10/21/2013 Dirty ponds have DOC Dissolved Organic
Compounds. As you watch the video (sorry it is sideways,
it was emailed to me that way from a customer) look at the foam
on the water. This foam means DOC and it is uneaten fish
food, plant particles, feces and other compounds that are found
in a pond. DOC can and does kill pond fish. When you
see the foam on the water, your pond fish are living in their
own septic system.A couple of 50% water changes where one
siphons off the bottom or a good vacuuming will take care of
DOC.
Or you can use a flocculent as is
found here
My pond is clean but it had a lot of "fines" that the filter just
would not pick up. I have a Challenger on a 15,000 gallon pond. I have tried
many commercial pond vacuums and none of them worked to my satisfaction. After
much thought, and other failed attempts, Rich and I came up with an idea that
works very well.
We used a larger pump and hooked it to a piece of tubing. You might be able to
use a garden hose (possibly you would have to buy a fitting. This would depend
on the size pump you use). I tried quilt batting at first and but it did not
wash clean. Daughter Jen found some polyester knit material on the clearance
table for $1.00 a yard at Wal-Mart. We lined a heavy duty laundry basket with
the material. We had to use clamps to hold it to the basket because we used a
4500 GPH trash pump, a very powerful pump.
We set the laundry basket on the water fall so that the clean water would return
to the pond. Turned on the pump and oh wow! We had to wash the material about
every 15 minutes and repeated until all the fines were out of the water. Rich
did get in the pond and "swim" a couple of times to keep the stuff
moving toward the pump. Not a problem for him because he swims with the fish
nearly ever day.
They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so here are some pictures worth
a million words.
 
I thought my pond was clean because I could see the bottom drain. We could
also see the pump we used in the bottom of the pond! it LOOKS clean - right? |
