On Thu, 15 Apr 2004 12:02:41 -0500, Folklore wrote:

The bottom of the pond is at about 42" and I can only see down about
6". Early winter there were no leaves on the bottom, so I'd be
surprised if there were (m)any now.

Unless you had the pond screened all winter, I'd be surprised if there
weren't any, unless you have no trees and no wind in your area.

PH is at about 9. Nitrates and
Nitrites I think are OK (I'm using a rapidtest kit and both come up a
slight orange/brown colre, but neither are at all pink or magenta)

Any thoughts on how to clear the water up enough to see if there are
leaves that need to be cleaned out of the bottom?

Beyond my suggestion of 20%/week water change out? Or did you miss
that? ;o)

Also, if there are
alot of leaves, what dangers are there in disturbing the bottom. I've
worried about that everytime I scoop stuff up and the water in the
pond gets really foul.

I know Ingrid has talked about using PP to detox. foul water. Perhaps
she'll see this and give you the ratio. ~ jan



On Thu, 15 Apr 2004 05:17:11 GMT, ~ jan JJsPond.us
Said:

Have you cleaned the leaves out of the pond? Brown water is usually caused
by Tannins (from leaves). Remove the leaves and do water changes....
20%/week. Do you know where your water quality parameters are? ~ jan

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 17:15:51 -0500, Folklore wrote:

I have a 500g pond in MN. Ice has been off of it for about 3 or 4
weeks now, 3 shebunkin are swimming around (when I can see them) and
today I yanked out the bottom filter/bubbler that I use during the
winter and started up the skimmer. The water is still really brown.
It seems that most years the brown stage lasted less than a week and
then it cleared before all the algae started to grow.

Any thoughts on this long brown period? Anything to worry about?

Thanks,

Folk...

~ jan (Do you know where your water quality is?)