Hi! I have been working on my water garden lately and it was doing great. The water was crystal clear and I had one koi in it. A couple weeks ago, I bought a water garden kit which contained 2 cattails and 1 water lily which were self-contained in netting (not sure what the potting medium used was). I added 14 feeder fish, which all died within a week - though the koi is fine. The water started getting cloudly last week and now is very cloudy. I bought 20 more feeder fish, 3 of which have died so far. I tested the water and it came back fine. I added a piece of driftwood, which I was told helps to balance the pH. I am just not sure why the water is so cloudy or how to clear it up. The pond was one of those kits with a vinyl liner and is about 6'wide by 3' long by 1 1/2' deep and I put a layer of crushed marble in the bottom (which I rinsed well first). It has a pump with a fountain for aeration which I run 24/7 and the pond has full sun. Any ideas on how to clear it up?

I've been doing a pond for several years and have always had fish and plants. Though my current pond is extremely low maintenance, I used to have a kit type pond, with an inpond filter and fountain. Try the following:

Before adding new fish - place them in a plastic bag and let the bag drift in the water for about 1/2 hour, until the temperatures are equalized. Don't add fish to a freshly filled pond as it will be too heavily chlorinated.

Check any algae product you use to make sure it is "fish and pet safe." Some are not. Clean the pond filter regularly. Remove matt algae by hand.

Don't know where you are getting your fish, but avoid Walmart, as there fish tend to be short timers. Petsmart has reasonably priced standard goldfish, but go for one at least a couple of inches long.

Don't add so many. Assuming your pond is 100 gallons, no more than 10 goldfish would live comfortably there and the Koi counts as two.

Provide shade for the fish. Water lilies are not adequate. I built a couple of pillars out of large rocks about four inches high, then lay a big slab of flagstone across this, so my fish have a good sized cave they can all fit in.

Plants help keep the water clean and healty but remove any dead foliage. If you can find watercress, add it to your waterfall. It is a great purifier.

Try to get aquarium snails established, as they also kill algae.

I have some pics of my pond and waterfall up at the Over the Fence Forum under MaggieZ's. To the left of the pond is a black circle which is my out of the pond pump - a true godsend, but you can also see some watercress in the waterfall along with quite a few other plants. My pump is large enough that I can leave the fish out all winter, even though we get heavy snows and cold temps. My goldfish are about 8 or 9 and the largest is over six inches. They are pigs.

Hope this is helpful info.

yes - it was helpful!! thank you - i'm going to try to find your pond pics now.