In article , Greg
Costanzo wrote:

Well it happened..a few nice days of crystal clear water .... and
bam.... now i have a lovely algae bloom. I would like to get rid of
it some how -- so it looks like a "clean" pond but yet I'd also like
to make sure it's an ecosystem (balanced!!) so I'm hesitant to put in
a UV sterilizer to kill away all algae. My nitrate/nitrite levels are
low (0.1 mg/mL nitrite // under 5 mg/L nitrate); KH is about 50 ppm;
ammonia levels are well under 0.6 mg/L;

This is poor water for koi. There should be NO ammonia or nitrite for
koi. Your Alkalinity is too low, add some baking soda... your pH
stability is close to being in real peril.

Do you have a well established biological filter ?


and lastly, but what could be
the problem, my pH skyrocketed from last week being nearly 8.5 pushing
almost close to nine. I am currently lowering my pH to about 6.6 but
as you all probably know I have to do this 0.5 per day so I don't
stress my fish out (I only have two koi).

There is a considerable difference between 8.5 and 9. Don't worry
about this unless you can't lower the ammonia, then you need to lower
the pH to save the fish a lot of stress... maybe worse.

Increase and stabilize your alkalinity!



Should lowering my pH help

Green water is more predominant in higher pH, get a UV and see and
enjoy you koi and pond... but not exclusive to getting a sufficient
biological filter... you don't have that now.

jay
Thu Jun 10, 2004



out or what else can I do so i have clear
but natural water??? (natural meaning a healthy amount of algae not a
green mess!)


Thank you all... this google group thing is probably the best
invention anyone has come up with :-) take care!!


~ Greg