Many of the pond owner wants to know how they can keep their pond water clear without using a filter. Although it is tricky to have clear water without a filter in a pond but not impossible.
So in this article, we will be discussing how to clear pond water without a filter.
Let’s not waste any more time and get directly into it.
Table of Contents
How to Keep Pond Water Clear Without a Filter
Don’t Over Populate Your Pond With Fish and Other Habitats
Every pond can support a certain number of fishes naturally without the need for a filter. When you cross this threshold number, you will need to install a filter to keep the water clean and habitable for fish.
Therefore, when you don’t want to install a filter you have to keep the number of fish equal or bellow the recommended number.
It is recommended that you keep 10 koi fish per 1000 gallons of water. For other fishes, experts recommend that you don’t stock more than half of an inch of fish per 10 gallons of water.
Less number of fish means less waste. When the amount of waste is less, the pond environment itself can keep the water clean.
Therefore, if you want to keep your pond water clear without filter, don’t overpopulate your pond and stock the recommended number of fish.
Stop Over Feeding
Overfeeding can adversely affect the pond water quality. Therefore, when you don’t want to use a filter, yet want your pond water to be clean, you shouldn’t overfeed your fish.
You should calculate the amount of food required for your fish according to the bodyweight of fish and supply that food once daily.
When you overfeed your fish, the excess food rots in the pond and hampers the water quality.
When you supply the required amount of food one daily, fish eat naturally occurring foods in the pond. When they eat natural food, it helps to clean the pond water to some extent.
Therefore, to keep the pond water clear without filter, never overfeed your fish.
Make Use of the Pond Plants
Although many of you don’t know this, you can use pond plants as a natural filter for your pond water when you don’t want to install any mechanical or biological filter.
Floating pond plants work best for natural filtration. Their root system is developed in such a way that they can take our different chemicals, heavy metals, nitrate from water. This way they work as a natural filter in your pond. They can also attract clay particles in their root and prevent muddy pond water.
They also take nutrition from the pond water. As a result, you will notice fewer algae growth in your pond.
Moreover, these pond plants give shade which results in fewer algae growth due to lack of sunlight.
Pond experts’ advice that you have creeping jenny, pickerel, horsetail, taro, cardinal, water lettuce, mosaic, blue iris, sweet flag, water lilies, etc. in your pond. These plants will help to keep the pond water balanced and clear without the need for an extra filter.
But make sure you maintain a balance between plants and the size of the pond.
Proper Cleaning and Maintenance
Try to clean and maintain the pond in a proper manner to have clean and healthy water. When you don’t have a filter in your pond then cleaning it routinely is a must.
If you have sludge and debris at the bottom of the pond remove them. In some cases, you may have to drain the total water of the pond to clean it.
If you don’t want to drain the water using a pond vacuum or pumps to remove them from your pond.
Make Sure of Oxygenation and Aeration
Every fish species requires a certain amount of oxygen dissolved in water for living comfortably. If water has less oxygen, fish can’t thrive in it.
As you are not filtering out the waste materials in the pond a huge amount of oxygen will be required to break them down. This oxygen is called the biological oxygen demand of BOD.
As BOD load in higher in unfiltered water, you will need to aerate the pond with the help of pond aerators. It will induce oxygen in the water and help to keep the water clean without requiring a filter.
Add Beneficial Bacteria in Pond Water
Adding beneficial bacteria in a pond without filter works great. In biological filters, bacteria grow on the surface of filter media to breakdown harmful elements. Adding beneficial bacteria in the pond works the same way.
Pond sludge removers have a great number of bacteria that break down all kinds of waste in the pond. They also enhance the natural nitrogen cycle of the pond.
I suggest that you should use aquascape beneficial bacteria for pond and water features.
Try Using UV Sterilizer
When you don’t have a filtration unit in your pond a UV sterilizer can fight against the algae for you. If you don’t have a biological, mechanical or chemical filter unit, the substances that are not being cleaned will boost up the rate of algae growth of the pond and make the pond water green.
