A garden pond should provide ecological and atmospheric added value for the private oasis. Cloudy water is therefore not only a biological but also an aesthetic problem. What can you do about it? Read on!
How do I clear my pond?
To clear a garden pond, you should regularly remove fallen leaves and thread algae, vacuum the sludge layer, dose fish food and use a filter system. If there is an acute cloudiness problem, algae control agents, UVC lamps or water changes can help.
Reasons for cloudy water
With every open-air pond, water cloudiness inevitably occurs sooner or later. Given the many external factors to which the pond in the garden is exposed, this is not possible any other way. The most important influences that can lead to clouding are:
- Fall leaves
- Float pollen
- Flooded, fertilized garden soil
- Excess fish food
All of these influences lead to too high a nutrient content in the water, which in turn promotes algae growth. Algae are the most problematic source of water cloudiness because they lead to a very unsightly pond appearance and can also threaten any fish population.
Measures against cloudy water
To prevent the water from becoming cloudy in the first place, check the water quality as regularly as possible. Above all, the phosphate and nitrogen content must not be too high and should be checked again and again using measuring sticks from specialist retailers. Elevated values can be caused in particular by excess fish food and fish feces, but also by the nutrient inflow and infiltration mentioned above. Over time, these form a so-called mulch layer on the bottom of the pond, which reduces the quality of the pond water through rot and nutrient release.
The most important preventative measures are:
- Regular fishing for fallen leaves and thread algae
- Suctioning the layer of sludge on the pond floor with a pond floor vacuum (€124.00 on Amazon)
- Avoid excessive fish feed
- Use of a filter system during the warm half of the year
If you are in a hurry to clarify the pond water - perhaps because of an upcoming garden party - you may need a quicker solution. There are various methods for clarifying the pond water in a short procedure, however, as with all quick solutions, the effects are only short-lived and are therefore only recommended for individual cases. Quick measures include:
- Algaecide
- UVC lamps
- Water change
Algae control agents usually cause existing algae to clump together chemically, so that they can be effectively caught in a filter system - if one is available - or fished out by hand with a fish net.
Basically the same thing happens with a UVC lamp, just in a different way. Here too, the algae are caused to clump together, but by UV light.
Changing the water as an immediate measure is relatively complex and is also controversial among experts because of the possible introduction of new contaminants.
