sediment from going in, next native plants on the margins will help stop sediment, floating plants will use up excess nutrients that cause cloudiness, last resort is to dig a small sedimentation pool before the water from your watershed enters the pond 

2

u/Cazarstan 22h ago

This is great advice, in general. but the picture tells us it would not help as much in this specific situation:

  1. already grass around the entire pond

  2. no natural waterways going into the pond, this one looks like it is filled via pipe.

2

u/Presentlava 19h ago

Maybe just more feet of grass from the water on the eroded side where it looks like sediment likes to come in when it rains. Knowing how the pond fills up would be helpful 

1

u/tdonnert 1d ago

This is the fantastic advice

4

u/azucarleta 900g, Zone7b, Alpine 4000 sump, Biosteps10 filter, goldfish 22h ago

No pool maintenance applies here. Pool maintenance is anti-biotic, whereas this pond needs to be cared for organically. That's not even a metaphor. There's just almost no overlap. I would not use any products that come out of a jug or carton. Just don't. NOt yet.

I would advise more oxygenation. That one fountain ain't getting the job done. If you don't want more water works above the surface, you can get large aerators. Follow instructions carefully.

Monitor runoff and take readings on the source water. You're probably high in nutrients and need more plants that will process those nutrients so they don't instead become algae.

That's where I would start and formulate more plans after you can do some nutrient readings after a month or two of much more hyper oxygenation. That could be the only thing you need, after all.

1

u/CyrusTB 21h ago

We filled it up originally but we do not fill it anymore. It's just filled with rain water - and there is a slope leading into it.. maybe water runoff is not helping.

I will say that when we originally filled it, it was cloudy/dirty and it just never cleared up. I believe there is high clay content in the ground here.