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  1. #1

    Discoloured water

    So, my pond was half full for several months whilst other priorities prevailed. In that time lots of leaves from the tree above fell in there and ultimately sank. A couple of weeks back I drained the pond to 1ft (didn't want ground water to bust up the fibreglass) and then climbed down and scooped all the dead leaves out. I then filled it up.

    I now have my drum filter, amalgam UV and K1 on the go, however the water is still discoloured and the drum isn't taking out that much. There aren't that many fines in the water. It actually looks really clean, except not clear, i.e. no visible particles.

    What can I do to clear the water? Is there something I can add or is it just a case of keep adding fresh water and having it slowly flush itself out?

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  3. #2
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion RS2OOO's Avatar
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    It should sort itself out in time. It can take a while but will clear eventually.

    Likely to take longer if your filter is pump fed.



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  5. #3
    It's gravity fed, thanks. I'll be patient Discoloured water

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  6. #4
    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Djstiles999's Avatar
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    I used to get tanin staining from leaves and it was a complete pain, got into protein skimmers to get it out of the water in the end (and nets to keep the leaves out in the first place)

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  8. #5
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion RS2OOO's Avatar
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    To expand on what I said above:

    I think after such a big water change the pond needs to re-mature again to some degree and this can take on stages of odd things happening to the water.

    I've had problems from tannins in both main and wildlife ponds, and various stages of brown water, plus a stage of nasty looking floating green algae, but in all situations it cleared by itself after a while.

    A pond bomb in the filter may or may not help speed up the process.

    But in my case it sorted itself out after 3 to 4 weeks (might take your pond longer since it's winter and everything slows down).

    Also my water was stained yellowish brown after the summer food I fed this year, never thought it would go away by itself but it has and water is now crystal clear.

    So as long as the fish are happy I'd just leave it, continue with normal partial water changes and see what it looks like in a month.

    I also think by not intervening the pond becomes more stable to changes in the future.



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  10. #6
    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Djstiles999's Avatar
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    RS makes a good point, they less you can muck about with it and let it naturally settle the better as long as the fish are ok

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  12. #7
    It's odd because it's not visibly brown. It's more like a smokey cloudy. However it was brown before I mixed about 10k litres of fresh water into it after scooping all the leaves out (which has been in there for about 3 month.

    I was reading that active carbon can help, but think I'll just leave it a month and see what happens. I can see a thin film of brown on the drum mesh as it rotates but it's that fine the drum is not firing that often.

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  13. #8
    Senior Member Rank = Adult Champion Twhitenosugar's Avatar
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    I had the same issue, after i left a load of water in my pond whilst i was building it, although I didn't have leaves in my pond. Think mine was just murky from algae, dust etc..

    It took much longer than I expected, but it did eventually clear. It took so long (2-3 months), that I actually contacted the seller of my amalgam as I thought I'd been sold a dud bulb lol.

    Their advice was just keep the uv on and the water circulating through the filters and it should sort itself.

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    13,000L fibreglassed raised pond with window

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  15. #9
    Moderator Rank = Supreme Champion Feline's Avatar
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    If you can run the water through some activated carbon filter media then it would take the tannins out quicker than waiting for them to get gradually diluted out by water changes.

  16. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Feline View Post
    If you can run the water through some activated carbon filter media then it would take the tannins out quicker than waiting for them to get gradually diluted out by water changes.
    I could put some activated carbon in some mesh bags and hang them in the moving bed, would that help?

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    Moderator Rank = Supreme Champion Feline's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cavester View Post
    I could put some activated carbon in some mesh bags and hang them in the moving bed, would that help?

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    potentially yes if you’re able to put enough of it there to soak up the tannins

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  19. #12
    It rained a lot last night and I can now see the bottom drain 2m down so it's definitely clearing slowly.

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