But algae will require an amount of sunlight for blooming. But you can neutralize the sunlight by using the sterilizer.
It will stop the excess growth of algae due to improper filtration and keep the water clean in the pond.
So try using A UV sterilizer for keeping your pond nice and clean if you are not willing to have a proper filtration unit in the pond.
Try Using a Nano Media Reactor
Well, using this may well be referred to as cheating. But this is not a filter. It is like a backup for the filtration unit in the pond.
This type of device is specialized in the removal of organic compounds such as nitrates and ammonia from the water.
For this, you can refer it also as a filter that’s why firstly I said that it is kind of cheating. But in practice, a Nano media radiator and a filter are two different things.
It is great to have this device if your pond has too much fish in it that produce a considerable amount of wastage. It is very effective when you want to control algae growth.
Change The Water!
If your pond has fish in them, water changes are very effective to reduce the nutrients and harmful substances that grow up very first in the pond.
You are practically replacing 20%-30% of the water volume in the process of changing the water. For this, it’s recommended you use a pond calculator. It helps to calculate the water volume of the pond.
Use a pond pump for draining the pond. As pond water has a high level of nutrients, you can use it as a natural fertilizer for plants. Just use it to water your garden or the trees.
If you use tap water for pond, make sure you dechlorinate it before adding into the pond as it may contain a considerable amount of chlorine which is deadly for the fish.
You can use pond dechlorinators for this purpose. They will help to remove chlorine and chloramine from tap water that is highly toxic even deadly for the aquatic life of the pond.
If you are changing the water properly, you can have many benefits like reduced nutrients, reduced harmful substances like heavy metals, improved water clarity, fewer algae, etc.
Use Barley Straw to Fight Algae
Pond filters can filter suspended single-cell algae. As you are not using pond filters you have to take measures to reduce algae growth.
Using barley straw is possibly the best way to get rid of the algae problem in the pond.
You can use barley straw in two forms, pelleted and liquid.
If you use barley straw pellets hang them in such a place where the water is constantly moving like fountain or waterfall. Barley straw will gradually decompose and fight the algae problem. One pallet of barley straw is enough for 1000 gallons of water.
If you use barley straw in liquid form, just simply add the required amount of it with pond water.
One thing you have to keep in mind that, barley straw will not work overnight as algaecides do. It will take some time but surely work. So give it some time.
Use of Pond Dye
You can use pond dye to have a vibrant and beautiful color of water in the pond.
It will also help to prevent the algae and reduce weed growth in your pond by reducing the amount of UV light that penetrates the surface of the water.
The best time for applying a pond dye is early in the spring season. Because in this period algae and weeds start to bloom.
I recommend aqua shade aqua blue pond dye and weed control for your pond.
As you don’t have a filtration unit in the pond. You should take this advice to keep the pond nice and clean.
Is It Possible to Keep the Pond water clear without a Filter?
The answer would depend on various facts like types of fish you want to have, the size of the pond and the overall biological load on the pond.
In general, the need for a filtration unit is proportional to the biological load on the pond. In the ponds with fish, the maximum level of bio wastage comes from theses fishes.
When the biological load is high, it becomes hard to maintain the balance without a well-functioning filtration unit.
The nitrogen cycle of the pond will not be able to minimize these harmful wastes of the pond. A high concentration of beneficial bacteria in the filter box helps you out from this problem.
On the other hand in a pond with a small population of fishes in them, the bioload will not be that much high. Maintaining this type of pond gets easier naturally.
So in ponds with fewer fish populations you can keep the pond water clear without a filter.
Final Thought
Maintaining the pond water clarity without using a filter can be hard for you. But if you follow these tips I hope you can manage to keep the water clear without using a filter. Try to keep less fish, add some pond plants and aerate your pond regularly to maintain a healthy environment in your pond.
Hope these tips were helpful.
Happy fishkeeping.