Hello-

I have a rather small pond, it is 6x2x2 and uses a fountain pump rated at
450 GPH. I have one plant in the pond and the pond water is murky green. I
regularly clean the filter, and have done 50% water changes. I put in some
chemical that is supposed to kill algae and is not harmful to fish or
plants. But...the algae is uncontrollable. Any suggestions from this group
would be appreciated.

Thanx

AL Z

On Thu, 9 Aug 2007 13:04:12 CST, "AL Z" wrote:

Hello-

I have a rather small pond, it is 6x2x2 and uses a fountain pump rated at
450 GPH. I have one plant in the pond and the pond water is murky green. I
regularly clean the filter, and have done 50% water changes. I put in some
chemical that is supposed to kill algae and is not harmful to fish or
plants. But...the algae is uncontrollable. Any suggestions from this group
would be appreciated.
Thanx
AL Z

Do 10% water changes every other day. Big changes throw off the balance, do
not scrub the sides. Do clean the bottom with a shop vac, or scoop with a
net if no shop vac. Do not use algaecides. Add more plants. :-) ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

It helps to know thine enemy

Algae is normal and natural and needed by the lower
end species in your pond. One of the bulding blocks
of life. Our problem is when things get out of balance,
very easy in backyard ponds, and algae goes gonzo...


Green Water is caused by single cell free floating suspended in the
water column algae. String algae is long, flowing, likes moving water
and has some body to it. Substrate algae is like a fuzzy green
sweater
and grows on rocks, liners, plant baskets, and is considered a good
algae as it keeps the suspended and string algae at bay. It also
hosts
lots of tiny zoo plankton, insect larvae, worms and other tasties
that
are good for fish to consume along with their veggies (the algae).

All algae thrives on sun, fresh water, fish waste, fertilized run
off,
rotting plants and blown in dirt. In new ponds and spring ponds algae
is always the first thing to start growing. Backyard garden ponds are
way overstocked according to Mother Nature's formula.


The best defense against algae is to have lots of plants to compete
for
the nutrients, FEW fish, NOT overfeeding those fish, some shade,
blocking run off, not doing huge water changes and cleaning up debris.
Usually a good time to clean
out the pond is in the spring. Remove fish and plants, drain and scoop
out the bottom or (if you use the Aquascape system, follow their
directions for maintenance).


Do not use algaecides, they only make lots of suddenly dead algae to
feed the next algae bloom. Algaecides also use up oxygen in the pond
and put the fish in stress. Gently remove string algae. Don't worry
about fuzzy algae that grows on the sides of things, the fish will
eat it up if they are not overfed. Another option is using an ultra
violet
light. I don't have one but others do and can advise on them. UV
lights
as I understand them, rough up the cell wall of the single cell algae
and cause it to die. It has no effect on string algae or substrate
algae
as they don't pass under the light like the single cell suspended
algae.


Most algae blooms will pass within a couple of weeks.
Time and patience is key.
Remember patience...
and plants.

k :-)

Get a patio umbrella and shade the pond from the sun. It will take a couple
of weeks, but combined with your other attempts, it will cause the algae to
die back.

Bryan
Texas

"AL Z" wrote in message
news:nbadneXOvrttySbbnZ2dnUVZ_tqtnZ2d@wideopenwest .com...
Hello-

I have a rather small pond, it is 6x2x2 and uses a fountain pump rated at
450 GPH. I have one plant in the pond and the pond water is murky green.
I regularly clean the filter, and have done 50% water changes. I put in
some chemical that is supposed to kill algae and is not harmful to fish or
plants. But...the algae is uncontrollable. Any suggestions from this
group would be appreciated.

Thanx

AL Z

On Thu, 9 Aug 2007 13:04:12 CST, "AL Z" wrote:

Hello-

I have a rather small pond, it is 6x2x2 and uses a fountain pump rated at
450 GPH. I have one plant in the pond and the pond water is murky green. I
regularly clean the filter, and have done 50% water changes. I put in some
chemical that is supposed to kill algae and is not harmful to fish or
plants. But...the algae is uncontrollable. Any suggestions from this group
would be appreciated.
Thanx
AL Z

How many fish do you have, btw? Does the fountain pump have some sort of
box filter? ~ jan

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

Plants, plants, plants.

You have been given lots of good advice. Fundamentally, the algae is
growing on the nutrients from fish waste, etc. It can't compete with
vascular plants, so plant lots of them! You could wait out the
bloom. That would not work well if the fish are producing loads of
waste. Can you add some stuff like hyacinth?

A UV filter will kill the algae for you. We run ours at the start of
each year before the vasculars get going. Then we turn it off.

Jim

in addition to the UV, the plants

put in a bucket filter
http://weloveteaching.com/puregold/c...re.html#BUCKET
forget the gravel, just use polyester batting (walmart, no additives,
not fireproof).
you can use the pump you are using or another one. the idea is to
drag that algae into the filter material and then toss the batting to
get rid of the nutrients by tossing it out. it wont take long to trap
the algae. Ingrid