Hi all...my name is Willie Pete...I'm from the US..the Midwest...

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I know what you may have heard but we're not all crazy in the Midwest...I've built myself a 1000 gallon pond with two small waterfalls pumping about 800 gallons per hour... we've had a LOT of rain here in the Midwest the past month( currently 17 inches over the yearly average)...it's been messing with my water creating deadly algae blooms...my pond houses now 13 goldfish one of which is very old and about 7 inches long the other 12 probably about 1 year old....untill recently I had 15 goldfish but lost two old ones do to the algae blooms...so I'm a bit upset about that...there are also several mosquito fish in there to keep the mosquito larvae down and snails and frogs...never had a problem till this year currently doing algaecide treatment but what do I do if this doesn't work
 
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Welcome @Williepete ! I'm in the Midwest too, so I hear you on the rain... however, rain should NOT be causing "deadly" algae blooms or algae blooms of any kind for the tmatter, unless you have some kind of toxic runoff into your pond.

I'm going to encourage you to stop all algaecide treatments - they are indeed deadly to algae, but they will kill all the other microscopic life in your pond as well and, at a high enough dose, will even kill your fish. Let's talk about a few things and see what we can sort out.

1. You say "deadly algae blooms". What makes it deadly, or leads you to believe it's deadly? Is this string algae? Single cell floating algae? Describe it for us.

2. You've got a 1000 gallon pond but you're only moving 800 gallons per hour. Most would suggest 1.5 to 2 times turnover per hour. Can you up the turnover? Do you have aeration in the pond as well?

3. You have about 13 goldfish in your pond - not an incredibly high fish load, but you're still getting algae, so it's either too much nutrients in or not enough nutrients out. Do you have any plants in the pond? Do you feed the fish? If so, how often?

4. What kind of filtration are you using?

5. And lastly, although I'm not a big water tester, since you're having issues we should discuss water quality - do you test your water for ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, pH, GH, etc?

Lots of smart people here - I'm good at asking questions, and someone will surely know the answers!
 
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I rarely feed the the fish...when I do I feed them works from my backyard ...I always thought it was supposed to have at least half the volume of water turning over per hour...so that's a good lesson for me...I can definitely add more waterfalls...I love waterfalls and I have tons of rock and lots of places they would look good...my filtration is gravel and lava rock plus plants and little floating island planters made for the pond....as far as the algae blooms being deadly...I've had the pond 3 years...always had crystal clear water...since the rain the water has looked like pea soup and I've lost two of big goldfish in 3 days...who have until 3 days ago have thrived in the pond...and ive never tested the water...I need to purchase litmus strips
 
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A couple of other things...I made myself a muck sucker to suck the muck off the bottom of the pond and this year I've been doing that pretty regularly...like once a month....I clean debris out of thuroghly twice a year...leaves and twigs and all that...Im in the process of designing a wind powered aerator...don't know how much it'll help but I like the idea....do you think sucking the muck out so often is upsetting the balance I had going on
 
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OK - so worms. Haha!

Pea green water won't kill fish - they don't mind it a bit, and in fact often enjoy it because it makes them a bit less visible to predators and other things they may find threatening.

I do think it's possible that, if you had a good bit of muck built up on the bottom, that stirring it up could release gases that are deadly to fish. So that's one thought. But when older (and generally bigger) fish are dying, you would often suspect low oxygen. Killing off algae in a pond can reduce the oxygen for example. As fish get bigger, their oxygen requirements increase, so what worked before may not work now.

The most important thing to recognize is that the algae is NOT the problem - the algae is just the symptom of the problem. The real issue is excess nutrients in the pond. Identifying where those are coming from and addressing that will correct the problem. Too many fish is the number one cause. Too much organic material decaying in the pond could be another. Stirring it up like you have been doing may be causing the algae overgrowth. Is there still a lot of muck in the bottom? A good old pool net goes along way in scooping out leaves and other debris before it gets to the decaying stage.

Does all your water flow through your filter? When you say gravel and lava rocks, is this a biofalls in a waterfall box? Or how exactly is it set up? Plants in the pond are great for reducing nutrient load - do you have any directly in the pond or just the floating islands?

Lots of questions I know! But every bit of information will be helpful.
 
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It is like bio falls the water flows throw the gravel/lava rock filter...I have a few plants growing in the pond added the islands cause I didn't think there was enough...I've been planning to get cattails from my local creek but the flooding has been excessive so far this year...might get out there this weekend if the weather holds out...the muck at the bottom is good at this point...I could probably go the whole summer without sucking it out again...I was just so impressed with my sucker I made and it kind of became a fun thing to do....I like working on my pond I'm always trying to find something to improve it...I have plans for an expansion and untill I get the materials for that I'm constantly thinking of how it could be better or of little improvements I can make
 
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I know lots of folks in the midwest and the amount of rain is insane! Could the fish possibly be stressed (and some dying) due to a drastic change in pH from buckets of rain? That's just an idea. I'm in the south and we are soon to get bunches of rain ourselves, which we need badly!
 

j.w

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@Williepete
 
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I have thought about that ..just don't wanna lose my last big one...I rescued those fish from an old stock tank built into the side of a barn that sat on property a friend bought... thought I was doing them a favor...now I don't think that so much
 
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OK - so worms. Haha!

Pea green water won't kill fish - they don't mind it a bit, and in fact often enjoy it because it makes them a bit less visible to predators and other things they may find threatening.

I do think it's possible that, if you had a good bit of muck built up on the bottom, that stirring it up could release gases that are deadly to fish. So that's one thought. But when older (and generally bigger) fish are dying, you would often suspect low oxygen. Killing off algae in a pond can reduce the oxygen for example. As fish get bigger, their oxygen requirements increase, so what worked before may not work now.

The most important thing to recognize is that the algae is NOT the problem - the algae is just the symptom of the problem. The real issue is excess nutrients in the pond. Identifying where those are coming from and addressing that will correct the problem. Too many fish is the number one cause. Too much organic material decaying in the pond could be another. Stirring it up like you have been doing may be causing the algae overgrowth. Is there still a lot of muck in the bottom? A good old pool net goes along way in scooping out leaves and other debris before it gets to the decaying stage.

Does all your water flow through your filter? When you say gravel and lava rocks, is this a biofalls in a waterfall box? Or how exactly is it set up? Plants in the pond are great for reducing nutrient load - do you have any directly in the pond or just the floating islands?

Lots of questions I know! But every bit of information will be helpful.
Hey the worms...I have a compost pile so we get a lot of worms there...the fish love them!
 

addy1

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Welcome to our forum! Good advice up there^^^ and questions.
 
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Yes I'm loving wish I would've joined a long time ago...I really appreciate people taking a little time out of their day to help me with my issue...great forum!...I plan on stopping in regularly
 

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