My Green Pond

[Anthony]

I know this post is redundant but my details are a bit different so here it is.
I have a newly finished liner pond with a capacity of 3,200 gallons running an Aquasurge 5000 pump in a Aquascape Signature Series Skimmer that is pushing around the same 3,200 gallons with the head factored in to a short stream/waterfall for return.
I have no form of filtration other than the white pad in the skimmer and the minor trickle effect filtration generated by the stream/waterfall.
The top shelf is rocked but not the bottom of the pond and I have no plants or fish as of yet.
I filled the pond 16 days ago and 10 days after that it turned green with suspended algae, I have used no chemicals or additives but am considering barley extract. I am also considering a UV but am confused as to which one to buy as there are many bad reviews for most I have researched, I also considered an IonGen but again, many bad reviews even on the company's own forum.
Any thoughts?
Anthony

 

[sissy]

It shall pass new pond system needs time and you just need to be patient and try better filtration to pick up the fine stuff

 

[koiguy1969]

i would venture a guess that some, if not many of the bad reviews are due to improper installation of the U.V., undersizing of unit, or pushing too much water thru it. (to fast)... U.Vs are safe, and extremely effective. and once your water is clear, you can run it an extra few days, and turn it off. and leave it off, usually for the rest of the season, and save the bulb.
i would however not buy a unit that doesnt use a quartz sleeve. quartz sleeves are tuned for U.V use. regular glass is not made for the spectrum of light given off by U.V bulbs and is quite inefficient at allowing it to pass thru.minimizing effectiveness.

 

[crsublette]

Go the UV route and follow koiguy1969 recommendation. As koiguy mentions, it is very uneccessary to run the bulb 24/7 plus; if ya do you, then the bulb will likely only last a couple of months.

This type of algae comes and goes. You will always have it unless you want to run the expense of buying new bulbs from running the UV 24/7. These types of algaes are only a nuisance whenever it grows so much where they make the cloudy green appearance. Takes around 3~9 days for the UV bulbs to kill enough algae that will clear the water.

Eventually, as other types of algae grow in your stream or pond bottom, you will experience less noticeable appearances of the photoplanktonic or suspended algae.

 

[crsublette]

UV route is the easiest and UV might be the cheapest route.

You can also do a constant water change by implementing a "trickle water change system". Ya simply connect one of those landscape drip emiters to a hose, put the emiter into your pond, and leave the hose on. Quick example: one 2gph dripper will put out 336 gallons within a week (168 hours total in a week). The excess water, old water, will dump out of your pond overflow. So, for a 3200 gallon pond, a 2gph dripper will do a 10.5% weekly water change. Connect 3 of the 2gph drippers and it will do a 31.5% water change. Most ponds have an overflow, a low section at a border or type of standpipe, which allows excess water, such as from heavy rains, to dump out at a desired location.

The exchange of water is so slow that you do not need to worry about using dechlorinator to treat chlorine since chlorine naturally evaporates, BUT chloramine does not evaporate. So, if you are using city water, test your water or ask someone who knows if the city uses chloramine or chlorine. If ya hook up a chloramine rated carbon filter to filter out the chloramine, then it will remove the chloramine BUT chloramine also binds ammonia so, when chloramine is removed, the extra ammonia is let free; so, you might want to build your self a bio-filter that will process the extra ammonia or get some ammonia binder chemical if you register any amount higher than .25ppm on an ammonia test kit or ya might not need to worry if you have a healthy load of algae present.

 

[crsublette]

Barley extract is a "hit or miss" product. There are products ya should be skeptical about when it comes to ponding. Alot of gimmiky stuff out there, which do work in a very resctrictive scope.

One theory is that Barley component decomposing eventually creates Hydrogen Peroxide. Hydrogen Peroxide can kill algae but also it kills anything else it latches onto including beneficial bacteria.

