Hi wynswrld98 -

Melissa at The Pond Guy here… We always aim to provide solutions and not cause more issues with your pond.

If the water is still grey and foamy, I would recommend doing a 25% water change. Flush out some of nutrients in the pond. Are you using any other products in the pond at this time? What about plant coverage? I don’t see anything in the picture.

We are happy to help with any questions. I can respond here, or we have an ‘Ask The Pond Guy’ section on our website. We’re also available by phone 6 days a week.

Water still grey and foamy. there are a lot of tadpoles in the pond and worried about sucking them out and killing them. Pond is huge. Also have been using Pond Logic Pond Clear product. What is in the water causing it to be grey?

It's either dissolved organics or stirred up sediment. Do a jar test on the water and that will get us a clearer picture of what we're dealing with:

Take a clear glass jar, fill it up with pond water and let it sit for 24 hours. Overnight, the jar will either stay cloudy/grey or sediment will settle to the bottom of the jar.

Do you have any filtration in your pond?

Completed the jar test, no sediment on the bottom of the jar after 24 hours, just cloudy grey water.

No filtration, this is not a fish pond and is huge and would be REALLY expensive to filter. Consider I see NO sediment on the bottom of the jar not convinced would help anyway. The aeration is excellent with the fountain in the center and two outputs from the KoiAir2 compressor.

Last year by simply using liquid barley the pond was crystal clear at this time. I tried the same brand liquid barley earlier Spring this year when pea soup green water was starting but made no difference at all after about 6 weeks then switched to PondClear product (beneficial bacteria) then InstaFix while still continuing PondClear per package instructions.

Please give us a call at 866-766-3435 or submit an help request here http://www.thepondguy.com/contact ... It's going to be easier to help once we can see your full account information.

I already did that and the person wasn't helpful who responded which led me here. I already explained all products used, my aeration system and jar test results so not sure what more info you are looking for.

I’m sorry to hear you didn’t find our Customer Service helpful. We aim to get our customer’s solutions to their pond problems.

With the water still being grey in the jar test, we recommend doing a 25-30% water change. A discolored pond (whether green, gray or brown) and foam indicates too many nutrients in the water. Without filtration (biological, mechanical or plants), a water change is the only way to rid the pond of the nutrients. Clarity Defense can be used as a flocculant to clump organic material together.

Three days after the final InstaFix treatment, you can add a double dose of PondClear or Barley Extract, whichever one you are currently using.

Has there been any usual weather patterns in Washington compared to last year (i.e. more rain, more sun, etc.)? Have you tested water pH or other parameters?

There are four large water lillies in the pond plus about 6 other plants among rocks at edges of pond.

What kind of organic matter is making the pond grey? the jar test shows nothing visible and nothing on bottom.

no weird weather patterns here

Organic matter is the dead algae, any tadpole or frog waste, any plant matter that has fallen in, anything brought in from visiting birds or other wildlife.

Here's an article on Water Changes, which might explain it a bit more: https://blog.thepondguy.com/2014/05/10/why-are-water-changes-important-decorative-ponds-water-gardens-q-a/ 

The water was changed 100% and liner cleaned late Feb 2016. There are tadpoles in the pond and I'd bet if I put a submersible pump in it to remove some of the water that I'd be killing a lot of tadpoles which I'm not willing to do so I guess I am stuck with grey water unless the beneficial bacteria in the PondClear product eat it.

The manufacturers of these products like InstaFix and PondClear are doing fraudulent advertising, I see that now. They need to say things such as works only if you have expensive filtration and/or do a partial water change after using their product but no mention of that on packaging.

If you had asked here, you would most likely been advised to simply shade the water more with plants, wait for the algae to stabilize and drop out or run the water through an UV light.

This manufacturer is not alone. Like I said earlier, there is a steady stream of people looking for that magic elixir and that creates business for the manufacturers. You can't really blame them, they want to make money too :-)

For every story like yours, there is a story about the product actually clearing the pond overnight. How are we to know if the algae had finally reached it's downhill cycle on it's own.

Here is my understanding of how you and I get green water. Algae is a plant that responds to a food source (nitrates created in the normal nitrogen cycle as the waste ammonium converts itself to nitrites and finally nitrate) and warming temps and goes into supergrowth mode, voila' green water.

how much for a UV system for a 12,000 gallon pond? the answer is cost prohibitive

Propagate some plants then.

I have 4 large water lillies in pond plus plants among rocks on edges.

That is a start!

all of those plants have been in there over a year

If you search this forum for one of the hundreds of 'green water' threads, you will see that you need a lot of plant coverage.

Good luck to you.