Help..........my pond has brown water, uncovered it this spring, crystal clear,everything was great. Then the neighbors ducks invaded. So after asking the neighbor to keep them at home, DNR says to shoot them and enjoy, so i did, thats been a month and a half and the water is still brown I've tried clear pond, micro-lift and draining some out and adding fresh, but it is still brown. both filters are running and doing a good job. Lilies are blooming cattails are growing and fish and frogs seem fine. What can I do??????????????????????????
Brown Water
Try getting some water hyacinths. They are some of the BEST water clarifiers you can use. And they're not too bad looking!
Water hyacinths are great for this! They're not a legal plant to have in Texas so I'll just say that I *know of people* who have used them to help clear up brown water. Brown water is a problem that we see in our turtle ponds when we don't have enough filtration or too much sun. Turtles produce a lot of waste in the pond which encourages algae growth. Maybe those ducks pooped too much in your pond? The water hyacinth addresses both the filtration problem and the "too much sun" problem. Alas, even if it was a legal plant here, I've been told that the turtles devour it faster than it can grow. But you'll never get me to admit that I've actually witnessed this ;-> We've also had some success by just increasing aeration to the pond - not sure why that would make a difference so it could have just been a coincidence.
AnnMarie
Janice
Jun 23, 2001
Annabelle, do you know if you can overwinter Hyacinths in zone 7? Last year someone dumped a ton of those into a local pond and they were so huge and beautiful I couldnt resist taking some. ( Figured Hey, they didnt naturally grow there!) My dog killed most and I never got to find out if they would live overwinter.
Anyone know??
Janice
Long Island New York
vic
Jul 05, 2001
No, water hyacinth's will not overwinter in zone 7 because it is a floating plant. Most plants will survive if they are submerged over winter. We can't do that because our koi would eat them. The only plants we overwinter are hardy water liles. The koi don't seem to eat them.
Janice
Jul 05, 2001
Vic
So your saying that I can sink my plants and pull them up in the spring?
Janice
Annabelle,
Hi! It has been a few weeks since your original post, has your water cleared up yet? I was wondering, although you changed some water, did you scoop stuff off the pond bottom? I use a tube that creates a vacuum to suck gunk off the pond floor, and find by removing excess waste created by fish, ducks, and leaves (or in my case, crabapples that constantly fall into the pond), the water stays cleaner.
Hurray!!!!!!!!!! the Brown water is gone......... We did a half water change and again cleaned the two filters, And went to our pond club meeting (Backyardponderingsociety.com) and learned that we had put the barley straw in the wrong place and it didn't last the year we were told that it should be changed at least every 4-6 months. The straw was in the final stages of decomposition and coloring the water. I added 10 water hyacinths and removed the straw. Two days later the pond is sparkling clear. So this time the straw will be installed so the waterfall spills onto it and it is only half submerged, Thanks for your help. P. S. check out our pond club, there is a link to our local pond expert, God's Green Earth.