Pea Green to Clear in one Day, Amazing

[Waterbug]

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

A UV properly sized, installed and maintained is 100% effect in killing green water algae. It's like tossing a piece of paper into a fire, it's going to burn 100% of the time. But tossing a piece of paper into an unlit fireplace is not going to do anything to the paper.

So if you have green water and a UV you have a few choices. Turn it off and save electric. Keep paying for electric. Fix the UV. There are tons of threads and web pages on fixing a UV. Nutshell version:

1. Make sure the UV is rated by the manufacturer for your pond size. Not a pond size that's a teeny bit bigger.

2. Make sure the amount of water flowing thru the UV isn't more than the manufacturer rates. Few people seem to know their pump's flow rate, or the UV's, and even "flow rate" gives some people problems. So lets keep it simple. Place a ball valve on the pipe or hose between the pump and UV. If you take you hose/pipe to the hardware store they can set you up. Close the valve a bit once a week to reduce the amount of water coming out of the UV. When the pond clears you have the correct flow. Greener ponds require slower flow because the UV can't penetrate the water as far.

If you have an "all in one" UV there should be a dial on it to turn down the flow. If yours doesn't have a dial you've been screwed.

3. Replace the bulb once a year. It being lit doesn't mean it's still emitting powerful UV rays.

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.

Algaecides, at least the ones that work, are toxic to fish. If directions are followed perfectly most Koi and Goldfish are able to survive for at least some period of time. They say "pond safe" because you wouldn't buy it otherwise. You can look up the product's material safety data sheet (MSDS) to see the real deal. That darn government people dislike so much makes them disclose the actual danger on the MSDS. Job creators sure could make a lot more money if they didn't have to disclose stuff to buyers.

Kind of like putting a "school" of 10 people into a closed garage with a car running. The flumes are toxic but it's "safe" unless the toxic levels get too high. If the levels get too high they won't all died at the same time. Sicker people go first. And just because all 10 people get out of the garage alive doesn't mean some won't die next week. Or the next time they get a cold and turns into pneumonia because their immune system was trashed in the garage.

 

[ne3000]

I just recieved my 55W UV for my 800 GPH pump so I should get a lot of contact time with water and this size of UV. I have had no improved with just plants and full sun pond. I will try UV and see what happens.

I will put quilt batting in the skimmer. My water is crazy green and all my other ponds I built would be growing plants and no algea by this time in July.

I decided it's time to do something to help the plants grow and cover the pond surface which is likely 99% of my issue now.

 

[Davidless]

Well, I got excited too soon, my water is cloudy again, although not pea green, just a murky cloudiness. I can see about 12” deep, my lilies are doing great while my water hycinth are very slow growing compared to last year. I got them from 2 different suppliers, so I don’t think it is the quality of plants.

My water tested good and I don’t want to add chemicals, I don’t want to invest in a UV light yet, sooo maybe it’s just all the sun we’ve been getting this year and the lack of plant pond surface coverage?

Fish are active and happy which is a good thing.

David

 

[addy1]

Happy fish is a good thing! hope mine are happy,

will be home in another 6 hours to check on them, last look pond covered with lilies lol

 

[Frankp]

A mistake I believe I was making was cleaning my filters too often. Is that possible? I think I may have been washing out all the good bacteria which kept my pond "cloudy". I stopped cleaning them as much after reading different articles and posts here and it seems to have been the problem. My water is no crystal clear and all I've been doing is banging the filters against the tree to get rid of the heavy muck and then putting them back in the waterfall. Before I would rinse them off with a hose and put back.

 

[addy1]

Well if it is working better now, might have been the problem. If you use city water and really flush the filters it might be detrimental to the good bacteria too, the chlorine will kill some of it.

 

[Shoestring Ponder]

Speaking of good Bacteria...what does it look like? Is it visible? All I see is gunk, od green gunk. I have rinsed and rinsed the batting and the filter medium and all I get is O.D. Green Gunk. :question: :neutral:

:goldfish:

 

[addy1]

You can't see bacteria.

