Reviewing Algae Problems

[Lisak1]

I'm going to throw my two cents in here, and it may be worth exactly that much! We were told by an old time pond builder that it takes AT LEAST three years for a pond (and pond water) to "mature". He said he wished everyone who built a pond would realize that and just relax and allow things to develop without starting to immediately throw solutions at the "problem". Because almost every "solution" has a rebound effect - and it may just be less money in your wallet, but that's worth considering, too!

We had string algae our first two years - it was EVERYWHERE, including choking my lilies - and my plants were yellow and puny. As a gardener that was hard for me to see. I did start fertilizing my pond plants - verrrrrry carefully, so as not to get fertilizer in the pond and exacerbate the issue - and that helped keep them at least alive. We manually removed as much string algae as we could - it's not much fun as far as hobbies go, but we kept at it - and we kept the faith. We also recognized that algae for what it was - an aquatic plant. The fact that it was present was giving us information about our pond, and while we didn't like the appearance, we appreciated the function it was serving.

And then came Year Three - and miracle of miracles, the string algae was gone (well, mostly - we do still get some on our waterfall every spring, but nothing like those first two years when I could have carpeted my whole backyard with the stuff!), the plants were thriving, the fish were happy... we had hit our ponding sweet spot. And it's been stress free ponding ever since.

All of this is to say sometimes you just have to be patient and let nature take it's course. Keep your fish load low, feed lightly, get as many varieties of plants growing in your pond as you humanly can, and enjoy your pond!

 

[myswtsins]

I'm going to throw my two cents in here, and it may be worth exactly that much! We were told by an old time pond builder that it takes AT LEAST three years for a pond (and pond water) to "mature". He said he wished everyone who built a pond would realize that and just relax and allow things to develop without starting to immediately throw solutions at the "problem". Because almost every "solution" has a rebound effect - and it may just be less money in your wallet, but that's worth considering, too!

We had string algae our first two years - it was EVERYWHERE, including choking my lilies - and my plants were yellow and puny. As a gardener that was hard for me to see. I did start fertilizing my pond plants - verrrrrry carefully, so as not to get fertilizer in the pond and exacerbate the issue - and that helped keep them at least alive. We manually removed as much string algae as we could - it's not much fun as far as hobbies go, but we kept at it - and we kept the faith. We also recognized that algae for what it was - an aquatic plant. The fact that it was present was giving us information about our pond, and while we didn't like the appearance, we appreciated the function it was serving.

And then came Year Three - and miracle of miracles, the string algae was gone (well, mostly - we do still get some on our waterfall every spring, but nothing like those first two years when I could have carpeted my whole backyard with the stuff!), the plants were thriving, the fish were happy... we had hit our ponding sweet spot. And it's been stress free ponding ever since.

All of this is to say sometimes you just have to be patient and let nature take it's course.

Thank you, I appreciate your two cents! I agree with you, patient is very important (but hard) and new pond syndrome is what it is.

Keep your fish load low, feed lightly, get as many varieties of plants growing in your pond as you humanly can, and enjoy your pond!

I am basically doing this..I only have 18 4"-8" and 2 10"-12" goldies in almost 5,000 gallons of water (more then I would have liked really but they were gifted/rescued),I had stopped feeding as per the advice given but would like to resume my very light feeding and I have over 30 varieties of plants. I technically have 2 more years till I hit the full 3 year mark and I just want it to go by with a little less stress. lol We will need shade on the deck anyways so an adjustable umbrella will help solve the current algae issue and the long term human shade issue. I think your post is pretty much in line with what I want to do. Thank you very much for the reassurance!

 

[Smaug]

Feed the fish,how wrong is it to stop feeding a living animal just for the sake of aesthetics.

 

[myswtsins]

Feed the fish,how wrong is it to stop feeding a living animal just for the sake of aesthetics.

That makes it sound horrible, I would never starve an animal cause it would look better to me in anyway, shape or form. Like people here said, they had plenty of natural food. Some of the babies actually doubled in size so I know they weren't starving and no one ever looked even remotely thin. If they had I would have feed them without question because I was concerned about not feeding them but they were fine, active, with good color and always trying breed. But thank you for your vote.

 

[Lisak1]

I have seen a number of goldfish only ponds where the fish are never fed. One pond was almost twenty years old and full of healthy goldfish. It's really not an uncommon practice.

 

[Smaug]

In an ecosystem pond it can work but the majority of garden ponds are hardly self sustainable. Goldfish only is also a different story then koi .

 

[Smaug]

That makes it sound horrible, I would never starve an animal cause it would look better to me in anyway, shape or form. Like people here said, they had plenty of natural food. Some of the babies actually doubled in size so I know they weren't starving and no one ever looked even remotely thin. If they had I would have feed them without question because I was concerned about not feeding them but they were fine, active, with good color and always trying breed. But thank you for your vote.

It sounds horrible because it is horrible. It takes a long time to starve a fish,just because your not seeing problems in the short term of a month or two doesn't mean your not depriving them of nutrients. Clean up the excess nutrients in your pond with water changes and vaccing out debris. Get better filtration and water movement and filamentious algae goes away on its own.

