Algae in a rather unusual pond.

[JoeyJoystick]

Neat looking pond and surrounding landscape! How many gallons is it? Seems a bit small for so many fish and that could be the problem...Glad you joined our forum...It is great to hear from ponders in other countries with such diverse habitats

I never really thought about it, but done a little counting just now and I think it will be in the order of 500 - 600 gallons.

And regarding the number of fish, here too I never really give it much thought. I used to have 8 large carps, but when they started to grow big I started to give them away. I felt sorry for them. Now I only have 4 and will keep it that way. And since I only have 4 I just added a lot of small fish as well. Having has a fish tank when I was young I figured that with 500 gallons I need not to worry. Coming to think about it, this may indeed be an issue. All there droppings contain a lot of nitrates and this helps algae growth? Is that correct? I can reduce that drastically, I do not care about this too much. So there is a bout 4 large fish and some 40-50 small ones (guppy size, many of them guppies indeed, but also neon tetras and an other small kind of fish)

I probably come across pretty naïve when it comes to fish and plants, and you are correct. I am. And it is actually really embarrassing because my sister had a flower shop in Holland and my dad had won prices with his garden. I should have picked up a few things you'd think. My sister loves what I do with the garden, but she is also always laughing at me because of how I get things done.

My approach is very simple. I have an idea. I try to get what I need. I put it in the garden or pond where I want it and if it does not start to look happy after a week or 2, I move it somewhere else in the garden. Sometimes they don't make it. Other times it works out just fine. And yet other times it grows way to quick and I either have to regularly cut it or it really is too much and I have to completely remove it. This is obviously not the right approach, but it seems to work for me. What puzzles me is why I do not use the same scientific approach that I use with everything else in life and work. Can't answer it myself.

Also, some made comments saying to please not use chemicals. I can promise you all that I will not do that. If I was a fish, I probably would not like it either. I did use chemicals once though. My overflow was blocked with a snail that I could not get out. Reduced the water level in the pond for about 5 cm (2"). Blocked the overflow at the end. I then poured some diluted acetic acid in the overflow and waited for 1 hour or so. After this I rinsed it all out with caustic soda and all was clear and clean as if it was new again. But obviously nothing in the pond!

 

[rubyduby]

If your pond is only 500 to 600 gallons then you are way overstocked and this is contributing to your algae problem...too many nutrients...As you have probably read on this forum, optimally, a single carp should have 1000 gallons and every extra one another 500 gallons...It would be to their benefit (and yours) to rehome them and stick to the guppies and goldfish...You write beautifully and I was swept away to Thailand and enjoyed hearing about all of the lizards, plants, ect...Sounds like you found your piece of heaven!

 

[JoeyJoystick]

If your pond is only 500 to 600 gallons then you are way overstocked and this is contributing to your algae problem...too many nutrients...As you have probably read on this forum, optimally, a single carp should have 1000 gallons and every extra one another 500 gallons...It would be to their benefit (and yours) to rehome them and stick to the guppies and goldfish...You write beautifully and I was swept away to Thailand and enjoyed hearing about all of the lizards, plants, ect...Sounds like you found your piece of heaven!

Thanks for pointing that out. And no, I had not read that yet. That's a bit of a bummer though, isn't it? No I do not mind not having carps, because I think they get too big for my pond. But surely I am not gonna settle for guppies. They were a leftover from when water was first introduced and I had to do something to make sure it was not a mosquito breeding ground.

So here's what I'm gonna do.
- The guppies have to go. Now there may be 20-30 of them, If I do not do anything there will soon be more than a hundred of them.
- I will keep the Neon Tetras and the other ones.
- I will let the carps grow a little more and than give them to a friend of mine.
- When the carps are gone in a couple of months, I will replace them with real gold fish. That gives me some time to figure out where to get these as well.

At present, the carps are less than 100g (3oz.) so I am not too worried yet, but the last time I had a few they grew to 5-6 kg. I can see how that is an issue.

Wife not looking too happy now, but hey; it's give and take right? So I quickly reminded her of the time she put crabs in the fish pond! Not a joke! When I asked my wife why she (or anyone else for that matter) would put crabs in a fish pond; she told me that they stay fresh longer like that. About 5 years longer that was. lol. You can not argue with that. And that's what makes my life so beautiful here!

