Milky white pond water?

[BewareTheBeardedDragon]

I have a tiny mini pond which is 18months old. Until this autumn it has always been self sufficient in terms of cleaning - it had some oxygenating weed in it and snails and frogs living in and around it. It is never filled with anything other than rain water, and sits in shade all morning, getting late afternoon sun only.

It does have overhanging foliage which drops leaves in, which I skim out but I expect I don't get them all.

Since autumn the weed appears to have died and the water has gone weirdly white and milky looking. Is this because of excess nutrient from the leaves that have sunk? I'm a bit scared to try to get the leaves out from the bottom in case there's any wildlife that I might damage? Will get out and take a pic a bit later and post it.

It sounds like a bacterial bloom, possibly caused by the nutrients from the leaves, as it's a nature pond I'd leave it at this time of year and it should sort itself out. If it's still cloudy in the spring changing up to 50% of the water (making sure you dechlorinate the replacement water if it's from the tap) should help.

Thank you! I'm quite relieved if the right thing to do right now is nothing