Tea coloured pond water

[j.w]

Looks like algae to me and you have to give time for this pond to mature and if you keep trying to fix it by changing the water it will just be a continuous problem. You need more plants to suck up the nutrients provided by the fish poo. Plants will compete w/ the algae in your pond and in your stream and eventually hopefully correct the problem. You could shade your pond somewhat w/ an umbrella or some sort of cover as the sun will make the algae bloom like crazy. That batting you are using should help too and change or clean it often. You should buy a liquid test kit and they are not expensive so you know what your pond is doing. Some here use Hydrogen Peroxide to kill the algae but I have never used it so will not speak about it. Chime in here now somebody who uses it

 

[Lisak1]

We use both hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate, which breaks down into hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate (soda ash) when it comes in contact with water. Several companies package this product as a "waterfall scrub" to remove string algae from rocks and waterfalls. We buy it from a soap making company for about 1/10 the price - same stuff, same effect.

 

[sotiris]

wow, i might try hydrogen peroxide then, but under what is the recommended dosage should i use..

 

[Lisak1]

You'll find lots of varying opinions on that. I can only tell you what we have done in our pond with good results - we add 1 gallon of 3% H2O2 in liquid form every other week during the growing season. Our entire system is 4000 gallons. This is the ordinary brown bottle hydrogen peroxide you can buy at the pharmacy or big box store for $2-3 a quart. Very inexpensive and safe to use. We brush our teeth and rinse with it daily and have for years. It also kills anaerobic bacteria, so that may be an added benefit.

The sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate is granular. To use that we turn off the water falls, sprinkle enough to cover any string algae on the rocks or in the shallow shelf areas, and allow it to sit for 20-30 minutes. You will see the algae die off (it oxidizes) in front of your eyes. When we restart the falls we are prepared to scoop up the dead algae. Allowing it to remain in the pond would only continue the cycle as it would decompose and provide more nutrients for algae to thrive on.

 

[shakaho]

I think your problem is filtration. It appears your water is cloudy, which means there is either algae or small particles floating in the water. Since you say the water is not green, we have to assume it has fine particles in it.

Looking at your filter makes it clear you are a good DIYer. The problem is the size and design. A good rule of thumb for a small pond is that the filter should be 1/10 the volume of the pond, although I have used some half that size successfully. Yours needs to be at least twice as big as what you have.

If you look at the filters in our DIY forum or look at commercial container filters, you will find that the water flows up through the filter, not down. There is a reason for this. Upflow makes gravity your friend, while downflow makes it your enemy. When water is flowing up through a filter, particles are pulled down by gravity and stopped when they hit filter medium. If you use a "swirler," the particles settle to the bottom so well that you don't need filter pads for mechanical filtration. When I dump the water from the bottom of my upflow filters, it's black with mulm, while a glass of water from the outflow at the top looks like drinking water.

When water is going down, gravity pulls particles down. Large debris gets stopped by filter medium until it decomposes and washes down, but the tiny particles that make water cloudy just go right through. Since water is flowing out at the bottom, virtually no particles settle, so the fine stuff goes back to the pond.

Go to the DIY and look at the pinned filters. These are for 55 gallon barrels or larger, but are easily scaled down. I built my first in a 10 gallon flowerpot, which would work for your pond.

While you do need to remove the koi, I don't see any other problems. Your pump is plenty big enough for your pond. Plants are good, and with an upflow biofilter, you can put plants in pots of gravel at the top of the filter. They will absorb lots of plant/algae nutrients. Papyrus absorbs nutrients and grows very aggressively. It looks great too.

 

[addy1]

I filter my ponds with just a huge bog which is pea gravel and plants, the water stays clear of string algae and green water.

You could get a small container, planter box etc some pvc , make a small container bog filled with pea gravel and plants. The plants suck out the excess nutrients the algae lives on, the pea gravel acts as a water polisher.

 

[sotiris]

I added Algizin by Waterlife last Friday, while reading your posts, and the cloudiness got worse.

Shakaho, i will follow your advise and remove the Koi next weekend.

So, when i will change by filter to an upflow way, the way filtering media should stay in the same manner? Water coming form the pond gowing through gravel in the bottom, then meshed bags with bio balls, then through the filter pads, then quilt battling and then the outlet on top of the filter back to the pond, or the other way round.