Other theory is that Barley feeds heterotroph or other type of bacteria, which are fragile where they grow, and these bacteria consuming the barley decomposition creates a type of allelopathic chemical that deters the growth of particular algae species.

Don't be fooled. These thesis' about Barley are still open to more research and experimentation due to all of the unkowns in this arena.

Don't be suprised when Barley extract does not work quick if it works at all.

 

[JohnHuff]

Your pond needs to cycle and the green stage will pass. Barley has never worked for me. I don't like UV because it's unnatural and it will kill good bacteria that passes though it as well.

 

[Waterbug]

am considering barley extract.

Does it sound to you like something that would work? If yes then you should use it. It's a cheap enough lesson. Many people certainly say it works.

Since ponds often clear on their own there's every chance that the pond will clear in the 6-8 weeks barley is said to work, so to you the barley will have worked. Lately I've seen barley sellers are no longer giving the 6-8 week time table and instead say you keep applying it until the pond clears which I think is a much better selling tactic. You keep buying product, and they don't even have to commit to a timeline. BTW, barley was originally only suppose to kill string algae, not suspended algae. However that hasn't stopped sellers and buyers over the years to drop "string" and believe it works on all algae. The history of selling barley if you're interested.

I am also considering a UV but am confused as to which one to buy as there are many bad reviews for most I have researched

UV is a problem for a lot of people. UV requires a bit of knowledge like understanding what "flow rate" means, knowing what "flow rate" a person's pump has, knowing the size of their pond, and being able to install the unit correctly. These things are pretty easy for most humans to figure out but many people are either unwilling or think for some reason all the figuring is not needed. Manufacturers have responded to this demand by dropping most of the complex specs and wrap the UV in various kinds of combo - do all - filters. It's just what most people are looking for...cheap and no big words. Sometimes these work, often they don't. No problem for manufacturers because these same people rarely can be bothered to return product. At most a few will post a negative review some place.

If you search for UV units that don't target novice users you will see much better reviews. These manufacturers will provide a lot of info. If you have the time and desire to understand that info you can pick a unit for your pond and after installed properly your pond will clear in 3-5 days. I like AquaUV but many people find them far to complex.

If you can find a good pond installer, which is harder than finding a good UV imo, they've done the research and can properly install a UV. They should guarantee clear water in 7 days or so.

I also considered an IonGen but again, many bad reviews even on the company's own forum.

If you look at how these work and the requirements for how these are to be used you'll understand the bad reviews. These can only be used in water that is already clear. They can't handle an existing algae load. These original came from use in swimming pools and were to reduce chemicals as the ion generator could keep a clear pool clear. If you search add "swimming pool" to your search you'll see more bad reviews.

 

[Anthony]

Many thanks for all for your thoughtful responses. I think I will go the UV route and use it as suggested, only when needed and will stay away from the barley.
Regarding the constant water change what is the recommended volume to be changed per week?

 

[crsublette]

Oh, all depends on who ya ask. Some only do it when a problem arises. Some never do it. Some do only a 15% monthly water change or do a very small water change by flushing out filters. Some with aquariums or small ponds or quarantine tanks do 10% or higher weekly or daily water changes.

All depends on what ya can afford.

Avoid doing big water changes at one since this will most likely cause a pH swing. Water naturally becomes softer over time; so, if you source water is hard, then big water changes will cause a slight bump in pH. A pH swing of anywhere from .2~.5 within 24 hours stress fish's immune system; some believe the swing can be wider. Slow, over a long period, water change avoids the pH swing problem.

 

[Waterbug]

Recommendations do vary. They vary either because of different goals or simply people just saying whatever sounds good or repeating what they think they might have heard someplace like at a bar.

That trickle water changes can clear algae blooms is a fairly new idea and there hasn't been a lot of data on different ponds, climates, etc. So currently I'd say it isn't well understood how much water change is required for clear water. But here's a couple of sources that can give you some ideas.