 

[Lisak1]

You are on the right path - smaller fish means less waste which will automatically reduce your algae growth. Removing string algae by hand is really effective and doesn't take all that long to do. When you pull it out, toss it in another area of your garden - it's full of nutrients your plants will love!

 

[JoeyJoystick]

You are on the right path - smaller fish means less waste which will automatically reduce your algae growth. Removing string algae by hand is really effective and doesn't take all that long to do. When you pull it out, toss it in another area of your garden - it's full of nutrients your plants will love!

We just spent more than an hour taking out guppies. And I thought we only had 20-30 of them. We already took at least 60 of them out and we can still see lots of them swimmin' about. oops. Glad I took this step. And where I would have recycled them, my wife had a much better idea and repurposed them. She is growing caladiums in her greenhouse and they all stay in water, so a few guppies will definitely help keeping down the mosquitos.

 

[rubyduby]

Thanks for pointing that out. And no, I had not read that yet. That's a bit of a bummer though, isn't it? No I do not mind not having carps, because I think they get too big for my pond. But surely I am not gonna settle for guppies. They were a leftover from when water was first introduced and I had to do something to make sure it was not a mosquito breeding ground.

So here's what I'm gonna do.
- The guppies have to go. Now there may be 20-30 of them, If I do not do anything there will soon be more than a hundred of them.
- I will keep the Neon Tetras and the other ones.
- I will let the carps grow a little more and than give them to a friend of mine.
- When the carps are gone in a couple of months, I will replace them with real gold fish. That gives me some time to figure out where to get these as well.

At present, the carps are less than 100g (3oz.) so I am not too worried yet, but the last time I had a few they grew to 5-6 kg. I can see how that is an issue.

Wife not looking too happy now, but hey; it's give and take right? So I quickly reminded her of the time she put crabs in the fish pond! Not a joke! When I asked my wife why she (or anyone else for that matter) would put crabs in a fish pond; she told me that they stay fresh longer like that. About 5 years longer that was. lol. You can not argue with that. And that's what makes my life so beautiful here!

Good idea to lessen the fish load...The carp will foul that much water fast so it's a good thing you are going to rehome them. I have Shubunkin goldfish which I find are beautiful and fun. They come in so many different colors too...But still, remember that your pond is small and unless you enlarge it you need to keep your numbers down...Goldfish multiply quickly. I started out with four and now I have about 25 adults...I am hoping the resident water snake helps to keep the numbers down eventually. Love that your wife has found a way to put some of your guppies to good use

 

[GBBUDD]

About 5 years longer that was. lol. You can not argue with that.

carp / koi can live 50 years or more

 

[JoeyJoystick]

carp / koi can live 50 years or more

I really did not know that carps could live that long. But I was actually referring to real crabs and not carps. It was not a spelling mistake. I had actual crabs in my pond beside the carps...

But with 50 years, they are gonna outlive me. Every single one of them . hahaha.

 

[addy1]

A good fish for small ponds are fan tails.

They grow slowly, never get real huge and are slow about making babies. I have 9 in a 300 gallon ex hot tub pond. In the 5 years they have been there I have 3 babies, about 2 inches now in size. The adults about 5 inches. Mine are subunkin in coloring.

 

[JoeyJoystick]

A good fish for small ponds are fan tails.

They grow slowly, never get real huge and are slow about making babies. I have 9 in a 300 gallon ex hot tub pond. In the 5 years they have been there I have 3 babies, about 2 inches now in size. The adults about 5 inches. Mine are subunkin in coloring.

Hi Addy,

That is what I always heard as well. I was really surprised to see the Koi I had previously in this pond to grow quite big. I had 8 and when I saw them grow and grow I ended up giving them away. The last one died while I was away and measured in at 6kg. (13lbs.) my wife told me. But never have they produced a single baby that I know of.

I already spoke to my friend and he will take the ones I have right now and I will get some gold fish instead. They will stay smaller I think. And if they decide to make babies , well then we'll deal with it when it comes to that.

