The message
from Roz Cawley contains these words:

I was thrilled when I had a new wildlife pond and bog garden installed a
couple of weeks ago - but not so thrilled to see that the landscape
gardener had lined the pond with the subsoil that he had excavated from
"the hole" - because our subsoil happens to be horrible, yellow clay,
unlike the better, though sandy topsoil that he buried/left in a heap at
the side of the garden :-((.

He knew what he was doing then.

Two weeks later, and the pond water still has a murky, yellow cloudiness
- which I assume is the suspension of fine clay particles still floating
around in it.

I doubt it.

Questions - will it finally settle more (am I just being impatient?), or
am I doomed to cloudy water unless I drain the pond, scrape out the clay
and add another layer of larger particle topsoil?

You'll just allow the water to escape if you do that. Your gardener
knows what he's about.

To avoid this, is there any sort of flocculent that I can add to the
water to help to clear it - or will even that only be a temporary
measure?

The usual thing is barley straw. You can either put some in a net or bag
in the water, or better, run a small (pond fountain) pump and circulate
the water through some barley straw.

Help, please - what can I do to get the reasonably clear water that I
was hoping to see by now?? I don't expect miracles, and I know that the
oxygenators and surface cover need to become established before I get a
decent mini eco system operating there - but the murk that I look at
each time I work there is horrible - and at the moment, I am very
disappointed.

Ponds take a very long time to settle into equilibrium. Patience.

--
Rusty http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/tqt.htm
horrid·squeak snailything zetnet·co·uk exchange d.p. with p to
reply.