muddy watter in my pond

16 years ago

hello, plz can someone help me with this... i built my first pond it is about 250 gallons at the botton of a steep bank. i have a waterfall coming down the bank and that side of the pond is cut back into the bank. i'm using a 2500 gph pump with a spill way that has 4 types of media filter in it. when i put in the pond after the watter was in i had the rock around it pressured washed. unfortatly this caused alot of sand to be thrown into the pond. i could not drain the pond and clean it and the refill due to the lack of rain and our poor well. i used a clearing agent to help the sand clump togeather so the filter could deal with it. well the sand seemed to settle and to not be a big deal so i got 6 kio , 10 shubuko, and 6 comments saterday. then a big rain came today and my pond is full of muddy water. i tried taking out some of water and using a pond vacuume to get out the mud and very little did come out. i took out all the rocks around the pond. and i have ran the filter all evening and i just checked on it 10pm and the watter is still very muddy.

i have several questions

is there anything i can do to remove the mud??

will the mud harm the fish???

how can i stop mud from getting in durring other rains?? i'm very worried about my fish over night and i'm afraid to go to bed. my bigest fear is the fish will jump out and die, or the mud will suficate them..

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Comments (4)

loriques
Original Author
16 years ago
i just checked my filter and there is alot of dirt in it. so that must be working some but the watter is still very muddy and no fish have jumped out yet.

there is a lower shelf area that has about 2 inches of watter still covering it and it is about 12 inches to the top of the pond from there. this is what is worrying me about them jumping out.
loriques
Original Author
16 years ago
i put 4 fish gold fish in another pond that is 54 gallons around 4 pm today. the pump is not working .. will they die tonight..
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loriques
Original Author
16 years ago
the pump is now running in the small pond. all the fish lived through out the night.. i'm so happy. the big pond still has alot of muddy watter, but the filter is getting alot sand in it. so it may clear up soon, i so hope.
karenrf
16 years ago
Hi,
First off I'm glad your fish seem to be doing ok.
Next there is not enough room for 6 kio , 10 shubuko, and 6 comments in a 250 gallon pond. It is recommended that for each koi you allow 300 gallons and for each shub or comet 50 gallons of water. More if you plan on showing your fish and want to grow them out nicely.
Koi can grow to 3 feet long if given proper conditions.
Plan on putting in a larger pond very soon. Please.

About the mud.
If I'm reading this right....you built a pond in a low lying area?
What you are going to have to do is either raise the edges of your pond or put some kind of diverter around the pond (the plastic landscape edging might work depending on how much run off you get) so any water coming off the hillside goes around the pond instead of in it.

I would prefer to raise the edges.
How much extra liner did you have when you built the pond? Any? (I'm talking about any extra above ground and still attached
, not something you had to cut off)

Keep your filter clean. Since it is apparently sucking up some of the sand it is helping.
Reach down to the bottom of the pond and see if you can feel the mud/sand to determine just how much is in the pond. If the water is just dirty do a small water change. If you are on city water remember to use a dechlor inator when adding more water.
Eventually you will get the water cleared up doing small water changes each week.

If there is a build up of muck and If you have a shop vac you can use it to suck out some of the sludge from the bottom of the pond. BUT you will have to be very careful and need to put some sort of net over the hose so you don't suck up any fish. Make sure the net is secure and won't come off.
You also may be able to use an aquarium net just for scooping out the mud instead of the shop vac.
OR you could even use one of those aquarium syphons for sucking out the crud in the gravel.

Have you seen any fish gasping at the surface of the water?
Are they coming up to eat?