 

[LuvKoi]

Hi All, I am Joey and I am new to this forum.

I have a small issue with my fishpond I would like to discuss. Maybe one of you have some ideas of how to deal with this. I am located in Thailand. It's always hot with a lowest temperature expected in December of around 19C at night, but even than it is still about 25C during the day. The fishpond itself is a single poor of concrete, about 4m long and 1m wide. Please note that there is a wall build of terracotta stones towards the end to create a swampy area. This is filled with a mangrove tree and some other plants and is also the outlet of the filter. i.e., the filtered water flows over the swamp and back into the pond. The whole back of the pond is surrounded by rocks over which a river/waterfall runs and eventually ends in the middle of the pond through half a tree trunk.

It is absolutely amazing to see this micro climate in my garden. I have various birds coming on a daily basis to take a bath, I got frogs, dragon flies and a family of lizards dat have done their baby thing. Unfortunately, I also had snakes snacking on the fish, but I think I got this under control now...

All in all not a bad result for someone who knows absolutely nothing about gardening. Now, as the title suggests, I am starting to have some issues with algae. Not so much in the pond, but more in the swamp area and on the rock where the water falls down into the pond. I have looked at various solution suggestion by people, but since my knowledge is rather limited and I worry that the combination of swamp, tropics, waterfall and wood may make things a little more complicated, I figured I should ask before I start experimenting myself.View attachment 154224

The attached picture is about a month old, I will take a new picture tomorrow when it is light again.

Does any of you have an idea how to attack the algae here? If you have any questions before you can say something, please let me know and I will try my best to answer you.

Edit: In case you wonder what the small canal is made out of terracotta bricks? My roof does not have a rain gutter. I need to get that sorted, but this was just a quick fix for this. The little canal you see allows for the rain to flow away through the canal from top to the bottom corner. From that corner there is a slightly larger drainage pipe that takes excess water to the corner of the garden where there is a proper water sewer system bringing it in piping that runs under the street. You also see a small section of 'Canal' running from the fishpond to the bottom corner of the canal. This is to make sure that if the fishpond overflows in heavy rain, this too will be drained into this same canal. The reason I have done it as simple as this is simply because it overgrows very quickly. And the end result will be that the canal is overgrown for the most part, but the water can still flow away.

And for those wondering, yes, all this makes this a high maintenance fish pond, but that is fine. No complaints there.

Beautiful!!

 

[cas]

A good fish for small ponds are fan tails.

I wish I would have known this when I started up my pond in 2004. Pond stores only sold Koi and large goldfish. I guess they thought bigger was better. I didn't think that fan tails would be hardy enough for outside.

 

[bagsmom]

What a beautiful pond! I have noticed my algae increases if I feed the fish. My pond is less than a year old, so it is still "immature" and has not yet balanced. They have plenty to eat in the pond but it is just so fun to watch them play with the food. I don't give them much and I don't feed often - but if I do, I notice an increase in the algae within a day or two.
I have rosy red minnows - native to my area - to help eat mosquito larvae. They do a wonderful job but they also multiply like crazy! I think there was just another spawning event, based on the appearance of foam in the intake bay. (They need to settle down!!!!) I have 8 goldfish but no fry. Tons of minnows and minnow babies. I bet they are eating goldfish eggs. I know they are also contributing to the amount of waste in the pond.
Just sharing this let you know my situation and how it affects the growth of algae.
As someone else said, it will be fun to see pictures of your pond when the rest of us are in the boring, cold months of winter!

 

[addy1]

I wish I would have known this when I started up my pond in 2004. Pond stores only sold Koi and large goldfish. I guess they thought bigger was better. I didn't think that fan tails would be hardy enough for outside.

Mine survive with no issues. I had some nice big ones in the 1000 gl pond, which froze over etc. I use a pond breather. They did great until the Heron arrived, in January, found a hole in the net, wiped out 50% of the fish. All fantails gone. Now just have them in my hottub pond, deer fencing net over it. It also freezes, pond breather in during the winter.

 

[Tula]

Didn't @sissy also keep fantails.....thing she called them "wiggle butts"

@cas I too would have chosen differently when selecting fish if I'd known how long koi live.