MICROBE-LIFT MLXSAG4 Sludge-Away Pond and Outdoor Water Garden Sludge Remover, OK for Live Koi Fish, Plant Life, and Decor, 1 Gallon

Huge bang for the buck! I have a 3k gal. Pond and have for 25 years. Ive struggled from time to time and some years getting crystal clear water. After 1 summer i must say...dont mess with the expensive beneficial bacteria any more. This bacteria is on steroids. Its essentially for larger ponds and sludge problems. If you have a small pond and not a good filtration system then you should definatly start using this. All the claims are true. I use 8 oz mixed with a bucket of pond water and throw it in every week or two. The bottom is super clean. * A clean pond means not much for the algie to feed on and grow! My ( 2) 45 gal sediment filter tanks with media also required only 3 cleanings over a 6 month season. (ITS USUALLY 5 OR 6) I also use an inexpensive 24" UV filter that i run for a few month from spring to mid summer...And that just really makes the pond shine. The fish also seem to like when i throw it in weirdly enough. Believe me-- I wish i had tried this product decades ago.

Best product I've used for sludge decomposition, and I've tried several. My pond would get murky and I would change out the water every couple of weeks during the warm months (1000 gallons) because the stuff I was using before just wasn't cutting it and I wanted clear water. I discovered this product and started to see a clear difference within a couple of days. I noticed that my ammonia levels have gone up slightly, which makes sense since this is accelerating decomposition to levels that my pond bacteria are not used to yet. To compensate and aid the process, I am using an ammonia remover/neutralizer in the interim (I assume this is just a temporary condition until the sludge build up is fully digested - there is a lot). As an added benefit, my pond rocks and lights were always covered with algae, and the algae is now disappearing (my pond gets full sun). I am seeing the beautiful hues of gold in the rocks come back and my pond lights are brightening as the algae covering the lenses is going away. I had tried an algae killer in the past, which I stopped using because it spiked the PH putting stress on my fish. This stuff does not affect PH, and is basically eating everything organic in the pond so I am left with just clear water and happy fish. My filters are collecting less goo and sludge too, since there is less to filter out. I have 15 koi in a 1,000 pond; several of which are quite large. My pond is over stocked for the size, but this stuff will enable me to hoard koi and keep it healthy at the same time! I was constantly changing out the water, and using a pond vacuum to get the sludge out of all the rocks (with little success) and then having to replace the salt each time. I have not had to change out the water since starting to use this stuff and it's been a month.

We built our koi pond many years ago and over that time our koi have grown beautiful and huge -- over two feet in length. Since we use mechanical as well as a couple of biological filtration systems, we felt comfortable that the health of our pond was excellent. Since water readings were always good and fish and plants were thriving, I became lazy about testing the pond water regularly. Then we stepped out on our deck a couple of weeks ago to find our largest koi, Sid (yep, we name them), floating belly-up by the skimmer intake. After a fishy funeral, I hurried to test the water. All readings were okay with the exception of extremely high phosphates. The culprit turned out to be one of the biological filtration systems which was inefficient and malfunctioning. The organic waste was settling into an area of the unit and was degrading much too slowly (basically rotting) which raised phosphate levels and released gases that are toxic to fish. The fish had been less interested in food recently but I'd attributed it to the high heat. We began a fairly drastic water change-out which still left the phosphate levels way too high. I checked with our local pond supply store and they recommended Sludge Away. After disconnecting the faulty bio-filter, I added the product in the amount recommended for our pond size (I added it in the skimmer box near the recirculating pump). The pond water went from clear to chocolate-milk-brown quickly. The brown color only lasted a couple of days and then the water went amazingly crystal clear...MUCH clearer that it has ever been. The Sludge Away worked to quickly break down and remove sludge and muck that had accumulated in the bottom of our pond and throughout the rocks and pebbles that line the edges and bottom. This alone helped by getting rid of the slowly-decomposing gunk that was producing the high phosphate level -- but the product also contains a phosphate-binder that renders the existing phosphates inactive. The extra bonus was incredible water clarity. The bottle labeling recommends a treatment every week for four weeks. This will require 3-4 bottles for our pond. For very large ponds, Sludge Away is available in 1-gallon and 5-gallon sizes. Although we'll miss poor old Sid, we're relieved that our remaining fish are happy and healthy once again. I'm back to hauling my test tubes down to the pond every few days to check the various water readings so that we don't get surprised again. Whether or not Sludge Away works to clarify ALL ponds, I can't say. Perhaps some ponds are too small and other ponds may be so huge that it's impossible to gauge the water capacity of the pond in order to add the appropriate amount of product. Also, I think that the Sludge Away requires sufficient water movement and aeration to do its job. For our particular medium-sized pond with waterfall and other aeration, it worked like a charm. WARNING: If your pond is stocked with fish, make sure that it is sufficiently oxygenated before using Sludge Away. As it works, the Oxygen Uptake Rate in your pond will increase in the process, along with your fish's need for oxygen. Insufficient aeration while using Sludge Away will leave your fish gasping for air at the surface. Waterfalls, fountains, and other types of aerators all help to maintain oxygen levels in the water. Also, depending on when the Sludge Away is bottled, it has a nasty, rotten-eggs smell when you open it. I had sent an email to the Microbe-Lift folks because one bottle that I opened smelled bad and another bottle had practically no odor. Since I'm familiar with most of the Microbe-Lift products being smelly, I was afraid that the odorless bottle was ineffective. Instead, it turned out that the date on the bottle was very current (just bottled) so the product hadn't had time to build up a stink.

