City tap water creating Algae?

[crsublette]

The second post below is a post I made in another "water change" (post#378) thread, and I think this post is a point that needs to be made to folk when considering to do a water change. My point is NOT to make people paranoid about doing water changes. There are also incidents of source water being high in nitrates (if not municipal water) or high in ammonia through chloramine (if using municipal water).

Also, water changes dilute the floating variant of beneficial microbial that help to keep your pond "clean". In a perfectly constructed pond (in the eyes of waste management or nishikigoi hobby), solids are instantly removed from the water column soon after they are created by the fish and environment, but this is not true for all ponds, especially water garden ponds. In a less perfectly built pond (a pond to emulate nature), that does not efficiently extract fish and other solids from the pond, then allowing the floating microbial (such as various planktons), by not using UV nor water changes, to help clean your pond is a good thing.

I think there is much merit in doing or not doing water changes... which is all quite circumstantial... This is a potentially excellent reason why to avoid doing significant water changes.

My point is for folk to think about what they are doing before doing it.

 

[crsublette]

In a previous post here (in that "water change" thread) someone mentioned about phosphates in tap water potentially contributing to algae growth... In process of organizing my digital library, I came across the below article by Skeptical Aquarist.

Definitely something to think about if you are using municipal water for water changes.


http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/phosphate-cycle

Quote from above article :

"Tapwater polyphosphates. It's not so easy to eliminate the phosphates that enter your system in your tapwater. Long-chain polyphosphates are often added to the public water supply, both for protecting water mains from corrosion and carbonate scale and also for some softening effect, when the PO4 renders calcium or magnesium ions inactive by sequestering them. These chain forms of PO4 are orthophosphates, which are available for plant and algal uptake. Protecting these useful added phosphates is the reason it's illegal to dump ferric chloride FeCl (see below) in your drain."

 

[Meyer Jordan]

For any one who believes that municipal water does not carry enough nutrients to support algae, I propose a simple test. Fill a glass with tap water; place it in a sunny window or other well-lit location; wait a few days and, Voila! Algae. Quite likely both sessile and planktonic.

 

[Fishwatcher]

I can confirm this; however I wonder how else one refills a pond? I use the hose on my pond daily, to keep it oxygenated and fresh.
any algea growth i can easily scoop out by hand... is there a way to deal with the chemicals in the water? I just assumed a little each day would not disturb the goldfish too much..

 

[sissy]

I use my old well pump filter it hooks on the hose and I use either a charcoal filter or paper one in it .But all water will cause algae .I over oxygenate my pond with an aerator and spitters that keep it cleaner .I have read a lot about over oxygenated ponds and have been improving my pond with this idea and it does work .I have 12 air stones and the laguna aerator and 3 spitters i made up and it does work .Even my waterfall pond gets a spitter