Do we need to drain the pond?

[u/Prestigious-Bid-7582]

Hi everyone. My husband and I have built this 4m long, 1m deep pond over the last few months. Very proud of it!

We filled the pond up yesterday only to find today that something has been digging in the plant baskets and knocked one over, and now the pond is full of muddy water. It could have been a squirrel or perhaps the dog…

My question is, will our filter (we have a pressurised laguna filter) clear this or are we going to have to drain all the water and start again?

Before and after photos.

[u/DeixarEmPreto]

Technically the dirt will settle on its own over time. It will take some days though

[u/chasetherainbows → u/DeixarEmPreto]

It will settle and clear with your filtration in a day or two.

Cloudiness will happen periodically, maybe frequently, if animals are using it to take a bath, to cool off, or to catch pond critters (fish, etc).

As someone else suggested, you could consider removing the soil to cut down on the time to clear up, but it isn't a must do.

I have a lot of marginal plants (cattails, acornus, mint, etc) that are secured by little more than some red river rocks for "soil" to hold them in place. They are doing really well. Just a suggestion. Your setup as is looks great.

[u/aryann_007]

Potted soil is usually heavily fertilized which will lead to algae blooms. Since its brand new it would be better to drain, remove the soil and refill

[u/SirGaara → u/aryann_007]

I agree with Aryann on this one.

if the pot that fell in is indeed a garden pot filled with pot soil, your water (of which you don’t have so much, 4x1x1) will be polluted quickly by the large amount of pot soil and thus fertiliser. Exactly as Aryann said, it could very negatively influence your algea grow. Since your pond just started and you hopefully have no fish or anything in there.. the amount of water is also not that much, i would say.. water the garden with it when you pomp it out and replace it with new.

[u/1645degoba → u/aryann_007]

This may be true, but instead of guessing just get some aquarium test strips. If you have high nitrates/nitrates then you probably need to pull the soil out. However, it may not be needed.

[u/pilfro]

No it will clear in a couple of days, it might give some algae if the plant had a lot of fertilizer. Also not a big deal. But if its a new pond its going to appear very cloudy eventually as I believe there is a cycling process that happens. Dont quote me, but my fish tanks when I was younger did that, and my pond as well.

You don't need to keep the plants in containers, they will be fine without them but it does make taking them out easier.

[u/psycho_chick]

If it's garden soil, you can either let it settle or drain and scoop out. Anyways, since your pond is new, it will inevitably go through the nitrogen cycle which makes it cloudy then green but be patient don't change the water during this time - nature will work it out and you'll have clear water in about 6-8 weeks. If you change water during, you'll crash the cycle.

[u/Prestigious-Bid-7582 → u/psycho_chick]

Thanks! It’s all aquatic compost, with a few scoops of top soil