My pond is full. I have a water well going to it. In light of what you are saying I'm also realizing that probably the well water is agitating the clay. I purposely made it "fall" into the pond so that it agitates the water to create oxygen, but where it comes in it's fairly shallow.

It has not rained here for months. I'm literally in an extreme drought so I have to run it daily. I do need more vegetation, but now I'm thinking I also need to move my well water further in to deeper water.

There is no green or olive color to the water it has the same color as the dirt. We have red dirt here so it's very brownish red looking.

I'm guessing I should plant some submerged vegetation as well? Definitely doesn't take much to cause the clay to make a mess of the water when you step in it.