Algae in corners of pond
 

George wrote:
"BoyPete" wrote in message
...
George wrote:
"BoyPete" wrote in message
...
George wrote:
"Paul" wrote in message
. ..
Well according to test strips these are the results: Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ttl Hardness 150ppm Ttl Alkalinity Moderate/80ppm Ph 8.0.
The date
stamped on botton is 03/2006 A lot of algae is in the filter
itself...............Thanks

The Ph seems to be really high for a freshwater pond. I keep mine
at 7.4 or below.

My pond, now 13 months old, has always given 8 to 8.5 for Ph. I've
had no problems.
I have some string algae, and the pond planting is going wild!
Algae is a fact of life, I wouldn't worry about it.
--
ßôyþëtë
London, UK

Is that the Ph of London municipal water? Sounds like seawater to
me. What's your salinity?

George

LOL No idea :)
--
ßôyþëtë
London, UK

No offense intended about the drinking water in London. You can get a
hydrometer pretty cheaply at a pet supply shop and find out. Make
sure you get one with as wide a range as possible. Or better yet,
just ask your water authority what it is supposed to be.

George

Just why would tap water be saline? It's 'fresh' water.
--
ßôyþëtë
London, UK

Algae in corners of pond
 

BoyPete wrote:


Just why would tap water be saline? It's 'fresh' water.

LOL - I've been dying to ask that question every since I saw the
question of salinity raised in this thread......and BTW I do have a
hydrometer and have checked the tap water (zero of course) but only out
of idle curiousity after checking my marine tanks....

Gill

Algae in corners of pond
 

Interesting thread. All sorts (salts :) ) of chemical stuff being
recomended. I started my pond in May '06, about 650 gals. I hoped to avoid
the use of chemicals by good management and filtering. Heavy planting, which
is now flourishing, to the point I need to prune stuff back to see the
water, a dozen or so fish (4 of which were born in the pond) all thriving,
and growing at a rapid rate, particularly two koi. Ph at about 8.5,
nitrate/nitrite/ammonia all zero. No chemicals. Some string algea, but
nothing to be bothered with. :)
--
ßôyþëtë
London, UK

Algae in corners of pond
 

On 2007-06-29, BoyPete wrote:

Just why would tap water be saline? It's 'fresh' water.

It wouldn't be as salty as seawater, but there are areas along
coastlines (usually not the rocky ones) and places inland (such
as a large area of West Texas) where well water is naturally salty..

Frank

Algae in corners of pond
 

"Nick Cramer" wrote in message
...
"George" wrote:
"Nick Cramer" wrote in message
"George" wrote:
"BoyPete" wrote in message
George wrote:
"BoyPete" wrote in message
George wrote:
"Paul" wrote in message

Well according to test strips these are the results: Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ttl Hardness 150ppm Ttl Alkalinity Moderate/80ppm Ph
8.0. The date
stamped on botton is 03/2006 A lot of algae is in the filter
itself...............Thanks

The Ph seems to be really high for a freshwater pond. I keep
mine at 7.4 or below.

My pond, now 13 months old, has always given 8 to 8.5 for Ph.
I've
had no problems.
I have some string algae, and the pond planting is going wild!
Algae is a fact of life, I wouldn't worry about it.

Is that the Ph of London municipal water? Sounds like seawater to
me. What's your salinity?

LOL No idea :)

No offense intended about the drinking water in London. You can get
a
hydrometer pretty cheaply at a pet supply shop and find out. Make
sure
you get one with as wide a range as possible. Or better yet, just
ask
your water authority what it is supposed to be.

I've used pH rolls for decades, for various things. One source is

http://catalog.miniscience.com/catal...s/Default.html

Thanks, Nick. That will work great for determining the salinity! (note
sarcasm) lol

You're welcome, Gearge. Please note regarding the other suggestion of a
hydrometer that a hydrometer is an instrument used for determining the
specific gravity of liquids, without regard to the substance that varies
it
from 1.0000, whether battery acid, alcohol, sugar, salt, etc. (Note lack
of
sarcasm - I find yours rather disappointing)

--
Nick. Support severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their families!

