I believe that the way water flows through your ponds has turned the smaller pond into what some folks here term a "settlement pond". Meaning that the water comes into the small pond, the suspended particles "settle out"'of that h20, and thus clearer h20'then continues onto the larger pond
One way to help the smaller ponds clarity is to have h2o run through an artificial wetland type area so water is "prefiltered"'before it gets to your small pond
