HELP! Can you all put your heads together for a minute or two and offer some suggestions as to why I have gold/amber/brownish colored water?

I realize that you don't have any details to base your opinion on---but give me some ideas on what could cause it. Please.

Briefly, the pond is about 6 years old. Aprox 4000 gal. average of 4 ft deep. Last year the water turned this color for the first time. I pressure wash the pond spring and fall. Water changes during the season. Most people tell me it is the filter media used, so I changed it. I went from small pea gravel to the long strands of plastic ribbon, now I am trying the kitty litter in baskets.

After cleaning this spring, things started to look better, even though there was a slight amber color to the water I could actually see my fish throughout the whole pond. However over the last 2 weeks it has reverted back to golden/brown and I can no longer see the bottom of the pond. Any guesses? I am getting so frustrated that I am about ready to fill the thing in and have a really nice rock garden--with expensive fertilizer. I will appreciate any ideas or thoughts that you have. Thanks so much!

Hi Sparks,
Your filter media is not the problem. It's not part of the solution either. What you've got there is a common problem in closed-system water gardening. You got DOCs.

Dissolved organic compounds are the combined breakdown products of your fish wastes and plant debris. If you are using barley straw to control hair algae, this is also a source. The golden colors are natural plant pigments, usually the ones you see in fall foliage after the chlorophyll is gone from the leaves. Water changes will dilute them, but the only reliable way to eliminate them is to keep the bottom of your pond as clean as possible and install a protein fractionating device.

Protein fractionators come in a variety of designs, ranging from relatively simple bubble-driven constructs to elaborate electronic ozone-based mad-science nightmares. You need to talk to a pond engineering expert; I'd suggest either Mike White (see our website) or Charlie Ruegsegger(ponderone@aol.com). The kitty litter is not an ideal choice, as it will cake and foul quickly, and will be impossible to clean.

Your best bet from a biofiltration standpoint is the PVC ribbon, which offers about the best cheap surface area bang for the cubic footage buck. (125 sq. ft./ cu. ft.) I'd go back to that, and prefilter it with brushes or mat. Adding a UV unit after the bioconverter will take care of floating (microscopic) algae.

Bob Passovoy
President MPKS

"Older than Bronze, Younger than Dirt"-Capricon 2002 Auction staff