"2Rowdy" wrote in message
et...
Message ,
by author KerplunKuK aka
inspired me,
2Rowdy scribbled :

You feed your fish more than the plants can handle.
There should be a balance between fishfood and plants. If it isn't
in balance you get the green soup, i.e plants that fill the gap.

Refresh the pond, 10% each week, drain from the bottom if possible.
Use an airbubble pump during filling of the fresh water.
That doesn't bring the balance back.

Install a good filter, redude the number of fish or feed them less.
Feeding tip: 5 minutes max a day and they should eat it all in that
time.
The fish are well capable to survive a week without food.


I have a filter and pump that can handle twice the volume of my
pond.

Big filter is good. But many people clean the filter to often. The
filter shouldn't filter, it should provide a good place for bacteria
to do their work in converting fish stuff into plantfood.

My fish always eat everything I feed them, so I think I will
have to insert more plants and do water changes. What is an
airbubble pump?

An air pump with a bubble stone on the end. Often tap water contains
gasses that is bad for fish. The bubbles expel those gasses.
--
d:Johan; Certifiable me

IHUMFA

If you add fresh tap water with a garden hose with a nozzle attachment,
nearly all of any harmful gases (even some of the chlorine - I recommend
using stress coat at this staqge) will escape almost immediately. As long
as the pump inlet is pumping water from the bottom of the pond and
returning it to the surface, and creating ripples on the surface, the water
will be constantly turned over and will outgas and pick up oxygen. I know
that you must be thinking about carbon dioxide buildup, but that is not
usually a problem in most ponds that have adequate circulation. The
problem here is likely one of too high a nutrient load (in the case of an
algae bloom, the culprit is usually high nitrate concentration, but can
also be phosphates). A bubbler will do nothing to get rid of nitrates,
because of the high partial pressure of nitrogen in the atmosphere, and so
the equalibrium pressure of nitrogen is high. It will also do nothing to
get rid of phosphates. If the nitrate level is high, adding O2 with a
bubler can actually make the algae problem worse (algae using up carbon
dioxide and release O2 in the day, but the process is reversed at night, so
then it releases CO2 and uses O2). Adding plants and beneficial bacteria
to the pond will increase competition with the algae, and will reduce the
nutrient levels enough starve out the algae. And as the algae dies, the
bacteria will digest it and prevent the nitrates from building back up to
problematic levels. Unless the levels are dangerously high, I never
recommend partial water changes to solve this problem because that tends to
knock the pond out of chemical equilibrium. The key to the solution to
this problem is patience. Perhaps if the person posting his question could
post his water parameters (pH, ammmonia, nitrites, nitrates, general
hardness), we could give him more specific information.