Are you using the drum as a settling chamber?

My 55 gal. drums are for mechanical filtering. The water flow is to fast to use it as a settling chamber. I have matala rounds as my filter material. It works really well.

Let me get this straight.... "I've been battling dirty water from day 1. Now its going on 2.5 weeks... " You been battling this for 2.5 weeks. You mean you have had this pond up for that length of time? Oh boy.... I've had my pond up since October and this is how mine has gone: Clear, brown , green, clear, green, clear, brown, green, clear and holding. The pond needs to cycle (balance). Until that time (and anytime you disrupt the balance) you will have green water. Do not panic ! Just maintain good water chemistry and eventually it will start to clear.

I attached a link to a excellent article on green water.
Go get yourself a bottle of some bacteria to seed the filter/ pond.
Clean the filter pads when they look dirty (once a day or once a week, it all depends on the load). The company has that set-up for a reason; just keep them clean (with pond water preferably). Not too many fish at first; more plants initially.

And like what 1sst said; just what is your 55 gallon barrel there for? Is it mechanical or biological? or both? And where does the waterfall fit into the system? (before the pre-form?). How is the water getting from your BD to the filter? Is your pump in the 55 gallon drum (gravity fed settling chamber?)

LP

Here is a link that might be useful: GREEN WATER

Ok. Glad for the response.
Here's the whole setup...
1500 gallon pond. Aquascape Design waterfall/skimmer.
The pump for that is 1700 GPH. there is one white skimmer pad in the skimmer, and three in the waterfall, with a bag of lava rocks.
The BD self levels into the 55 gal drum. It circulates in the drum, but I dont think it really is considered a SC. The pump I have in there is 1500 gph and flows into the 250 gal preformed, which then flows back into the 10' stream.
that has no real filtration media. I've thought of it, but not sure exactly what to put in there.
The upper pond aka preformed is just plants right now, but i probably could rig up some filtering in there.
This is my first pond, I had inherited one last year and redid it once last year. But they had rocks all on the bottom and it was small. So i hand-dug it out.
Now its almost perfect except green water.
Today I bought more plants, I bought a lotus, black magic taro and rearranged my plants.
I just want it pretty clear. I bought some microlift 5.4, my patience is usually really good, but right now I'm getting "bored" of staring at ghosts and my turtle who's AWESOME...
Hopefully together we can get this bad-boy perfect.
-Chris
my fishies and turtles will thank you...