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#1
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fish pond = cant see 'em cuz the algea
I am frustrated. I have seven medium sized fish in a home made fish pond. I
have two pumps, and plants. Gets green every spring and cant see the fish until December. What to do? Thanks. |
#2
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fish pond = cant see 'em cuz the algea
"GE is ME" wrote in message thlink.net... I am frustrated. I have seven medium sized fish in a home made fish pond. I have two pumps, and plants. Gets green every spring and cant see the fish until December. What to do? Thanks. We have two ~7000 gallon ponds that flow one into the other with two active waterfalls (800+GPH circulating pumps), so all of the water in the pond is circulated through two filters (one on the ingress and one on the egress) about once every 10 hours. The ponds have Koi, a couple of turtles and some serious bull frogs. We get algae blooms (at the waterfall end) around this time of year. The only thing that works for me is to clean the filter media (completely remove it and hose it clean thoroughly once a year). This seems to keep the blooms to a minimum until about this time a year from now. Algae never is allowed to take over very much of the pond. I have heard barley straw works (not tried it). I have heard that UV light filters work (not tried them). |
#3
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fish pond = cant see 'em cuz the algea
you get the algae for a few reasons
1- too much nitrogen in the water - you need more plants or less fish 2 - too much sun light - more plants - water lillies in particular or near by plants to shade 3 - the barley straw works but who wants that - basically this does a composting type thing and burns up the nitrogen in the water so the algae dies off. Put impatients in the water - they will suck up the nitrogen like no ones business. What truly eats algae is water daphnae - basically fish babies but unless your fish are breeding you do not have them and you can not buy them. Also a waterfall helps stirs up the oxyegen so it can combine with the nitrogen - create a bowl in the water fall and put the impatients in that bowl and they will filter the nitrogen out. build a deeper pond - the pond is getting too warm as well. Good luck Tomatolord "me" wrote in message news:NqHKh.8039$B7.3857@bigfe9... "GE is ME" wrote in message thlink.net... I am frustrated. I have seven medium sized fish in a home made fish pond. I have two pumps, and plants. Gets green every spring and cant see the fish until December. What to do? Thanks. We have two ~7000 gallon ponds that flow one into the other with two active waterfalls (800+GPH circulating pumps), so all of the water in the pond is circulated through two filters (one on the ingress and one on the egress) about once every 10 hours. The ponds have Koi, a couple of turtles and some serious bull frogs. We get algae blooms (at the waterfall end) around this time of year. The only thing that works for me is to clean the filter media (completely remove it and hose it clean thoroughly once a year). This seems to keep the blooms to a minimum until about this time a year from now. Algae never is allowed to take over very much of the pond. I have heard barley straw works (not tried it). I have heard that UV light filters work (not tried them). |
#4
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fish pond = cant see 'em cuz the algea
wrote in message ... you get the algae for a few reasons 1- too much nitrogen in the water - you need more plants or less fish 2 - too much sun light - more plants - water lillies in particular or near by plants to shade 3 - the barley straw works but who wants that - basically this does a composting type thing and burns up the nitrogen in the water so the algae dies off. Put impatients in the water - they will suck up the nitrogen like no ones business. What truly eats algae is water daphnae - basically fish babies but unless your fish are breeding you do not have them and you can not buy them. Also a waterfall helps stirs up the oxyegen so it can combine with the nitrogen - create a bowl in the water fall and put the impatients in that bowl and they will filter the nitrogen out. build a deeper pond - the pond is getting too warm as well. Good suggestions, thank you. The upper pond is pretty deep. the lower pond is twice the surface area but shallower. Not much I can do without major reconstruction. I have a good amount of Water lilies. Impatiens sound like a possible idea. I will wait until the last frost day and put them in. |
#5
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fish pond = cant see 'em cuz the algea
:
What truly eats algae is water daphnae - basically fish babies but unless your fish are breeding you do not have them and you can not buy them. I tried googling daphnae and nothing comes up. I think you mean Daphnia. Daphnia are not fish babies they are crustaceans. I raise them for fish food and if anyone wants some, I have plenty. They survive just fine outdoors. Mine have lived outside through the winter so they are already aclimated and they love algae. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=daphnia -- Mac Cool |
#6
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fish pond = cant see 'em cuz the algea
"Mac Cool" wrote in message ... : What truly eats algae is water daphnae - basically fish babies but unless your fish are breeding you do not have them and you can not buy them. I tried googling daphnae and nothing comes up. I think you mean Daphnia. Daphnia are not fish babies they are crustaceans. I raise them for fish food and if anyone wants some, I have plenty. They survive just fine outdoors. Mine have lived outside through the winter so they are already aclimated and they love algae. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=daphnia -- Mac Cool Hey, Thank you. I would like to try some in my ponds. Is there a down side to these crustaceans? Is there any possibility of disease? Do they get along with Koi? (I have both Koi and local goldfish/carp in my ponds). Can they be controlled simply by the fish in the pond? |
#7
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fish pond = cant see 'em cuz the algea
me:
I would like to try some in my ponds. Is there a down side to these crustaceans? Is there any possibility of disease? Do they get along with Koi? (I have both Koi and local goldfish/carp in my ponds). Can they be controlled simply by the fish in the pond? There is no downside I'm aware of. Daphnia have a number of natural predators such as carnivorus fish (including goldfish), dragonflys and hydra. Daphnia eat algae, bacteria and a few other micro critters. They are just tiny little critters, maybe a millimeter across, your Koi might eat them but if you have enough plants in your pond they should find plenty of hiding spaces. They are sort of like freshwater plankton. Daphnia captured in the wild could transmit disease but I believe mine are disease free, I got them from another person raising them for fish food. I have been using them as food for months will no ill effects. You could do what I did before introducing them into my aquarium... I raised them in a container with water from my tank. After a week or two I started adding them to my aquarium as food and my fish enjoy them. Actually they are tough little critters you could just grab a bucket of your pond water (with algae) and pour them in and they would thrive. Daphnia really need only three things to thrive... food (algae, yeast), calcium (to form their shell) and a little sunlight. Daphnia are an early warning indicator for bad water conditions. If water quality goes bad they will turn red then the colony will abruptly die. I live in Garner, if you want a starter of daphnia send me an email: -- Mac Cool |
#8
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Daphnia are basically 'water fleas' and make good food for small water predators such as food for baby fish!
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