clear water

[onemean]

Hello all,

My new expanded pond is now a year old and after a tough start I had everything near perfect. My water was crystal clear until my 25 ft pear went down in a windstorm in March. My water is now green. I have two uv's a 25w agua, with a separate pump and a 30w homemade. I have around 4500 gallons. An aquascapes skimmer with two filter pads and a bag of bioballs.It empties into the largest waterfall they sell with 3 filter pads and several bags of bioballs. The pond has 3/4 sun nearly all day. The temps are around 65-75 degrees to this point. My question is should I install the giant 110w uv and lose the 55watts I currently have or do I need additional filtration? Or am I off base with both suggestions? I don't have many plants, a few lillies(the koi are destroying). I don't have any ledges so I cannot add any additional plants.. Or am I off base with both ideas? i don't want to replace the tree so the added sunlight on the pond will be here to stay. All of my water parameters are perfect, ph is a little high at 8. Thanks in advance.

 

[Waterbug]

55 watts should be able to clear 4500 gal given full strength bulbs and a proper water flow which just means slow enough that the water clears. Unless there's some other installation problem.

The additional sunlight may have caused a tipping point giving algae the upper hand and they killed whatever was keeping them in check. Hard to tell, can be a lot of things.

Do you have a string algae problem too? I'm guessing not. Bringing in plants can bring in string algae and that's my personal theory on one way ponds tip to clear. That the macroalgae produce a chemical to kill all microalgae.

The concept of plants sucking up nutrients and starving every single algae cell is a myth. Algae only need nutrients to build cells, they don't use nutrients for energy. So remove every bit of nitrates and phosphate from a green pond and the pond will stay green for a very long time, the cells are already built. They just won't be able to reproduce and will slowly die of old age. When a pond clears all that algae dies, decomposes, and releases all those nutrients back into the water....but the water stays clear. With all the new nutrients there should be a new bright green bloom, but there isn't, because something else causes the complete die off.

Green ponds will generally test 0 for nitrates...because there is a plant sucking up all the nutrients...the algae. Potted plants are last in line at the nutrient buffet. These plants can only grow because of the nutrients in the soil, media, they're planted in. If they had to rely on nutrients in the water they would be the ones starving, or rather, not growing.

In many ponds the UV can be turned off a few weeks after clearing a pond. They can stay off for months, even years. The UV kills the microalgae, which reduces the chemicals they produce to keep their attackers in check, so the attackers get the upper hand and can continue killing microalgae after the UV is off. No one knows for sure what is producing the killing chemical. Theories are bacteria and macroalgae. But the chemical being present has been demonstrated by Norm Meck by pouring water from a clear pond into a jar of green water and the algae dying almost on contact. And i have done experiments adding string algae to green water and the water clearing in a day, but sometimes it was the string algae that died.

So if you wanted to do something other than getting your UV working, or wanted a system more likely to produce the microalgae killing chemical, you could add a stream, or more stream, or a bog/veggie filter. You could also try a Trickle Tower or Shower filter. However all these are not 100% effective, they're hit and miss. No one knows for sure if these things are the cause of water clearing and certainly not how or why. Just seems to increase your odds.

 

[onemean]

Thank you for your response. I do have a string algae problem but only in the fall. A stream is not an option because of the location of the pond so I will need to explore other options.

 

[addy1]

Maybe put in a koi protected floating plant ring, check the diy section, just a floating ring with netting, fill it with plants, the plants will have room for good root growth before the fish can reach the roots that grow out of the netting. I have tons of plants and no string algae issues, full sun pond.

 

[wibble1001]

Sometimes I use aquaplancton - over the years it ranges from sorting out the green water for extremely long periods - or makes little difference- never worked out why it can varies - but its harmless to fish and fauna ...........

http://www.aquaplancton.co.uk/products.php

be interested what others that have used it think

 

[sissy]

I don't understand why you think your ph is high .Koi seem to like ph at 8 or 9 best and mine stays at 9 .and it has been over 8 years and not one major problem and no dead koi .

 

[onemean]

normally i'm at 7.5 on the ph so it is a little on the high side for me. I know it's not harmful, just a bit higher than I'm used to seeing.

 

[sissy]

you can keep it stable by using crushed oyster shells that they sell at tractor supply and it is used to make chicken eggs shells harder .I have been using it and for my koi I keep a stable 9 .Koi seem to thrive on a slightly higher ph .

 

[onemean]

I wish we had a tractor supply here. sounds like a cool store

 

[onemean]

I am envious of Sissy's water!

 

[j.w]

I get it at our co-op store here and you can prolly find it at any animal feed store.