Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry Tea Brown colored water

Hello,
I have aproximatly a 1/4 acre 8' pond and have stocked it with 50 blue Catfish and 50 Channel Catfish. The Pond is currently being fed by a wet weather (December - March) spring that flowes thru a bit of woods then flows into my pond. What I've noticed is that the water coming from this spring and flows thru leaves etc.. is turning my pond a dark tea brown color. What I've read is that this is being caused by Tannins from the rotting leaves.

Wondering if this is a problem for catfish and if there are any ways to remove this condition, other than re-routing the spring during these wet weather months.

Also this is my 1st year with this pond. The catfish were stocked in October 2003. I saw them feed at the top thru middle of November then they stopped feeding all together. Water temp dropped under 60 degrees during that month and has stayed in the mid to low 50's since. From what all I've read this seems to be normal, but sure would like to hear from someone for that warm fuzzy.

Thanks!

Tanic acid can cause problems for fish, especially if they are not adapted to such conditions. The Okeefeenokee Swamp has a lot of tanic acid. However, because it has been that way forever the fish have naturally adapted. We stocked a pond with catfish years ago which had a wet weather drean that ran through from time to time. We experienced a lot of problems the first time it ran through after stocking. We had to run a lot of aeration. The fish developed parasites, which decreased their ability to utilize oxygen. We lost quite a few fish, I would guess about 1,000 out of the 12,000 we stocked. We treated the water with copper sulfate and then potassium permangenate. These types of treatments will kill your algae bloom so be ready to run an aerator. Once we got through the initial trauma we did'nt experience any more problems. You need to have your water checked by a certified lab. Catfish tend to be more susceptible to disease, parasites as the weather changes from cold to warm (early spring).

Good luck.