Thank a Veteran and Support Our Troops. You are not forgotten. Thanks ! !
!
~Semper Fi~

My point was that a Ph kit isn't going to tell you anything about the
salinity of your water. A hydrometer will.

George

Algae in corners of pond
 

On 2007-06-29, BoyPete wrote:

Just why would tap water be saline? It's 'fresh' water.

It wouldn't be as salty as seawater, but there are areas along
coastlines (usually not the rocky ones) and places inland (such
as a large area of West Texas) where well water is naturally salty..
Frank

California water, like drinking chlorinated salt water. Blah! I think it
runs up to 0.05% in some areas of CA. ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

Algae in corners of pond
 

Could i use a pool ph test just to see if it shows the level??
"~ jan" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 02:05:44 CST, "Paul" wrote:

I have just posted a question about my pump. Now i noticed a lot of string
type algae in the corners of the pond and a lot of algae in the filters
them
selves, but the water is clear and test strips say water is good. I made a
skippy type filter which worked great last year, but this year, not so
great. Have the same amount of fish. My water hyacinths are doing really
poor. They won't grow, just seem to turn brown or just stay the
same....Any
help? Thanks......................

Dying WH are a good indication of possible too high a pH. What are the
numbers on your test strips claiming? What is the expiration date of the
strips? ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

Algae in corners of pond
 

On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:04:03 CST, "Paul" wrote:

Could i use a pool ph test just to see if it shows the level??

Dying WH are a good indication of possible too high a pH. What are the
numbers on your test strips claiming? What is the expiration date of the
strips? ~ jan

Sure, but the pool testers I'm familiar with, IIRC, don't go much above 8.0
either.

Basically if you've got a test kit that measures to 8.2 and you get a
measurement of 8.0, you can feel fairly confident that it is 8.0 (assuming
the reagents are fresh). If the test kits top mark is 8.2 and you get a
reading of 8.2 one can't be confident that 8.2 is the highest the water
will test. Why I like Nutrafin/Hagen's Wide Range, it tests from 4.5 - 9.0.
~ jan

------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

Algae in corners of pond
 

"Spam Collector" wrote in message
...
On 2007-06-29, BoyPete wrote:

Just why would tap water be saline? It's 'fresh' water.

It wouldn't be as salty as seawater, but there are areas along
coastlines (usually not the rocky ones) and places inland (such
as a large area of West Texas) where well water is naturally salty..

Frank

Exactly. Just because it is "fresh water" doesn't mean that it doesn't
have dissolved solids and chlorides. In the U.S., the national secondary
drinking water regulations allows up to 500 mg/l of total dissolved solids
in drinking water, and up to 250 mg/l of chloride. If your drinking water
contains chlorides AND TDSs close to the allowable limit, you will have a
relatively high salinity (as freshwater goes), and that can affect your Ph.
That was the reason I asked the question.

George

Algae in corners of pond
 

"Gill Passman" wrote in message
...
BoyPete wrote:


Just why would tap water be saline? It's 'fresh' water.

LOL - I've been dying to ask that question every since I saw the question
of salinity raised in this thread......and BTW I do have a hydrometer and
have checked the tap water (zero of course) but only out of idle
curiousity after checking my marine tanks....

Gill

I have been told the hydrometers just aren't sensitive enough to be able to
measure the salinity of tap water or even our pond water. They are designed
for testing water with salinity of around 3.5%. My pond water tests at
around 0.03 or 0.04% by salinity meter without any salt additions. When
treating for nitrites, the level desired is around 0.1% to 0.15% which is
still a very low level compared to the design of the hydrometer.

One of the bottled waters that we have bought for drinking is a product of
reverse osmosis or distillation, per the bottle, with sodium chloride and
calcium carbonate added for flavor. G

Algae in corners of pond
 

On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 01:03:41 CST, "George"
wrote:

If your drinking water
contains chlorides AND TDSs close to the allowable limit, you will have a
relatively high salinity (as freshwater goes), and that can affect your Ph.
That was the reason I asked the question.

