Green pond water

[Troutredds]

It's just two 18,000 lph pumps side by side pumping the water to the bottom of my bog.


Do you think those rates of turnover are too much?

It's just two of these pond pumps:
https://www.allpondsolutions.co.uk/18000lh/

Those look nice. You should be fine. I realize now that the 18,000 lph figure is most likely based on zero head height - head height being the amount your water travels vertically to be recirculated. For instance, our external pump is rated at 14000 gallons per hour, at zero or no head height, but only 12500 gph at five feet of head. Our flow rate, reduced by head height and other factors, is around 10000 gallons per hour. Plumbing diameter, elbows in your plumbing, the force needed to pump water through various filters, etc. etc. - these things all ultimately restrict your actual flow rate.

Trout enjoy the well-oxygenated, higher rate of pond turnover but beware - small fish may be sucked into your pump intakes or pushed under your bog by the strong current. Make arrangements to prevent this before introducing fish. Here’s one of our rainbows:

 

[Steve2324]

They look great.
Yeah I calculated the actual flow rate to be around 30,000 lph including the factors such as head and pipe although one thing I was not sure on for head hight so you calculate head above water surface or head above the pump?

I always thought it would be from the water surface and that's how i got my calculations.

What can I do to prevent small fish being sucked in?

 

[Troutredds]

Head elevation is measured from the water’s surface to the top of your spillway. Place some type of permeable barrier at your pump’s suction intakes to prevent vacuuming up your fish. Experiment with mesh/netting or other filtering material.

 

[Sparky]

Well I wanted colourful minnows so the ones I have are actually rainbow shiners - not technically a minnow but very similar. They cost 7 pounds each in uk money but I've just been looking for a simple minnow supplier and it's still 2 pound each and I reckon I'd need a lot more than 10 minnows to make a difference so our price is nearly 3 usd per minnow I could probably go down the local river and figure out how to catch a bucket full. I might do that

Wow! For shiners? They are neat looking and really popular bait here. Actually there are some cool minnows out there. The northern mudminnow being a favorite. Can’t wait to see the project.

 

[Sparky]

Gah what a beautiful fish! The above trout.

 

[Steve2324]

Wow! For shiners? They are neat looking and really popular bait here. Actually there are some cool minnows out there. The northern mudminnow being a favorite. Can’t wait to see the project.

I can't find many sellers of decent cold water fish here. All fish stores seem to sell basic goldfish, koi or exotic fish for indoor tanks.

I have 5 rainbow shiners in a 100l aquarium atm heated to 25c hoping they start breeding but at the moment they havnt even coloured up yet.

I can't find much information on how to get them to breed so I could be waiting a year
Anyone here have any knowledge of them?

I think the reason we don't have cheap buckets of bait is because we're not allowed to use live bait from another body of water.

We are only allowed to use live bait caught from the place ur fishing. I believe it's silly environmental laws here. So nobody mass breeds minnows for that

 

[Jhn]

Assuming you have Notropsis Chrosomus, is a minnow found in streams in the southern U.S. Mimic their native habitat, ie put a power head against one side of the aquarium and have it blow across the length of the tank. Maintaining water quality and they should spawn.

Keep in mind they are egg scatterers, so they will eat a lot of the eggs unless you can figure out a way to separate them from the eggs.

I would lower the water temp to the lower 70’s (Fahrenheit) since they are a cold water fish, as well.

I can understand laws not allowing non native species for bait or release in general. If they didnt create these laws, there would be the potential for non native species gaining footholds where they don’t belong outcompeting native species for available food and habitat. Have seen it happen numerous times here in the United States, whether accidental or intentional release. Once the non native species gain a foothold it is impossible to get them out.

 

[Steve2324]

Assuming you have Notropsis Chrosomus, is a minnow found in streams in the southern U.S. Mimic their native habitat, ie put a power head against one side of the aquarium and have it blow across the length of the tank. Maintaining water quality and they should spawn.

Keep in mind they are egg scatterers, so they will eat a lot of the eggs unless you can figure out a way to separate them from the eggs.

I would lower the water temp to the lower 70’s (Fahrenheit) since they are a cold water fish, as well.

I can understand laws not allowing non native species for bait or release in general. If they didnt create these laws, there would be the potential for non native species gaining footholds where they don’t belong outcompeting native species for available food and habitat. Have seen it happen numerous times here in the United States, whether accidental or intentional release. Once the non native species gain a foothold it is impossible to get them out.

When I see them colour up I'll put them in a sort of basket on the top of the tank with holes in the bottom so the eggs fall through.

I have an air pump pushing 10lpm through a small filter which causes a good flow.

What kind of power head do you recommend?

 

[Jhn]

Just anything that moves water, to create flow mimicking a flowing stream.

I’ve used maxi jet and seio in the past and are pretty inexpensive. I would get one that magnet mounts on the side of the tank. Suction cups eventually fail.

 

[Steve2324]

Yeah I think what I already have does exactly that it basically uses air to create an airlift pump and pushes out the air and the water on the surface of the water and creates a good flow.

I've went out today and bought 20 canary goldfish for the pond so that the plants get the nutrients they need to keep them growing. They are currently about 2 inches so not sure how big they will be by November when I get the trout.

The guy in the store seemed to think they would be 6-7 inches by end of summer if we have a decent summer this year... I don't know if that's the case but that will make sure the trout can't eat them

 

[Steve2324]

Since putting in those gold fish a new potential problem has come to light.

Due to the shape of the pond there is some quite large folds which aren't getting pushed back by the force of the water. They are hiding in that fold.

Could this cause any problems for larger fish or will they be ok?

 

[Steve2324]

I've done a water test and I have 0 nitrates in the pond.

People say adding plants starves the algae of nitrates so you don't have green water.

Can someone explain to me them how my water is green and I can't see very deep now even though my nitrates are 0?

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

Found this article you might find interesting, but the take away for me was the following quote:

"At first, to know what causes algae, we’ll have to know about algae. There are normally two stages of every type of algae. The first stage is algae spore and the later one is algae. You can compare it to a butterfly. The first stage of the butterfly is a caterpillar and the later one is a full grown butterfly. We know, that the characteristics of the caterpillar are different from the butterfly. Caterpillar lives on vegetation, but a butterfly doesn’t. Similar is the case with algae. Algae spores eat ammonia while full grown algae eats nitrate and phosphate."

http://www.aquariumplantfertilizer.com/2016/12/which-one-causes-algae-nitrate.html

 

[Steve2324]

Found this article you might find interesting, but the take away for me was the following quote:

"At first, to know what causes algae, we’ll have to know about algae. There are normally two stages of every type of algae. The first stage is algae spore and the later one is algae. You can compare it to a butterfly. The first stage of the butterfly is a caterpillar and the later one is a full grown butterfly. We know, that the characteristics of the caterpillar are different from the butterfly. Caterpillar lives on vegetation, but a butterfly doesn’t. Similar is the case with algae. Algae spores eat ammonia while full grown algae eats nitrate and phosphate."

http://www.aquariumplantfertilizer.com/2016/12/which-one-causes-algae-nitrate.html

But my ammonia is 0 aswell lol.

I wondering if I should bite the bullet and get UV

 

[Jhn]

The algae is consuming your nitrates which is why you are getting a zero reading. Algae is beneficial to the pond as it is establishing itself or even if it gets out of balance down the road. Patience, it will clear on its own.

It’s not just consuming nutrients in the pond, as I said before it is establishing the base of the food chain.

Free floating algae isn’t the only thing growing in the water, there is also phytoplankton establishing its population then will come zooplankton and so on. Using a UV will short circuit establishing a natural balance in the pond.