 

[MitchM]

I'm coming up on my 4th year of having a pond and I have never had string algae.
BUT - I can probably count on 2 hands how many times I've fed my fish, total.
I've even tried placing string algae in my pond from another source, and it either died or got eaten.
My source water is either rain water run off from my steel roof or well water.

Like Meyer Jordan said, if you have string algae, that is your confirmation that you have excess phosphorus. The algae is consuming it, so the phosphorus is not available for your test kit to pick up.
You need to export the phosphorus by harvesting plant matter, otherwise the phosphorus will remain in your pond water as various plants die and decompose.
I'm not a fan of chemical binders of phosphorous because the phosphorus remains in the pond where it can be released again into the water column. Phosphorus needs to be removed from the pond water, just as it is added via feeding or added plant matter, like falling leaves.

 

[myswtsins]

Like Meyer Jordan said, if you have string algae, that is your confirmation that you have excess phosphorus. The algae is consuming it, so the phosphorus is not available for your test kit to pick up.

As I said, I agree! There is Phos in there and the algae uses it too quickly for my test to read it. But like also stated most test kits are useless in detecting tiny amounts of phos anyways.But I agree, I agree I agree. If I have fil algae I HAVE phos, I just can't figure out where it is coming from. And without any nitrogen my plants are not able to use that phos.

You need to export the phosphorus by harvesting plant matter, otherwise the phosphorus will remain in your pond water as various plants die and decompose.
I'm not a fan of chemical binders of phosphorous because the phosphorus remains in the pond where it can be released again into the water column. Phosphorus needs to be removed from the pond water, just as it is added via feeding or added plant matter, like falling leaves.

I keep a pretty clean pond though, that is where I am confused. I vacuum completely in Spring and Fall. I scoop out any leaves not caught by the skimmer, which is VERY few. I always cut back any dying plants (I really enjoy trimming plants so this is a great way to get my fill of that). And during the summer my pond bottom is clean besides some loose pebbles. In Spring and Fall I also wash out the streambed with a strong hose nozzle, cleaning out the rocks well and pumping the dirty water out before the stream overflows into the pond to keep that dirty water out of the pond.

This picture was taken on 7/31. The algae in the stream was outta control at this point but you can see that the bottom is still very clean. She was in there to trim the dying lily pads btw.

Hm, maybe the plant pockets hold and release some phos? I don't clean them out of course. If that's the case then there isn't much I can do but wait. And that's my plan as of now. I'll do my usually cleaning, feed the fish sparingly, add some temporary shade and continue waiting for the pond to mature. Thanks everyone!

 

[MitchM]

1 red flag that popped up for me in your initial post (thanks for all that information, btw) was that you are using softened water for your initial fill up and fall cleanouts.
Plants don't like softened water, maybe that's why you're seeing dieing plants.
I also don't see a lot of plants other than potted lilies, which I don't think are very effective at removing phosphate.

 

[morewater]

Cattails and bulrushes are excellent marginal filtration plants. They can run rampant, so pot them up.

 

[myswtsins]

1 red flag that popped up for me in your initial post (thanks for all that information, btw) was that you are using softened water for your initial fill up and fall cleanouts.
Plants don't like softened water, maybe that's why you're seeing dieing plants.
I also don't see a lot of plants other than potted lilies, which I don't think are very effective at removing phosphate.

I know. I am continuing to work on the water issue. It is cut with some iron filter only water too though, that's where the few degrees of hardness come from so it's not straight softener water at least. Before this season starts I will have iron filtered well water only going into the pond.

I have alot of plants but they are not very big in these pictures and they are in plant pockets which makes it look like I do not have plants. I put together a little diagram and list to show what plants I have, all of these are plant IN the pond, not the dirt.

1 - cinnamon fern, creeping jenny
2 - purple iris, bloody dock, creeping jenny
3 - black magic taro
4 - marsh marigold
5 - pink butterfly plant, Chinese lobelia
6 - can't remember it's name!
Also random bits of parrot feather, creeping jenny, chinese lobelia and forget me not within the stream
7 - Possibly Lobelia cardinalis 'Black Truffle', haven't gotten an positive ID yet, forget me not
8 - iris ann chowning, moneywort
9 - graceful cattails, forget me not
10 - water hibiscus
11 - yellow flag iris, water celery, blue lobelia, creeping jenny
12 - chocolate mint and sweet mint

Here is what the plant pockets look like. Plants have been moved and planted since the photo though. This is 4,5 and 6.

Plus the bog which has...
starwberry ribbon grass, spearmint, peppermint, chinese lobelia, spiky grass, hardy umbrella grass, dwarf cattails, variegated dwarf sweetflag, horserush, variegated arrow arum (or head?), pickrel rush

This is the last "bog" picture I took on 6/14. I wish I had newer pictures showing how big these guys did get before stalling and yellowing. I removed the peppermint a couple weeks ago actually because it got too crazy last year.

 

[MitchM]

What is your iron reading?
My well water here is 0.33 ppm iron, but I don't treat my water to remove the iron before it goes into the pond.
Have you tested your tap water for phosphorus?

 

[myswtsins]

I've had the water lab tested. 3ppm iron and the tiniest bit of phos, it was like 0.006 or something, I'd have to find the report to be certain on the phos but I KNOW the iron. lol

 

[morewater]

Mint is invasive, stay away from it. Stay away from anything that spreads, you'll never control it. Ajuga is right up there on the list.