Not quite as elusive as the gold at the end of a rainbow, crystal clear pond water is the Stanley Cup, the Heisman Trophy, the uh...Nobel Prize of pond keeping. Bright fish dancing above colorful stones as the sun shimmers on the surface against a backdrop of stunning water lilies -- need I say more? Unfortunately, reality is often a seasonal battle against algae or bacteria blooms, an overload of nutrients, tannin, and even an accumulation of simple debris. For an overall healthy pond, improving water clarity can be as simple as improving filtration, ensuring a vigorous colony of beneficial bacteria, avoiding overfeeding, and addressing environmental disturbances such as debris from trees, mud or excess runoff from storms.
It’s important to remember that treating a water clarity problem is not the same thing as curing it. On one hand, a new pond that’s murky may need nothing more than time while it finds its balance. For more entrenched problems, you’ll need to identify the source of the problem to really establish a long term solution. After all, algaecide will only kill the algae present today - it won’t prevent a new growth of algae next week if the conditions remain the same. Storm runoff will introduce leaves and twigs, fertilizer residue and other detritus unless some sort of barrier or bypass is established. The best place to start, as in almost all pond issues, is with water testing. Nitrates, Nitrites, Ammonia, pH, hardness -- all play a role in your water quality and clarity. If you don’t see any obvious physical causes of cloudy water, then it’s time to put on your detective hat, check out some good books on pond ecology, or consult with an experienced professional on the subject. Of course, if your fish are not in immediate danger, baby steps are better than one huge day of reckoning. You’ll need to give your pond time to find an equilibrium at each stage so that the whole kit and caboodle doesn’t end up in crisis.
