What is this in my water

[Pond skipper]

Hi all, I tried to post this a few days ago and haven’t had any replies and since you all are usually pretty quick with the help (and since I can’t seem to locate it in the threads I’m going to post it again forgive me if it’s here somewhere already) I have some new type of gunk that keeps forming on the surface of my pond. My pond heater couldn’t keep up this winter and my pond froze. I lost all my goldfish so I decided to empty the pond and refill. I sprayed down the liner and then refilled. I didn’t clean the bio filter much hoping that it would have a head start however now I’m wondering if all the bacteria etc died off and it’s just causing this stuff on the surface. I keep scooping it out but more comes. I’m guessing it’s another type of algae but what to do about it? I’ll try and attach a photo.. thanks in advance for any ideas

 

[TheFishGuy]

looks like some sort of algae to me. what kind of filtration does the pond have?

 

[poconojoe]

Springtime is usually a bad water clarity time for most of us with 4 seasons when it comes to algae.

The water needs to warm up for the beneficial bacteria to colonize. I think the temperature for that is around 55F.

Plus, all your plants need to wake up from winter dormancy.

Meanwhile, nature produces all this algae to protect the water's chemical balance. The algae are plants that consume excess nutrients in the water. The excess nutrients are the result of fish waste.
If you have too much of a fish load, it can be a struggle for your filtration and for nature to keep up.
Sometimes a pond can all if a sudden have problems which it never had in the past. This can happen when your pond reaches a tipping point where the fish have grown much larger and have reproduced exponentially.

So, until the beneficial bacteria and your plants wake up, you'll most likely experience algae.
As long as you have adequate filtration and your not too overpopulated with fish, it should just be a matter of time for it to clear up.

 

[mrsclem]

Looks like some of the algae dried out when you emptied the pond. That's the dark stuff. Guessing the rest is the usual spring algae starting up.

 

[Pond skipper]

Thanks for all the replies! I guess it’s just something I’ll have to deal with until things warm up . I was only really worried about it because our dogs like drinking from the pond and I don’t want any more vet bills..lol

 

[mrsclem]

Just don't add any chemicals to the pond since its a doggie water bowl.

 

[GBBUDD]

looks like common pond floating algae

 

[Pond skipper]

Just don't add any chemicals to the pond since its a doggie water bowl.

Ya, I’ve never used chemicals in it. Mainly cause I wanted a natural pond but that’s an even better reason

 

[Pond skipper]

looks like common pond floating algae

Hopefully once the filter gets going better and the plants go back in it’ll clear up