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I just recently pressure washed my cement pond, acid washed it and cleaned it with TSP followed by rising it out several times with fresh water.

After this and letting it dry, I primed the pond with an epoxy primer followed by an acrylic paint.

The pond looked great for about 4 weeks. I noticed my water was getting very low (I have some sort of leak and this is something that I'm troubleshooting that I don't believe affects this question).

I did some skimming of the pond since I hadn't in a few weeks and then proceeded to fill the pond up with fresh water.

2-3 days later my pond is a yellow / brownish tint. I was surprised since I just put fresh water in it, but even more surprised when I found it is is the actual paint that is holding this color. It doesn't rub off. The actual paint is now discolored.

What would cause this and how do I go about fixing it / preventing it in the future?

Needless to say, I'm quite frustrated after spending all that time prepping and painting the pond just to have it is now discolored / stained less than a month later. Additionally, very surprised that this happened only after I put fresh water into the pond. It was not stained before I added water.

You can see in the pictures below the original "white" color.

For reference, here are the products used:

Note: The color white was chosen because darker colors warmed the water which make it nearly impossible to keep it from become algae ridden without constantly tending to it. I do not have time to shock and clean my pond multiple times a week. It's just not reasonable for my lifestyle, so I wanted something low maintenance that wouldn't be as affected by the direct sunlight warming a dark / black bottom. I realize it is an atypical color

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Update May 21st 2022

The discoloration has largely gone away except for the areas that are now above the water line (due to evaporation). Essentially, everything covered in water has returned to a "white" color. What's weird is that the coloration is something I couldn't rub off, brush off, etc. It was very much penetrated into the paint color, but now it's simply gone.

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  • Have to bet that your water has (dissolved) iron in it, and what you are seeing is effectively a rust stain. Or it may be leaching from the rocks, if the water gets that high.
    – Ecnerwal
    May 9 at 15:12
  • Also, I find this color much more appealing for a pond than white. Is it a pond or a swimming pool?
    – isherwood
    May 9 at 15:24
  • @Ecnerwal, what would be a proposed solution to this? Why do others' pools not do this (or if they do, there must be a common answer to this problem)
    – Ryan Griffith
    May 13 at 22:38
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    Have you spoken to/ emailed the paint company for any ideas?
    – Tim
    Jun 20 at 15:15
  • @Tim, I haven't, but I have found after filling the pond multiple times, the color tends to turn yellow-ish after a few days... stay that way and then eventually return to white. Very weird...
    – Ryan Griffith
    Jun 20 at 21:44

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So no fish or anything living? To stop algae in a body of water in sunlight, chlorine must be routinely added just like a swimming pool. Hard to imagine the paint has anything to do with the algae growth.

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  • No fish, this is simply a water feature. I spoke with a couple of pond experts in the past and they let me know that if I'm not putting fish and plants in the pond, that controlling algae is going to be a combination of chlorinating (occasionally shocking) and keeping the temperatures lower.
    – Ryan Griffith
    May 10 at 12:18
  • Fish or plants have little affect on algae unless the fish eat it. I have gallon bottles of clean water around for aquariums and pot plants ; they usually get green in several days.
    – blacksmith37
    May 11 at 0:02

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