I have no salt in my tap water/water source, but add up to .1% in my
pond every winter and have noticed no change in pH readings. I
thought pH was a relationship between hydrogen ions. How does salt
effect the relationship?

Regards,

Hal

Algae in corners of pond
 

places near coastlines or big salt deposits often have salt water
intrusion into their ground water. even rain and snow off oceans
contain a bit of trapped salts.

by salts I mean NaCl rather than the salts of other compounds. If the
salt concentration is too high, the water tastes lousy nobody will
drink it. some places are so alkaline that the water is nearly
undrinkable, and enough magnesium to give non residents diarrhea.
Ingrid

On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:27:28 CST, Gill Passman
wrote:

BoyPete wrote:


Just why would tap water be saline? It's 'fresh' water.

LOL - I've been dying to ask that question every since I saw the
question of salinity raised in this thread......and BTW I do have a
hydrometer and have checked the tap water (zero of course) but only out
of idle curiousity after checking my marine tanks....

Gill

Algae in corners of pond
 

there are different meanings for "salt"
table salt is NaCl, wont affect pH
NaHCO3 is the salt of bicarb and will affect pH.
salts in the generic form means any Na, Li, Mg, etc combination with
negative charged ions. There are even salts of DNA.
Ingrid

On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 10:55:40 CST, Hal wrote:

On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 01:03:41 CST, "George"
wrote:

If your drinking water
contains chlorides AND TDSs close to the allowable limit, you will have a
relatively high salinity (as freshwater goes), and that can affect your Ph.
That was the reason I asked the question.

I have no salt in my tap water/water source, but add up to .1% in my
pond every winter and have noticed no change in pH readings. I
thought pH was a relationship between hydrogen ions. How does salt
effect the relationship?

Regards,

Hal

Algae in corners of pond
 

"RichToyBox" wrote in message
...

"Gill Passman" wrote in message
...
BoyPete wrote:


Just why would tap water be saline? It's 'fresh' water.

LOL - I've been dying to ask that question every since I saw the
question of salinity raised in this thread......and BTW I do have a
hydrometer and have checked the tap water (zero of course) but only out
of idle curiousity after checking my marine tanks....

Gill

I have been told the hydrometers just aren't sensitive enough to be able
to measure the salinity of tap water or even our pond water. They are
designed for testing water with salinity of around 3.5%. My pond water
tests at around 0.03 or 0.04% by salinity meter without any salt
additions. When treating for nitrites, the level desired is around 0.1%
to 0.15% which is still a very low level compared to the design of the
hydrometer.

One of the bottled waters that we have bought for drinking is a product
of reverse osmosis or distillation, per the bottle, with sodium chloride
and calcium carbonate added for flavor. G

You can measure the total dissolved solids of freshwater using a
conductivity meter. Here is how to do it:

http://tinyurl.com/rn55l

Note: Total Dissolved Solids=TDS (mg/L) = EC (µS/cm at 25oC) x 0.6

where EC=Electrical conductivity.

George

Algae in corners of pond
 

I added some ph down salts and it bought the reading down to 7.8 now. I
think that was the problem
"~ jan" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:04:03 CST, "Paul" wrote:

Could i use a pool ph test just to see if it shows the level??

Dying WH are a good indication of possible too high a pH. What are the
numbers on your test strips claiming? What is the expiration date of the
strips? ~ jan

Sure, but the pool testers I'm familiar with, IIRC, don't go much above
8.0
either.

Basically if you've got a test kit that measures to 8.2 and you get a
measurement of 8.0, you can feel fairly confident that it is 8.0 (assuming
the reagents are fresh). If the test kits top mark is 8.2 and you get a
reading of 8.2 one can't be confident that 8.2 is the highest the water
will test. Why I like Nutrafin/Hagen's Wide Range, it tests from 4.5 -
9.0.
~ jan

------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us