my pond over the past week seems not as crystal clear as usual ive had the pond vac to get the algae off the bottom and iv'e also tried a 5% water change pumping the sponges in the filter at the same time im using an oase aquamax eco 16000 pump with the filtoclear 15000 filter for the past couple of months slime has been growing almost like seaweed on the pond sides but then about a week or so ago it all seemed to go im wondering if its all went into the skimmer and then the filter the water flow seems the same though the tests are all fine and when you take a jar full out it looks clear but the whole ponds appears murky at night with the lights on you see the beams of murky light my pond is 10 x 8 x 4ft deep any advice would be great

just a quick update i went on to the oase site and realised i had the pump set to take all the intake water from the skimmer rather than some from the pump and some from the skimmer so ive rectified that with a 2/3rds split in favour of the pump i stripped the filter down and cleaned all the sponges in pond water and while i was at it cleaned out the pump as well i was looking forward to a lovely crystal clear pond this morning only to find it even cloudier any one any ideas ?

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I'm confused about the pump which needs cleaning and from which the [other?] pump draws water. Could one pump actually be a settlement chamber fed by a bottom drain?

Does the new murk have a discernible color?

Filtering through several layers of quilt batting often works for suspended algae and silt.

hi theres only one pump in the bottom of the pond its an oase aquamax eco 16000 connected to it is an oase pond skimmer a really old one its the same as the aqua skim 40 but it has a 6" diameter pipe and is 4ft long sitting on the bottom of the pond the pump is connected to an oase filtoclear 15000 the water is slightly green when you lift out a jar full the water in the pond is totally opaque now

Totally opaque meaning you can't see the bottom of the pond, but you can still see through a jar of pond water, right?

Sounds like suspended algae. Removing the attached algae will have benefited suspended algae by removing competition for nutrients, but your water may have turned green anyway. Do you have any plants in the pond? Barley extract and filtering through quilt batting are good quick fixes for suspended algae. You could use algaecide, of course, but I wouldn't.

How old is your pond, and if it's a different question, how long have you been taking care of it?

the pond is about a year old and has been crystal from the start apart from when my electrician friend didnt have the uv light connected right, definetly sounds like suspended alge im sure i have one of those barley matts somewhere what do i do with it just put it in the pond and leave it or does it need weighted down ? ive got 6 planters with various plants in them although a big goldfish in the pond seems intent on digging them all out

If you've got a UV clarifier, you shouldn't be having trouble with suspended algae. The first think I'd do is check to see if the UV is working properly.

Is the goldfish digging the plants out of soil or some other fine substrate that might be clouding the water?

that was the very first thing i checked, the uv was fine the bulb was changed at the start of the season aswell so that cant be the problem i thought about getting some green tench for the pond to try and eat some of the bigger algae deposits

ive bought a bag or barley pellets and put them in the pond today so i'll post up wether they are effective or not at clearing the pond i also bought more oxygenating plants to try and help aswell

just a quick update thats one week since i put the 2 bags of barley pellets in and also 2 barley mats aswell but still no difference the waters still green im not sure wether to do a big water change or just leave it alone to sort its self out