Pea Green to Clear in one Day, Amazing

[Davidless]

Gotta tell ya, this pond stuff amazes me at times.

My water has been green and cloudy since opening in the spring. I refused to add any chemicals for control, other than the typical beneficial bacteria and plants, which aren’t chemicals of course. Even my plant coverage wasn’t sufficient yet and it gets 100% Sun. Just yesterday it went clear to I’d say 30” deep, before I couldn’t see down past 6”. Just last week I was contemplating buying a UV light. It can only get better as my plants grow and cover more pond area and use up more nutrients preventing the green stuff to grow.
Gotta say, plants and patients are the ticket to clear water, not chemicals.
And another exciting thing I noticed, my first lily bud coming up.
And another thing TADPOLES! Granted, not the green frog type, but toad poles, and that’s OK, still exciting.
Will get a picture once my Lillie flower opens
Thanks for reading
David :razz: :heartpump: :goldfish:

 

[Waterbug]

Plants are great and it is cool to see a pond suddenly clear.

The plants commonly get the credit for clearing a pond by removing nutrients. Doesn't really matter, but it's a myth. During a bloom green water algae consume all available nutrients to make new cells. Ammonia and nitrates will be zero. When the bloom dies a spike in ammonia is normally seen, although with a reasonable fish load the spike will be for only a short time (under a week). That's followed a couple of weeks later by a rise in nitrates. As the dead green water algae decompose more nutrients are released back into the water column. Much of the nutrient load will now be taken up by macroalgae (string algae, etc.) which came with the plants and are most likely who's actually responsible for the clear water and will be responsible for keeping nitrates down later.

Once a pond clears you can normally add as much fertilizer to the water as you like and you will not be able to get the water to turn green again. I've tried it when I was trying to grow green water algae. And from an experiment by Norm Meck if you pour your clear water into a sample of green water from another pond you will normally see algae in that sample die within a few hours. Your pond water is now toxic to green water algae. Chemicals produced by macroalgae. I think that's pretty cool.

But like Roddy Dangerfield they'll never get any respect.

 

[buckry]

That is cool.

 

[Davidless]

HUH? I think it's simpler to just say the plants did it. :razz:

David

 

[Waterbug]

Way simpler.

But it does confuse people who add plants and their pond doesn't clear. They think they're doing something wrong. Everything is simple when a pond is behaving great.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Once a pond clears you can normally add as much fertilizer to the water as you like and you will not be able to get the water to turn green again. I've tried it when I was trying to grow green water algae. And from an experiment by Norm Meck if you pour your clear water into a sample of green water from another pond you will normally see algae in that sample die within a few hours. Your pond water is now toxic to green water algae. Chemicals produced by macroalgae. I think that's pretty cool.

So Waterbug, why aren't you bottling and selling that pond water, could probably even get an "organic" rating on it that would appeal to the wholistic pond owners.

 

[addy1]

HUH? I think it's simpler to just say the plants did it. :razz:

David

lol David I never had green water, so the plants did it!

 

[Waterbug]

So Waterbug, why aren't you bottling and selling that pond water, could probably even get an "organic" rating on it that would appeal to the wholistic pond owners.

Since it takes 1 gal of clear water to kill the algae in 1 gal of green water, according to Norm Meck's experiments, I think the shipping cost would be a bit much.

 

[Coinr]

Waterbug, so do you know what causes the algae bloom to die?

 

[buckry]

You'd have to buy a tanker truck, that isn't out of line for a business. Coca Cola uses them to truck their bottled water all over the country before it gets bottled. Makes perfect sense to me.

 

[Waterbug]

Waterbug, so do you know what causes the algae bloom to die?

I don't know, only theory. Tests and experiments on a pond can eliminate some things. Like testing nutrient levels during a bloom and after a bloom normally shows a lack of nutrients is not the cause of a bloom dying. Adding fertilizer to a pond after a bloom dies generally won't turn the water green again. And Norm Meck's experiments certainly showed something showed up in the water that was toxic to single cell algae. His theory is the chemical is from bacteria and is possible. But I think macroalgae producing allelochemicals fits better, and is a known and not uncommon plant attribute. I try to get info from people when their pond clears but it's very difficult to get good answers back.

And of course there's the belief that water changes can bring back green water. That would fit although people give different reason why water changes would bring back green water.

It's possible a specific higher plant adds the chemical to the water, but no one has ever suggested a specific plant. And from my reading forums is seems like people are adding all kinds of different plants. The chances of a lots of plants doing this seems even more remote.

It's possible fish produce the chemical, but again, pretty remote chance I think. Bugs, remote. Hard to think of too many things that could and would produce such a chemical.

 

[ne3000]

interesting thread. I currently havr green water (new pond), it's not clearing yet, and I have been adding more plants (4 lililes and 2 have bloomed)

I measure 0 ppm nitrate, but can measure phosphate. so I have not nutrients for plants, I also get full sun. water hycinth are not growing as well as I would normally expect, I asssume lack of nitrate is the reason.

I have 6 Koi all doing well.

I am still waiting for signs of clearing, I have uv on the way to speed up the die off. After reading above I am not have success with clearing by simple killing algea with UV.

Any suggestions.?

 

[Waterbug]

Thank you for the data on nitrate. Did you measure ammonia?

water hycinth are not growing as well as I would normally expect, I asssume lack of nitrate is the reason. I have 6 Koi all doing well.

In addition to the lack of nitrate the fish could be nibbling the roots. You can move one plant into a tank of pond water away from fish to see if that improves growth to tell if it was the fish.

I am still waiting for signs of clearing, I have uv on the way to speed up the die off. After reading above I am not have success with clearing by simple killing algea with UV.

I couldn't understand this sentence. Sounds like you waiting for a UV to be delivered and also have one installed and not working?

 

[Frankp]

Great to hear Davidless, mine has finally cleared as well. Everything was going fine then overnight (almost) I had green water. I'm not one for patience so purchased a UV light and within a few days it was cleared up. I have Koi and tried plants much to their delight. They thoroughly enjoyed destroying them, so have put them in plastic baskets which are just below the surface of the water and so far so good.

 

[Coinr]

ne3000,
I can relate to your problem. I have a newer pond also. Added some fish, added some plants, hooked up pumps (with built in uv) and a waterfall. It was a little cloudy, started to clear up and then overnight (or at least it seamed like) I had an algae bloom aka pea soup water. My water tested fine and with the uv pumps going I don't think this should have happened.

Anyway, after a few days my wife pointed out that we had used an algaecide for an aquarium in the house once before. it seemed to work inside so I bought some listed for ponds and used it. After about three days the water started to clear and within a couple of more days it's almost crystal clear. I also started using quilt batting in my skimmer and at the top of the waterfalls. It does a wonderful job of removing smaller particles that make it through the filter. It's one of many things I've learned on these forums.

I must say I don't really know why the algae cleared up. Was it the uv lights that I thought should have prevented it in the first place, the algaecide or just mother nature running a coarse? I wish I knew for sure.

Also, anyone with better knowledge of uv lights relationship with algae blooms, more information would be appreciated.