I have tried many different types of sludge remover, muck buster, debris eliminator, or whatever you want to call it. Every spring, I look into my 6000 gallon pond and see about a 1/8" thick layer of greenish-brown muck coating the rocks and gravel. I've tried scrubbing, power washing, other beneficial bacteria products all with little to no real success. The last product I tried was quite expensive but didn't work at all and I left a poor review of it only to have the seller respond to my review and insinuate that I was using the product wrong or didn't have sufficient dissolved oxygen in my pond. I can't tell you whether I have enough dissolved oxygen in my pond because I am not willing to spend a hundred dollars for a decent dissolved oxygen tester. However, I do have a nice waterfall and a 780 gpm submersed pump with a venturi valve attached to it, which brings a lot of oxygen into the pond (as an aside, the fish love to swim through this pumps output...maybe the bubbles tickle their noses). What I can tell you is that I purchased two one gallon bottles of this Eco Labs Liquid Sludge Away and began dosing the pond with it according to package instructions. By the time I finished the first gallon, the sludge on the bottom of my pond and coating most of my rocks had virtually disappeared. I can actually see some of the color variations on my pond rocks and gravel now; everything is no longer a uniform greenish-brown color. I've been dosing regularly for over a month now and couldn't be happier with the results. This stuff works and works well. I've noted not one single issue with my plants or fish. In fact, the pond is so healthy that there must have been frog shenanigans going on at some point because I now have thousands of tadpoles in the pond. In a few weeks, it'll look like Moses had visited a rain of frogs on my yard when all these tadpoles grow up and leave the pond. Bottom line: This is the product that I will use from now on to control sludge in my pond. I just wish I'd tried it a few years ago.

Especially helpful in spring to get my pond back into service after winter-pause. Really helps with water clarity. Fish are healthier and pond stays cleaner longer. Vacuuming two weeks after helps maintenance.

Worked ok but pond never cleared to my expectations

This is one of the best products I have purchased for my 1000 gal Koi Pond! Our pond was built and populated with 7 lovely little fish in Oct 2016. Over the late fall and winter months in Florida algae wasn't much of a problem and then spring hit and the water temperature started to rise. I was managing the Algae relatively fine with water changes, Algae Fix and cleaning out the filter. However, there was a lot of stuff settling to the bottom (no bottom drain). It started to look really disgusting and it was only getting worse. I raked it carefully and I considered a vacuum. The bottom of my pond is all rocks/stone so debris was difficult to dislodge. I really wanted to avoid a total drain and clean. I discovered this product in August 2017 and while it was expensive I thought I might give it a try. The results are truly amazing! It took a few days, but each day the results were becoming increasingly noticeable. I wish I had a "before" shot. So, if your story is somewhat like mine try this product. I'm three months in and the bottom of my pond is clean and clear.

It did do a good job of getting the Sludge dissolved but then my pond turned a bright radioactive green with this weird algae bloom. Never seen anything like it. Took some water out to examine it and the already suspended in it is so thick it's almost like 100 gallons of green paint was dumped in. Plus the smell is truly horrible. Now my pond is not quite so bright as the green is getting browner. But fish are starting to die. Do I need an algaecide now? Tried to trap some of the fish to get them out and they all died in the traps. So maybe the bloom took the oxygen??? It's a big pond and netting is not getting enough fish out. I have no idea how to fix this. It's a stinky disaster.