Does a 7.5pH help control, not stop, string algae ? Way to lower pH below 8pH ?

[Valerie reddick]

OH my what are KH and GH ? Like I had said yesterday the friends of mine who have had a pond for yrs have never checked anything.

 

[sissy]

I have seen a few high end koi keepers and they prefer dirty water over crystal clear .There is one in NC and one here in VA and they seem to cherish the cloudy water .

 

[sissy]

I have a liquid test kit but also have a pet store that checks the water and it is 2.50 .They do the whole test gammit on the pond water .

 

[crsublette]

Waterbug, your examples just show algae is tough to eradicate or completely stop when fish and plants are present; this very intense level of control is not my goal.

I bet there are scenarios where, with the proper variables, where algae can just flat out fill an entire pond, depriving it of all oxygen, either due to too many fish or huge dump of organics by the wind and surroundings, oleeching materials, or other variables.

My question pertains to if pH is one of those variables, which appears it is a variable.

Is there a way to lower pH without lowering my KH ?? Does Muriatic acid lower pH without lowering KH ??

I just have a basic understanding of KH carbonate hardness. I got my API liquid test kit. KH179 and GH268.5. I understand there is a relationship between KH and pH through a type of buffering, but I do not understand exact level of detail involved that actually creates creating this relationship.

I would like to lower my pH but I am concerned about our soft pH rains, when we rarely get them, dropping my KH to the point of a pH crash. So, I am thinking having a healthy amount of KH is a good thing. Should I be concerned about this??

 

[crsublette]

Waterbug, do you still use 3% hydrogen peroxide weekly in your small pond??

I am reading the rest of your website, while driving a tractor , about HP.

I am thinking of starting to do a low dose weekly HP maintenance to help control the string algae.

 

[addy1]

I used it in my arizona pond for the string algae, it did a good job. this pond don't have the string algae issue

 

[Waterbug]

I only dosed that pond for 2 years to see the affect on plants and fish. HP is not something I would ever use to control algae outside of an experiment as there are way easier and better methods imo.

The lack of string algae in the experiment is no proof that string algae was stopped by the HP. I did see algae come back after the experiment, but a single data point can be more misleading than proof (I've been burned many times). The experiment was done back when pond forums were full of "experts" saying any HP would kill fish and plants. The experiment was only to test safety.

To test whether algae was killed I would have had to cycle HP dosing on and off to see if string algae went away when dosed and came back when not dose. The more that cycle repeated the more info you'd have. Even that would have only been data for a couple of species of string algae of which I assume there are 100s or 1000s. But I didn't do that experiment.

 

[crsublette]

Sounds like it noticeabley knocked back the algae. After reading your post on another thread, I am likely not going to take the HP route.