hi guys it's mark many palm common a trusted resource in the UK ponds and water features and today's topic is black pond water and how to clear black pond water well the first thing to do is to think about why is the pond gone black in the first place most of the time if the ponds gone black it's to do with leaves or pine needles this particular pond had a pine tree at the far side there and the clients actually cut it back because it was growing too big and it was shed in too many needles blocking the pump so they actually had to replace the old pump for a new pump so thinking about leaves and this pond is surrounded by deciduous trees so think about tea for a second black tea what is it it's made with tea leaves so a black pond is probably tannins and the only way to get rid of tannins out of pond water is to use carbon and wood has to percolate through the carbon so wood has to be moved through carbon so if you've got a wildlife pond that's got tannins you can put carbon in some tights or something and put an aerator or something in it so it's blowing air and moving the tannins around the tights if you've got a fish pond like this particular pond then you actually put it inside the filtration system so carbon will take out tannins out of the water and it will clear the water so if you've got black pond water the first thing to do is to have a look at the bottom of the pond to see if there's lots of leaves or where is the organic load on the system is it in a filtration system is it at the bottom of the pond have a look get rid of the organic waste it might be that you need to do a full draining clean to actually get down at the waste in this particular pond there's lots of pond lilies they don't use or they don't remove tannins out of the water but what they will do is they will remove nutrients out of the soil or the substrate or that waste on the bottom of the pond so they're good and also it will shade the water but shading the water will stop green water but it won't stop tannins so it's all around carbon carbon filtration put it in tights in a waterfall or in a filtration system one way to stop leaves from forming in a pond is to install a proper pond skimmer when the pond is actually constructed so having a pond having a skimmer on the side of the pond you can actually remove the needles and the leaves very very easily where you don't have a skimmer or you have a pump in the bottom of the pond the leaves actually fall into the pond and they don't get removed so you must cover the pond in the autumn to stop the deciduous trees now there are a number of trees that are worse than others and they basically last a longer time so pine needles are one of the worst things that you can have in a pond or fall into pond water because they take about 18 months to actually rot down and we've actually removed about 8 buckets of waste from this particular pond this pond has been black or brown for about a year so it actually went black or brown last winter and all through the year last year the customer was using lotions and potions to try and clear it they were putting in additives and trying to clear the black pond water but none of that would work it's like taking a pill to stop you putting on weight but you still eat carrion eating a lot of food and as soon as you stop taking the pill you power plough on the pounds so with chemicals and lotions and potions it should be done all the time it like a pill if you're trying to stop putting on weight but the best thing to do is to obviously exercise rather than taking pills and on a pond it's have a pond skimmer or a net over the surface of the pond when the leaves actually fall in to stop the root of the problem it's like if you were to cut a dandelion head off and the root structure actually just carries on growing and that's what happens is if you if you keep chopping or done lions head off it actually promotes the root growth and that's exactly the same with lotions and potions and chemicals in ponds so look for the root cause its leaves if you've got black parts of the filtration system that's where it's anaerobic it's basically without oxygen what happens in the bottom of a lake when the silt is you know settling on the lake is black and it that's anaerobic it's without oxygen and what it can actually do is it can start releasing gases up into the water column which depletes the pond of oxygen and it causes all sorts of water quality issues so my name's mark the pond advisor on I'm hit support you dream plan and enjoy ponds and water features thanks for watching and I hope you've got some useful information my question to you is have you got a black pond have you got a brown pond get in touch comment below and I'll see you in the next video