 

[Waterbug]

Speaking of good Bacteria...what does it look like? Is it visible?

You can see what is called biofilm which is a colony of good bacteria and other creatures. So you can't see individuals with the naked eye you can see "them". For good bacteria biofilm brown and feels slimy to the touch. Normally it's a bit blotchy. It will only appear on basically clean surfaces. The best place to find it is inside a pipe going to or from a pump assuming the pipe is white. Hard to see on dark surfaces. Another test is a biofilm won't rinse off.

"Bad" or anaerobic bacteria leave a very black color on rocks from the hydrogen sulfide they produce to form metal sulfides like ferrous sulfide. This black can form surprisingly fast, but also goes away once the muck is cleared away. Of course it can't be seen on black liner. These bacteria don't attach to a surface so don't form a biofilm. Good bacteria can't live very well, or at all, in that environment. So if you see black you know you're not looking at good bacteria.

These are called "good" and "bad" only for the convenience of people who don't like more scientific type names. The "bad" bacteria make life possible on the earth, so I wouldn't call them bad to their face. But many pond keepers want to keep their numbers in the pond to a minimum.

 

[Waterbug]

Here's a photo of two good bacteria. Nitrite converter on the left, ammonia converter on the right. But there are many species. Some even convert both. And the species in a US pond can be different from one in Europe. These are about 0.5 microns in size where a human hair is about 200 microns wide.

 

[Waterbug]

Here's what the good bacteria biofilm would look like if magnified. I don't think a photo is possible.

 

[brandonsdad02]

I had green water when I first fired up my pond this year. I went with a UV light and it took 9 days to clear my pond. As far as cleaning your filter, what are you using for a filter? The only thing I clean with city water is my pre filter material in my skimmer box. Now I have clear water even tho we have been getting baked alive here in the midwest. All my plants are growing like crazy, my fishies are happy.

Addy1. Your pond was totally covered with lilly pads as of last night when I looked on the feed. I have got to get me one of those set ups.

 

[Waterbug]

Well, I got excited too soon, my water is cloudy again, although not pea green, just a murky cloudiness.

Could be cloudiness from before the bloom, could be from bacteria reproducing to feed on the dead algae, they're good eatin'.

My water tested good and I don’t want to add chemicals, I don’t want to invest in a UV light yet, sooo maybe it’s just all the sun we’ve been getting this year and the lack of plant pond surface coverage?

Cloudy (non green) water would not be fixed a UV, only green water.

It is certainly a very popular belief in pond forums that sunlight is responsible for green water. No scientific basis, but still very popular. The myth is based on the fact that sunlight increases algae growth. The thinking is the reverse must be true, which it is. Problem is killing algae requires almost blackout conditions and even then for a fairly long period of time. Like if you put a plant inside a closet it takes a few weeks for it to die. Algae need very little light. Ask anyone with an indoor fish tank away from light sources. For example 100% coverage of something like water hyacinth wouldn't kill algae because it doesn't actually block 100% of sunlight. But it would slow algae down a great deal. Clear water, devoid of suspended algae, is an entirely different phenomenon than simply reducing the number of algae cells.

Green ponds will suddenly go completely clear in full sun and no higher plants.

Fish are active and happy which is a good thing.

Hopefully you're tracking ammonia.

 

[brandonsdad02]

It is certainly a very popular belief in pond forums that sunlight is responsible for green water. No scientific basis, but still very popular. The myth is based on the fact that sunlight increases algae growth.

Algae needs sunlight among other things to live, so if its not true, then you are saying that sunlight isn't responsible for algae? :banghead3:

 

[Waterbug]

So you quote me saying sunlight increases algae growth and then say...well I can't really figure out what you're trying to say. That I said "sunlight isn't responsible for algae"? Where did I say that? How does "increases algae growth" get parsed into "sunlight isn't responsible for algae"? Just trolling?