No shade

[stonecreek1]

good morning.
I am looking for a bit of advice. Our pond is going to be 4 years old and it is 20,000 gallons. The first two years we had very little trouble with clarity. Last year In February, we suffered a tornado coming through our property. It completely tore out the pine trees that went around the exterior of the backside of the pond which kept it shaded until about 12 pm. Then the sun would go behind trees on the other side by around 4 pm. So we had perfect amounts of light to keep the clarity in check. Last year with the trees gone, the pond is getting direct sun by 8:30 in the morning until 4 pm. We Absolutely had a terrible time keeping it clear. We had two UV lights running at all times. I had the Bioverse balls in there all season, changing every 30 days. We have two filters in the pump box and two large filters at the falls. The filters in the pump box would be so full of floating algae within every 3-4 days we would have to hose off to keep it from disturbing the water flow into the pump! This is hardly ideal and I am sure we were disturbing the good bacteria by so much maintenance. But even with that maintenance, water was cloudy most all the season. I am not a huge chemical junkie, so I am at a loss as to how to help have a successful clear pond season without having to add algae-fix every few days (which never gave us clarity like we had before). Right now the water is like pea soup. With 20,000 gallons it is overwhelming how to fix this. HELP!!!!!

 

[Jhn]

Do you have any plants in the pond? Lilies, oxygenating plants like hornwort, anacharis, marginals etc. plants will starve out the various undesirable forms of algae.

How much circulation do you have? shooting for 1.5-2x pond volume.

My pond gets sun all day long as well. However, it has a lot of plants in it that consume the available nutrients starving out the algae. The pond has never had a problem with free floating algae even in early spring.

 

[Lisak1]

More plants would be my suggestion, too. Our pond is in full sun all day long and we have no issues with clarity. Lots of lily pads to provide shade for the fish and lots of plants to eat up the nutrients in the pond.

 

[addy1]

My pond is full sun from sunrise to 1/2 hour before sunset. This is what my water looks like mid summer. At the five foot deep area, you can see the hornwort on the bottom lower right.
I filter with only plants, a large bog filled with plants, no UV.

No other filter, seldom clean the pond, no chemicals added.

 

[MitchM]

20,000 gallons is a very large pond.
What do you have for circulation?
What is your fish population?
I'm wondering if you've had a buildup of detritus over the years and it's coming back to bite you now.

 

[bagsmom]

One other thought -- many have discussed elsewhere that this is the time of year when things are getting back in balance. I have algae right now and the water clarity varies. You are probably still quite cold up there, too. I wonder if - as Lisa said - putting in sun-loving lilies will help. It will take some patience to wait for them to get up and growing, but when they do, I would guess they will help a lot! Good luck!

 

[RobAmy]

20,000 gallons

We want pictures From the small picture your stream looks really nice.

 

[stonecreek1]

Thanks everyone. We have Water iris planted in both the shallow ends. I have three potted lilies in it and I could definitely put in more. Some one gave me water celery that I regret planting! It has taken over all the rock edges. Every year I get annual plants such as hyacinths. I have trouble buying plants around here because I don’t like that the local pond stores have all their plants in tanks with fish. I always fear bringing some type of disease home.
We have a large 5800 gph pump. I also have a big aerator that runs 24/7 to keep things from settling on the bottom. The falls have two large media filters and then two big bags of the sponge filters.
We have a pretty large fish load. My fish breed and I regretfully have trouble getting rid of them. They are all kind of my babies. These are pics from when the water was clear. I really appreciate all the advice all of you are giving. I could take a picture tomorrow of the current water condition. It is green and you cannot see the fish. We kept the aeration going all winter so it didn’t freeze over but we pull the pump and turn off the falls each winter.

 

[Becky]

You have a beautiful waterfall!

 

[MitchM]

I think a couple of things are contributing to the nuisance algae showing up.
-Your water circulation is not sufficient to keep detritus suspended long enough to be captured and removed from your filters. The detritus is decomposing and adding nutrients to the water column along with the waste from your fish population.
-This time of year algae will develop before more complex plants have a chance to grow and consume the nutrients

I'm assuming this is a rubber lined pond. It would benefit greatly from more water circulation than you presently have.

Could there be there any surface runoff entering the pond from the surrounding yard?
Are you feeding the fish? If so, stop. There is plenty of natural food available for them and you don't want string algae to become your next challenge.

Post water test results if you have them.

 

[stonecreek1]

You have a beautiful waterfall!

Thank you!

 

[stonecreek1]

I think a couple of things are contributing to the nuisance algae showing up.
-Your water circulation is not sufficient to keep detritus suspended long enough to be captured and removed from your filters. The detritus is decomposing and adding nutrients to the water column along with the waste from your fish population.
-This time of year algae will develop before more complex plants have a chance to grow and consume the nutrients

I'm assuming this is a rubber lined pond. It would benefit greatly from more water circulation than you presently have.

Could there be there any surface runoff entering the pond from the surrounding yard?
Are you feeding the fish? If so, stop. There is plenty of natural food available for them and you don't want string algae to become your next challenge.

Post water test results if you have them.

Thank you. I will do some research on that to see what I come up with. The circulation does move pretty good. If you send a leaf down the falls it will be in the pump box within about two minutes. It is a black liner. No rocks on the bottom. We do feed the fish. Once a day when the temp is sufficient. We feed enough that the food is completely consumed within a few minutes and there is no leftovers.
I haven’t taken a water test yet this year. We are still at about 35-45 degree water temp. So I was reaching out to try to get help before getting it ready for spring. We have very little debris as in leaves that get in there so I just bet the few from the bottom in the spring. We don’t have any run off. The pond is elevated above ground level and we put a drainage pipe around the exterior.

 

[MitchM]

ok.
The thing with pellet food for fish is that it contains a lot of phosphorous, and phosphorous is the main fuel for string algae growth. Overgrowth of string algae is much more difficult to deal with than planktonic (floating) algae.
If nuisance algae is new to you after 4 years, then your pond is telling you that your present nutrient export system is insufficient.

 

[stonecreek1]

ok.
The thing with pellet food for fish is that it contains a lot of phosphorous, and phosphorous is the main fuel for string algae growth. Overgrowth of string algae is much more difficult to deal with than planktonic (floating) algae.
If nuisance algae is new to you after 4 years, then your pond is telling you that your present nutrient export system is insufficient.

So would you suggest more plants also?

 

[Lisak1]

"Nutrient export system" - I like that!