Plants yellowing and dying + lots of fibrous algae

[Lisak1]

I agree with the suggestions here to add fish. The three things all healthy ponds have - water, fish and plants.

 

[Jrosco34]

Yes so the other plants I have is, Thalia, 2 difference species of Iris, Cattails, Hardy Water Lilies, Marsh Merigolds, Pickerel, Water Hibiscus and three difference species of Rush. Currently the Pickerel is not growing near like it did last year, Some lower leaves on the Thalia and Hibiscus are yellowing and water lilies are blooming less and smaller leaves on the water surface.

Just this week I did add 2 Butterfly Koi and 10 pond grade Blue Tilapia that specifically eat only string algae. All fish are really young so they may not help much yet till they get bigger.

I guess another item that would be helpful is this pond is large. 90' x 45', 40,000 gallons, so it could handle quite a few fish

 

[addy1]

That is a nice big pond!

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Jrosco34]

Thank you @addy1, I have a lot to learn as a newbie pond owner.

 

[addy1]

Thank you @addy1, I have a lot to learn as a newbie pond owner.

Start your own thread, a lot easier for everybody to follow along and help you.

 

[Onisim]

Wow! It's beautiful

employee monitoring software

 

[Criscar]

@addy1 I live in Bratislava, Slovakia. Water willow looks beautiful, I should be able to find that here aswell. Thx for the tip.

@Mmathis thx, I hope it'll get even better when the plants really get going though. There is just one tiny fish in there since last week. I guess a frog or bird took it with them to the pond . I wanted to introduce fish eventually, but was hoping to stabilize the pond before that. I know the lillies don't help with the nutrients, but at least they look nice and grow well

It seems like you all agree there is a nutrient deficiency in the pond, meaning I'll need more/bigger critters like fish in my pond. But why would there be so many algae in my pond when the nutrient load is so low, the plants can't even grow? Seems like something isn't adding up.

I'm trying to understand the relationships here of what's going on.

String algae, I assume that’s what you mean by “fibrous algae”? I have had some in small amounts in my little pond and it seems to suffocate hornwort floating at the surface in particular, and gets really tangled up in the roots of floating plants and around marginals, so I have just been removing any I find by hand every few days, you can twirl it on a stick even. Algae will pretty much grow anywhere there is water and sunlight, no? It will use nutrients if they are present but doesn’t require much to get started, I don’t think.

 

[Mmathis]

@Onisim Hello and welcome! Why not go over to our “introductions“ topic and tell us about yourself and your pond. BTW, what does “employee monitoring software“ mean?

 

[GBBUDD]

You have a huge area Lots and LOTS of surface area for bacteria to colonize , if you havent added any yet that would be my first step Seed the pond. Mother nature is working it it herself but ROME was not built in a day.

Before i start thinking fish i believe you said that you are tuning over the pond once or twice a day ? This says to me BALLANCE BALLANCE AND MORE BALLANCE IS GOING TO BE THE KEY TO THIS Pond.

My next question is how does this low flow system feed the gravel ?
What size pipe is used and how is close are they to each other and how deep is the gravel. I have seen this type of set up before primarily by one individual in EU, While i saw many of his videos making the pond and its beginning stages there were few a year or two or three years down the road. The only one i did find years later was one where he was pulling the pond apart to start over. While i believe the idea will work with slow flow and letting nature take it's course i believe it is also a very tricky balance.

The bogs that have been more successful here are turn overs of 1 to 2 times and hour on average for smaller ponds and maybe 1 every other hour for large ponds. 2 times a day is going to be doing next to nothing. While a slow filtration is fantastic pushing the water through the gravel having little more then very weak pressure where 40,000 k is only making it's way through the gravel once a day falls far short of the goal with the bog sytems most here run.

are you running a water pump or is it air driven ?