If its that way, how will the roots of the plant grown on top of the filter tank will grow as they will be interrupetd by the quilt battling and filter pads

Thanks...

 

[addy1]

I have nothing but pea gravel and plants, the water enters under the gravel flows up through the plants and waterfalls back into the pond.

Most filters I have used are upflow filters, even my tank canister filter. The muck settles nicely on the bottom where you can drain it out. My previous ponds where smaller versions of my large bog i have now. One was whiskey barrels with pea gravel and plants, water into the bottom and out the top. My large arizona pond was a 425 gallon container full of lava rock, water again entered the bottom and flowed out the top. I had a bottom drain to back flush the lava rock off and on

 

[sotiris]

Thanks so much for your replies.

New project on board then

 

[sotiris]

So here is my pristine clear pond.

Water was nearly fully changed, changed the filter to 25 litre upflow version. Water enters through gravel in bottom, then the bacteria media, then a thick layer of filter pads, on on top is planted with papyrus and basel. From there the water goes back to my pond through the small stream which is planted with more basel and papyrus.
The pond as u can see from the pics is also planted with more additions. The only thing is that i didn't add fully submerged plants apart from papyrus and lillies. On the pond water level i added more plants that are happy to live in water, picked up from my garden.
Lets hope it will stay like that.
Although i still believe i might need some more water flow, despite the fact that my pump is rated at 1300 ltrs/h.
That's twice my pond volume

 

[sotiris]

More pics

 

[sotiris]

.

 

[j.w]

Looks nice and clear now. Hope it stays that way for you.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

@sotiris - I didn't notice in any of your comments, but where do you live? That helps a lot in determining what you should be seeing this time of year. A few things come to mind while reading through this thread...

"Golden algae eaters" are nothing of the sort. They're nothing but a marketing scam by fish stores, and don't even keep aquariums clean. They are also tropical fish, so if your water temperature goes below 17C at any time, it could kill them. The same applies to all breeds of plecos -- they are tropical fish and will not survive the cold (although many of them will in fact help with algae).

I have to agree with many of the previous comments... you need much more water flow! A short-term solution may be to get an aerator to at least keep the water moving, but at some point you need a larger water pump. Just a rough off-the-cuff suggestion based on my own ponds, I would calculate the pump size you need based on your overall pond size. So if your pond is 600L I would double that and go for around a 1200LPH pump.

You mentioned a concern about mosquitoes... Remember that calm standing water is what attracts them! The more you can get your pond water moving, the healthier the pond, the fish, and the plants will be. The plants will go a long ways towards cleaning the water, but you have to get the nutrients in the water to the plant roots first, and if the water isn't moving, the plants will starve.

And finally, you need to have patience. A new pond built in the Summer when everything is active will take 2-3 months to stabilize and for the water to clear up. You built your pond at the beginning of Winter. so nothing has had a chance to really start happening in the water yet. As you already noticed, adding expensive bottles of "algae killer" to your pond will do nothing but make the water cloudy and make the algae grow faster. Once you get a better pump and your plants start growing well, you will find that there is no need to add chemicals to the water (although I have no experience with the peroxide, but I've heard good things). Frankly, you can't just throw together a new pond and expect everything to magically work out during the coldest part of the year. Ponds take years to find their balance, to let the plants grow, and to get the beneficial bacteria built up to properly handle your water. You're going to find that some plants thrive while others die off completely. You have a pretty small pond, which is going to make it even harder to find just the right balance. It will take time, and you'll be learning a lot of new things from your pond, but give it time and everything will work out...

 

[sotiris]

Shdwdrgn,
I live in Cyprus, a small meditteranean island having full sun nearly all year round.
Golden algae eaters already belong to the past. The first one died when i wrote my first post, and the second one found dead and half eaten today, probably by Kois.
My pump is already 1300 liters/ h, thats more than twice the volume of my pond.. which i suppose i might not need to get a bigger one!!!
Yes, i was doing many experimenst so far, and that algae killer chemicals do nothing than causing more cloudiness of the water.
Now, after changing the filter in an upflow way, i might see results.
You are absolutely right.. patience..
I will keep you posted if all goes well.
In my previous setup, the water was staying clear for 3-4 days, and then it was staring getting cloudy and within 7-8 days i was having the result you saw in the first pics of my thread.
Lets see now...