Here's Dr. Erik Johnson talking about water garden type ponds on trickle water changes. He's recommending 10% per week and I'd say this would be the minimum type range of water changes. He is saying this rate will keep water clear, but your results may vary.

Here's Andy Moo, starting at 7:25, suggesting 10% per day. His goals are much different but it does show you what I'd consider a maximum water change rate. He doesn't mention keeping water clear as for him and his ponds that's kind of a given.

 

[crsublette]

Nice WB, i've never seen that andrewskoi video, good stuff.

andrewskoi video at 8:45 explains how I deal with my overflow from the trickle water change. Using the overflow water to water my landscape. I went a little different from andrewskoi. My overflow goes into a seperate chamber, seperate from any settlement or other type of filter chamber, to avoid accidentally pond drainings. Never know when the float, or other type of pump switches, will fail keeping them on. If the switch fails, then it only drians the water in my seperate overflow chamber instead of the entire pond.

From my 435 gallon water feature, I do a 30% weekly water change and use this 130 gallons to water my trees. I am thinking about getting a 1/4" booster pump, with a pressure switch, so that when my overflow pump turns on, the booster pump will create the pressure needed for 1/4" drip irrigation operation, which is around 15~35%psi minimum depending on the type of emiter.

I didn't think of it, but I would create a runoff route from the overflowchamber just in case the pump does get damaged, no longer operating.


Heck, gonna pay the water bill to water trees, flower beds, and gardens anyways. So, might as well keep a high trickle rate always on in the pond then let the overflow chamber water your landscape with some good nutient rich water.

 

[Anthony]

I would guess the higher amounts would be necessary depending on fish load.
Moo's video is about growing big koi which means lots of food which equals high nitrates, requiring more water changed.

Any ideas on how to prefilter the water before running it thru the UV?

 

[crsublette]

Hmmm, typically UVs are installed after mechanical filters. I bet the filtration in the skimmer is good enough.

Just install it in parallel with the line, after the skimmer, where the water gets pushed into your waterfall. Have some valves there so you can be sure the UV has proper flow and some union joints so you can quickly and easily remove the UV, cap off the parallel line, when ya don't need to use it. I would probably cover this area with a lawn irrigation sprinkler valve box, if the pipe is underground. Most of the time installing a UV is guess work unless ya have a flow meter. First, after factoring head flow loss, guess on what your flow rate that will be pushed through the UV, which appears ya have guessed is 3200. Then get a UV that can handle 3200 gph. If the UV has not cleared the floating algae within a few days, then the flow through the UV is too high or the UV is too small.

Once the water's ecosystem can not sustain the algae, for one reason or another, then it will "suddenly collapse", or die off; so, this might occur before you can fine tune UV if you are have issues with it.

Water ecosystem can tolerate extremely high levels, some say 80ppm, 100ppm, or 200ppm, of Nitrates before poisoning to fish or to bacteria depending on who you talking to about the subject. Pond with many plants will rarely see Nitrates this high unless your fish load or feeding is extremely high. Nitrates naturally oxidize out of the water, but this can be a lengthy process when not supplemented. If you do not want to push the limits of your pond's water volume ecosystem, then ya probably can get away with never, or very little, doing water changes or just allow heavy rains to do water changes.

Water changes is all about controlling the water chemistry. Water changes can add or removes phosphates, KH, GH, pH, dissolved organics, and dillutes or increases other stuff in the water, depending on your source water. I like to think of doing water changes as being proactive and controlling of what is allowed to remain floating, or dissolved, in the water; my source water comes from a 55 gallon barrel where I pretreat my tap water to raise or lower KH/GH.

 

[Waterbug]

Moo's video is about growing big koi which means lots of food which equals high nitrates, requiring more water changed.

His type of pond has lots of water issues including nitrate. But at 10% day he's really trying to deal with even more pressing issues like even pheromones. Things water gardens rarely have to be concerned about.