The pump and water system is in place and I am not planning any upgrades to it. I don't think you understand the scale of livestock I am watering. During the summer months I pull about 15000-16000 gallons a day out of this pond. I have 2-21x54 inch gravel filters with a special gravel for the removal of the iron. These are what are clogging up on me. Due to the high amount of algae that I am pumping in. They back flush every night. Pump is a 2" 2 hp 40 gal/min deep well pump floating on a barrel at about 3 feet. Flex line runs to PVC in bottom of the pond.
My low water line is about 6-7feet as this is as shallow as I have drawn down the pond. That was a record setting drought back in 2012. I should have dug it out then but didn't have the cash. And couldn't afford to risk having to switch everything over to county water. I figured it up and we pulled over 1.3 million gallons out without counting for evaporation that year between ditch running rains. I was nervous.
As far as weeds all I have is shore line vegetation that might go out a foot or two. It's all algae that is giving problems. Cattle are fenced out except when I need the grass around the pond. They have only been in pond lot once this year and last year. There is atleast a 20 foot buffer to pastures.
What I am wanting is to kill the algae in the pond and not in my filters. Some said karmex the problem with that is it doesn't have a label for aquatic use. Tried to find some Alum to drop the water but haven't been able to find the right rates. May have over looked it to.
google "55 gallon sand and gravel filter www.koiphen.com" without quotes.
these filters are much like a sand filter you might find on a swimming pool. they are a fines filter. "remove extremely small stuff" stuff that human eye may not be able to see without needing a magnify glass or like.
these are up flow filters, were you pump water in the bottom, and the water comes out the top. you use an air blower, (say from a hot tub), possibly a shop vac, or leaf blower pending on power. the air goes into some pipes in bottom of the drum, that disperses the air. causing the sand to fluidize. the filters are fairly cheap to make, compared to other filters out there on market. i want to say they can handle about 1500 GPH (gallons per hour) MAX give or take some. meaning you may need to run 2 drums in parallel setup. to handle your 2" pump. though with you running directly from pond to watering live stock, it might be worth while to set say 4 55 gallon sand and gravel filters and run in parallel with each other, to lower the GPH going through each of them for more retention time.
google "trickle tower www.koiphen.com"
variety of DIY to manufactured units out there. they aerate the water better and allow for much more off gassing of the water / chemicals in the water.
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if you bought say 500 gallon tank or bigger, or even built a small liner pond, say 2000 to 3000 gallons. and pumped water from pond to (tank or small liner pond) and then ran a pump that circulated the water just in the tank / small liner pond. through the above filters. you will more likely gain a bigger filtration capacity, vs trying to rely on filtration that only works when you are using the water.
other words you are not treating the entire mud/clay pond water, but only the water you actually use.
setting up the tank or small liner pond, more like a settling chamber, a settling chamber, lets larger heavier solids to sink out to the bottom. would give you a tad bit more filtration ability.
moving from the mud/clay pond to a tank/smaller liner pond. should help you reduce overall chemical expense as well. you are only treating what you are using, and not the entire mud/clay pond. were majority of your chemicals more likely getting used up quickly, on everything, (fish, bacteria, sludge in bottom, fungus, single cell organisms, etc...)
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others words, yes i am off my rocker and a bit looney to! i am more familiar with backyard liner ponds, for koi / goldfish. along with the filtration used on them, more DIY route vs store bought filtration. majority of these filtration setups, are geared to be ran 24/7 365 days a year. and they are made to be min hassle, and ease of cleaning.
your store bought filtration, are going to be a "bead filter" much like a sand pressurized filter you might find on a swimming pool, but use beads instead of sand, bead filters can be a fines filter, but are more geared towards ammonia,nitrite,nitrate conversion. which most likely would be of little use to you. exception they don't clog up as quickly vs a sand filter.
sieve, helps remove larger size muck / debris, it acts like a settling chamber, but much smaller, helps to remove sticks, larger size fish poo, etc... most likely not worth it for you.
ozone, injection, (variety of filters out there), it really not advised, to inject ozone directly into water, that will be drank. and you would want retention time, to let the ozone to disperse and break down. other words you would setup your ozone pump, and mixer, and tester, to a small liner pond. and with the small liner pond constantly circulating water. it would help reduce any chance of ozone getting to high. again your not treating the entire mud/clay pond, only water you use, and you are not treating water as you use it, but are temporarily storing the water and constantly filtering / circulating the water in a smaller liner pond. to bring up your filtration capacity.
if your water needs to be sterilized, ozone could do it, you also have option of UV "ultra violet" light. and placed on this small liner pond.
anything that = foam pads = forget about it, to much time cleaning.
aeration = a mighty weapon, in cleaning filer media, when filters a
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there are some chemicals out there, that act like "ughs been to long" attractant. example koi clay, if memory serves it is a grounded up powder like bentonite clay (spelling). the clay attracts stuff kinda like a magnet would metal shavings, and forms bigger clumps, these bigger clumps, allow filters to catch and hold these clumps, and in that remove stuff from the water.
PP (potassium preganant) (spelling) been way to long, is more of a disinfectant, or killer of algae, pending on dosage used. trying to treat the mud/clay pond. would be rather expensive, and most likely most of it would be used up instantly, pumping water first to a small liner pond, would reduce overall cost, and more likely make the PP more stronger in a sense, and only treating what needs to be treated.
if you are needing to chlorinate (bleach, or like) dumping this stuff in the mud/clay pond, could possibly cause a massive fish kill. pumping water to a small liner pond. and circulating the water and aerating the water in the small liner pond. you could up the dosage a bit perhaps, as long as you gave things enough time to circulate within the small liner pond (retention time), before sending it off to the live stock.
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1000's of ways going about filtration, i am curious what does and does not make sense to you with above post. you know your issue better than anyone else. and i am sure you have read up on things, so. wait and see approach on how you respond and go from there.
