muddy waters

Question
I bought a pond setup from Walmarts, 100 gals, added a water lilly, an oxygenator plant, two decorative plants and 4 Koi, water turned muddy when I added the plants which contain i believe aquatic clay...filter runs 24/7, have added clearup tablets, 2 so far in two weeks...nothing has changed. Do I need to redo the water, change the plants, remove the clay or what??  Or is this the way the water should be???  Have seen other ponds and the water was clear...am I a moron or just stupid???
Thanks

Answer
You are not stupid.  You are simply lacking some information to help improve the situation.  You have a pond which makes you smart!  First, a 100 gallon pond is not that big.  It's not large enough for adult koi which can grow to 3 feet long.  My koi are almost 2 feet long.  Koi experts say to have 1000 gallons for the first koi and 100 gallons extra for each additional koi, minimum.  Ignoring the fact that your koi will need a larger pond very soon, we can deal with the situation as it stands now.

Did you pot up the plants yourself or put them in as they were from WalMart?  I suggest unpotting any plants you buy and potting them up yourself.  I use clay soil from my land and top that off with pea gravel.  There's a little bit more to it.  See http://www.fishpondinfo.com/plants/plant.htm for lots of stuff about pond plants including how to pot and repot.  It sounds like the dirt in the pots is coming out.  I suggest repotting them.  You can also pot plants in the more expensive Schultz aquatic plant soil which is just clay clumps, kind of like dark, plain kitty litter.  You can also use plain kitty litter which I've never done.  Top off whatever planting media you use with some rinsed pea gravel to keep in the dirt.  The filter you have may not be strong enough for your pond.  It may also need cleaning as it will be trapping all that dirt.  Doing a 30% water change or so will also help clear up the water.  To get the suspended dirt on the bottom or into the filter, you can do a quick fix with AccuClear by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals which I've done many times.  It will clear the pond fast if there's dirt suspended in the water.  If then you can keep more dirt from getting into the pond, it should stay clear in that respect.  Then, since the pond is new with koi and few plants, expect an algae bloom.  See http://www.fishpondinfo.com/plants/algae2.htm on how to head that off.  If the pond water is horribly cloudy or dirty, then you may need to clean it all out.  A shop vacuum helps get the last bit of dirt up.  You can save some of the top more clear water in a kiddie pool with the koi while you're cleaning to lessen their stress.  I have a page on koi at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/koi.htm and pages on how I clean out my 153 gallon pond each March at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/myfish/clean.htm
Perhaps some of that information will guide you towards that clear pond that you're craving.  Good luck!

Robyn