Algae problems in small pond

[DrDave]

I have some snake oil for sale. It cures everything.
Chemicals ooh:
I think that if I hear this pitch one more time you will be able to hear me scream over the Internet.

 

[mark]

Sadly Dave it's the way of the world. One can suggest a lot of things but nothing beats manual removal and patience. Unfortunately you usually have to say this over and over and over again for people to even notice above the quick fix. Theres nothing all that great about most quick fixes.

Mark

 

[DrDave]

Instant gratification from a bottle rather than an intelligent approach to proper pond care.

 

[mark]

And you hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately too many people struggle with the proper pond care part. For some reason (and bless the one's who do) most folks don't seem to research the build and design enough...they skimp on key equipment, overload the pond with fish, eh, I could go on...but they wonder why they have problems.

Your gift is your knowledge of how to set up and do things right...this will eliminate most if not all of the headaches right off the bat.

You need to write a book But give it a catchy title so newbies will actually read it.

 

[27goldfish]

The reason I was asking is that I had pea soup water just out of nowhere. The pond was clear as could be, then all of a sudden, bam, I had an algae pond. That is what threw me off. I would think with the filters I have that it would be enough.

 

[mark]

27,
Don't feel too bad about it. Pond are certainly dynamic and can fluctuate a lot on their own. My understanding is that some filters may not be able to filter out some single cell algae which is why people sometimes suggest UV, it clumps them together making filtration easier.

However if you were stable and clean before, there's no reason to believe that the pond won't go back to that in awhile. Maybe a bit of patience will be rewarded here. See how it goes.

Mark

 

[Billkeyups]

Last summer my new pond had string algae and green water. I have read many posts here and learned a lot. This year after increasing the number of lilies, shading with banana plants, adding trap door snails and most of all, feeding the fish MUCH less, I have fairly clear water. I also added barley / peat pellets from http://www.drsfostersmith.com/ and feel the barley and buffering of ph by the peat has helped. I think Mark is right, do it right and watch for overloading. I have about fifteen 5" - 7" pond goldfish and 25+ snails.

 

[lesliegs]

I started using Pond Magician and Magic Sinkers in my pond last June. The stuff is fantastic! After about 6 weeks the sludge in the bottom of my pond was gone. We could see the rocks and pebbles on the bottom again and the water stayed clear and algae free all summer. Until then we had tried everything to clear things up. It's expensive but definitely worth it. I highly recommend it for those of you having trouble keeping your pond looking clean and clear. My fish love the magic sinkers too!

 

[koiguy1969]

you wouldnt need to add things like that if you were to pull out the stone from the bottom of your pond...fish waste and decaying plant matter wouldnt accumulate between them and create the toxic mud that clouds, greens (feeds alge), and makes your pond a toilet for your fish to live in.chemicals, except in extreme emergencies are by nature just a bandaid and should be discouraged.i dont know the products you speak of, but if theyre anything more than bacterias and/or enzymes you may be creating a chemically dependant pond. dechlorinater if doing a waterchange 15%+ , and occasionally beneficial bacteria are the only things i pour in my pond.and you can read the news paper thru my water. there is NO replacement for a great, not just good biofilter.

 

[DrDave]

I started using Pond Magician and Magic Sinkers in my pond last June. The stuff is fantastic! After about 6 weeks the sludge in the bottom of my pond was gone. We could see the rocks and pebbles on the bottom again and the water stayed clear and algae free all summer. Until then we had tried everything to clear things up. It's expensive but definitely worth it. I highly recommend it for those of you having trouble keeping your pond looking clean and clear. My fish love the magic sinkers too!

Chemicals? We don't need no stinking chemicals?

 

[lesliegs]

Pond Magician is totally natural and organic. There are NO chemicals whatsoever. Do a search on it, the company is Effens. It is good for the fish and the plants. I also have a very good biofilter by Aquascapes. Since I want my pond to look as natural as possible, I don't want to see the liner on the bottom of my pond so I choose to have the rocks and pebbles.

 

[DrDave]

I would be amazed if you find anyone on the forum that will agree with rocks in the bottom of their pond. The liner will get a natural, yes natural coat of algae that looks like mother nature put it there because she did.

Your fish are swimming in a cesspool of their own poop and pee when you have rock in the bottom of the pond, that is unless you have a strong current sweeping it towards a bio filter.

This is not an argument you can win.

 

[lesliegs]

Ok then I lose.

 

[koikeepr]

koiguy, you and me have been doing lots of references to toilets lately! LOL!

The Doc and Koiguy are right. With the proper maintenance, there really is no need for these expensive filters. If you've got algae and green water, you need to figure out what the problem is, not keep pumping chems into the water. It just means you haven't addressed the issue. Sort of like putting a band-aid on a cut that you haven't properly washed out properly that keeps getting infected.

Algae blooms and green water can be caused by these such things:

1. your water parameters are off kilter
2. you don't do proper/enough water changes (see #1)
3. your pond is in the hot sun all day
4. you overfeed
5. you don't have enough filtration
6. you do a lazy job of maintaining the pond (ex: you don't quickly remove leaves when the they fall in, uneaten food, etc).
7. You have rocks in your pond where debris, food, etc rots and cannot be removed by the filtration you have in place.

Check these things carefully and eliminate them as a possibility affecting your pond. Then fix the problems. If all of these things are in perfect order and you still have green water, then you likely need a UV light. I do precisely because the previous owner built my pond in a place where it is in the hot sun most of the day. There's nothing I can do about this (can't move the pond). So, to deal with the issue I have a UV light in my system, and I therefore never get green water/algae.

And no one should have muck/sludge in their pond requiring "magic" stuff to eat it. If you do all the things above properly, you will never, ever get any detrius sitting in the bottom of your pond. It just won't happen.

 

[DrDave]

With a good 55 gallon Bio filter, the upflow takes long enough for the pea soup algae to sink to the sump where you dump it periodically. Mine is in full sun and I have no pea soup, ever. Having some floating plants like water lettuce help a lot for starters.
With my Doc Bio design, the 7000 little tubes make so much resistance for the particles, that they never make it to the top. The water has no problem rising and looks like bottled water coming out the overflow.