Crazy about the bobcat. A portion of my farm is near a canyon, with quite a few caves, and bobcats reside there. I was on my usual routine driving toward a sprinkler so to walk the spinkler to look for problems, but, as I was approaching, a "dog looking animal" was near the field. Once I got about within around 200 feet of it, it sprinted across the road and it was a rather huge cat, that is bobcat that ran into my corn field, which was where I was about to walk the sprinkler and the corn was about 8 foot tall so visibility is severely hindered. I stopped and thought for a while... " I think I might wait a day or so till I walk into the corn field so hopefully I avoid encountering that fella in the corn field ".
1) I feel like I'm losing the algae battle. There has to be something wrong with my filtration system. I'm going to take the UV down today and try to clean the quartz sleeve. If that doesn't do it, I may replace the ballast. I so should have done the research and included pond maintenance in my calculations for the offer we made on this house!
It's a constant battle with algae. With algae, you only win battles and never will win the war. Since in our context of an outdoor pond, all we can do is control the algae rather than outright eliminate it.
It is much like maintaining a weed free, pristine lawn. The "lawn" is your pond. You can do everything to make the lawn lush and healthy, but still wild grasses and dandelions will invade the yard. So, due diligence must be taken to maintain a weed free lawn. Algae is a weed since our pond is more of a luxury to us rather than for the fish. Sure, just as with weeds in a lawn, algae has its role in supplementing the environment by providing nutrition and acting as an bio-filter. However, just as a noxious weeds, algae will eventually completely take over the pond so to provide an enivronment for itself to thrive or to provide an environment for other undesireable critters to reside.
Algae is the noxious weed of a pond and there are all sorts of algae species out there. Some weeds, like dandelions, look quite nice; however, if your entire lawn was of that weed, then it starts looking less nice.
In lawns, we must continually spray the weeds, put out pre-emergence that are germinating inhibitors or root inhibitors, and fertilize the lawn to keep it lush. The concept of controlling weeds in a lawn applies to controlling algae in a pond. Also, just as with weeds, there is always an algae species that can grow in any environment.
To keep our pond "lush like a pond", then we increase the various modes of improved mechanized bio-filtration and increase plant density and increased water aeration and circulation.
For pre-emergence that are germinator inhibitors or root inhibitors, then properly installed UVs or antibiotics are implemented.
For the spot killing of algae, as done with weeds in a lawn, then there are the various microbicides (such as AlgaeFIx) and organic oxidizers (such as food grade, grocery store hydrogen peroxide).
As with any prevention of a noxious weed or plant,
proper prevention management practices work with nature, not against nature, and should be followed, which I believe prevention involves everything I listed above.
I have never seen a pond naturally have zero algae just as I have never seen a yard, when left to its own devices of nature, have zero wild grasses or dandelions.
Personally, here are my recommendations
1)
Maintain a healthy pond - Follow the maintenance recommendations mentioned in the thread,
remedial chemistry and water treatment. Also, increase the various modes of improved mechanized bio-filtration and increase plant density.
2)
Pre-emergence, inhibitor control of algae - Properlly install a UV sterilizer. If can't afford a sterilizer, then a higher powered than usual UV clarifier. For a quick discussion talking about UV sterilizer and clarifiers, then checkout the
Pentair dicusson on UV sterilizers.
3)
Spot killing of algae - This is a weekly or bi-weekly regiment. Know exactly the gallons of your pond, within +/-50~100 gallons variance, and then properly follow the instructions for the appropriate product.
AlgaeFix is a microbicide that attacks the cell walls of the algae and some bacteria. This is essentially a non-selective microbicide. So, be sure to know your pond's volume, and properly follow instructions.
To use the 3% generic hydrogen peroxide solution, bought from the grocery store with zero additives, then just dose the pond by 18 to 32 ounces per 1,000 gallons. This product is an organic oxidizer and its effectiveness really depends on the volume of organics present in the water. If the organic volume is quite high, then you will have to use a higher dosage and same vice versa. However, particular plants are more susceptible to being harmed by an oxidizer, which some may turn yellow or even get killed by the stuff. So, start with a low dose to see how your fish and plants will react, and then increase the dose if you feel comfortable doing so. I would also recommend going to a pool store, or
online like Amazon, to get a
low concentration hydrogen peroxide test kit, which might be the test strips or a reagent test kit. The point about testing the water for peroxide is to ensure there is no presence of it lingering in the pond longer than 24 hours; if there is, then do some water changes to dilute its presence.
To spot kill algae on waterfalls, then you can purchase a much higher peroxide concentration product, between 22~32%, at a vetinarian product retail store, put it in a spray bottle, turn off the water fall or stream, spray it down, wait an hour, then scrub or power wash the algae off, and turn on the water.
Instead of hydrogen peroxide, you can use an extremely strong organic oxidizer such as Pottasium Permanganate, with an acronym of " PP ", which is safe to fish and plants if paying extremely close to gram measurements, extremely important to know your pond's gallons, and extremely important to follow instructions.
PP can be bought at
The Chemistry Store by the pounds but, if fish are present, then we are talking dosage measurements in grams and TEAspoons. A digital scale is very important to use in measurements.
Here's a good demonstrational and instructional thread talking about its use in kill string algae.
Life and Times of String Algae in My Pond. Plants are much more tolerant to PP so highers doses can be used if no fish are present.
Other interesting threads about proper PP usage and warnings:
PP question
PP dosage?
PP dosing calculations
Potassium Permanganate calculator
Personally, since I have not used it yet, I am still nervous about using the stuff, but it is a common practice. Just be careful with the stuff and do not use it if you are in any way not comfortable with what you're doing.
PP is extremely cheap and a little bit stretches out a very long time, but extreme attention and caution must be used when using it.
