cindy_pond ,

"I have a bead filter large enough to filter 10,000 gal. My pond is probably 6ooo gal."

This is good. You have more filtration than your pond needs at this time. You didn't tell us about your fish load (aka How many fish, what kind?) Do you have a bottom drain? Is there debris from last fall in the bottom of your pond? A little debris is OK, a bunch could be trouble.

"My water has been crystal clear and kind of suddenly it went murky, not green, just not clear the way it was."

Are you possibly overfeeding your fish? See if there is "longer than normal" string algae growing on the sides of your pond. If so, then that is probably what's happening.

"I looked at the unit last night and it was still on."

Don't ever look at an unit. UV rays will damage your sight; period.

"Does the tube need cleaning?"

This would depend on how long the unit has been in service and what level of crud has pass through it. If either of those are suspect, by all means, clean the UV sleeve. Just make sure to turn the UV off before....

"I have also rinsed and backwashed my bead filter pretty regularly"

Are you flushing it so much that you are not allowing the good bacteria to establish itself? Remember also, you have an unit that is designed for a larger pond, so you probably do not have to flush it as often; it all depends on fish load.

The best way is to keep aware of slight changes in your system. With mine, I notice the outflow of water slightly decreasing and I know it is time to clean the leaf basket. I have also set routine for pond cleaning. This has greatly improved my ponds' condition.

Best of luck with your pond,

LP

Loma Ponder Thank you for your thorough response. I have 5 koi that are 12-18 inches maybe a little larger. I also have 15-20 2 inch babies which are a product of last years goldfish breeding frenzy. I since gave them away but noticed yesterday that some of those "babies" are chasing another one around the pond. Can they breed already? I have been feeding my fish once a day for the last week or so as the temp of the pond has reached 80 degrees in the afternoon. before that, I fed them according to the pond temp and pretty much stayed with the wheat germ based food...Now, I feed them nishikoi high growth (43% protein)
As for the UV I didn't look directly at the bulb. you can see a lavender reflection at night. I have a 70 ft. stream which was loaded with string algae and was dumping a bunch of stuff into my pond so I shut it off for a couple of days and just let the bead filter handle the pond. I cleaned the entire stream, and turned it back on... I have an aquascapes pond with a grande biofalls etc..which is why I purchased the additional filtration....No bottom drain but I did take all the rocks and gravel out of the deepest part in the middle of the pond which is approx 4 ft. deep. I also took all of the rocks out of the stream so it makes it easier to clean it...the pond has only a small amount of algae actually growing in it...the stream is the big problem . The water was changed in the fall and almost completely changed this spring with regular 10% water changes. I usually just put the bead filter through a rinse cycle once a week. I backwashed a couple of times only. I hope I'm not overfeeding...once a day for 5 or so minutes and they beg all day long for more. I enjoy feeding them but will cut back to see if this is part of my problem. Thanks again.

cindy_pond,

Goldfish are the "rabbits of the pond". If the conditions are right, they're at it. Somewhere in GardenWeb there is a thread regarding a lady who has a very large pond (an acre or more, I think). She states: "I just put a couple in a few years back..." 100,000 (her estimate) later.

I just this morning was looking at my pond and comment to myself: "those twenty 2" ten-centers I bought back in October to start, are now 4-5" and I seem to have a few new small ones. Time to start Operation Goldfish bye-bye" :>
{{gwi:191161}}
LP