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#1
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Green water - help needed
Hi need some help if possible, I have an Oase Clear Filter 6000 pressurised unit and 6000 Oase pond pump, I have lived in my house for about 6 years and have never changed the water, you can see on he picture the water is very green. The fish are mating every year at least 30 -50 babies per year. I have 2 Koi as you can see in the picture otherwise the others are all gold fish I think ? I have set up a quarantine tank so I can start to remove some of the babies and smaller fish. What I really would like to know is should I be removing the water and cleaning out the pond from scratch? Bearing in mind this has never been cleaned for at least 10 years. Is there a good time to do this?
I would appreciate any help Thanks, Steve |
#2
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Green water - help needed
In article ,
dunns2 wrote: Hi need some help if possible, I have an Oase Clear Filter 6000 pressurised unit and 6000 Oase pond pump, I have lived in my house for about 6 years and have never changed the water, you can see on he picture the water is very green. The fish are mating every year at least 30 -50 babies per year. I have 2 Koi as you can see in the picture otherwise the others are all gold fish I think ? I have set up a quarantine tank so I can start to remove some of the babies and smaller fish. What I really would like to know is should I be removing the water and cleaning out the pond from scratch? Bearing in mind this has never been cleaned for at least 10 years. Is there a good time to do this? I would appreciate any help Thanks, Steve You need to use a photo hosting service like Photobucket in order for us to view your pictures. I'm reading this through a newsreader. Without seeing your pond, I'd just clean and drain half. It's mostly about scooping the crud off the bottom. A safe-for-fish algaecide will help control the algae until you get a balance back. -- To reply by email, remove the word "space" |
#3
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Green water - help needed
On Sun, 17 May 2009 10:28:41 EDT, dunns2 wrote:
Hi need some help if possible, I have an Oase Clear Filter 6000 pressurised unit and 6000 Oase pond pump, I have lived in my house for about 6 years and have never changed the water, you can see on he picture the water is very green. The fish are mating every year at least 30 -50 babies per year. I have 2 Koi as you can see in the picture otherwise the others are all gold fish I think ? I have set up a quarantine tank so I can start to remove some of the babies and smaller fish. What I really would like to know is should I be removing the water and cleaning out the pond from scratch? Bearing in mind this has never been cleaned for at least 10 years. Is there a good time to do this? Hi Steve, Presumably you clean the filter out as needed and I think this one flushes itself so you do change some of the water and then top the pond up. I'm on the text only usenet group so can't see your picture so I'm guessing at the size of the pond but it does sound as though you may be somewhat overcrowded in there :-) The recommendation is to change 10-25% of the water weekly. This is to get rid of the nitrates that build up and also the dissolved limescale in the water otherwise it will get to hard. I personally don't recommend emptying a pond totally unless there is no option. As for cleaning it, that depends on how much detritus has built up. If it's been there for a while it's likely to be full of anaerobic bacteria making hydrogen sulphide and that it very toxic. If you just net the stuff out of the bottom you will release that and quite possibly kill all of the fish. A pond vac would be a very useful item to have to remove this. Alternatively try to get some form of aeration, (a waterfall or fountain can do that) and take the stuff out one net at a time and then leave things to settle. Algae grow because there are either too many fish, they are being overfed or not enough plants to take up the nitrates. The green water algae can be cut down by using floating plants or water lilies to block some of the sunlight getting to the water. If your filter has a UV tube it decreases in the amount of UV it produces over time and should be replaced every year according to the manufacturers. The glass shroud also needs cleaning regularly. I'm not a fan of UVs because I like to know if there is a problem with water quality and getting green water is a sign of something not right. With a UV I wouldn't see that. As for your question the answer has to be "I'm not sure"/"it depends on the above" :-) The first thing to do is pop over to http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.u...alculators.php and work out what your stocking levels should be. It will give you a guide at least. Maybe next I'd put a new bulb in the filter so that it can clear up the green water and I could see what the bottom of the pond is like. Then either net or vac the stuff out from the bottom. If netting only do it a bit at a time. Do a bit of research on vegi-filters and see if it's practical for you to put one in. It could be a nice attractive extra pond that the water from the filter runs through full of plants. The idea behind them is that they take up the nitrates and you keep pulling them out and composting them. If you can't do that then you need to change the water at a higher rate to get rid of them. -- Regards - Rodney Pont The from address exists but is mostly dumped, please send any emails to the address below e-mail ngpsm4 (at) infohitsystems (dot) ltd (dot) uk |
#4
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Green water - help needed
CLEANING THE POND
Spring (when it follows a real winter) is the absolutely worst time to do pond care. The fish have not been fed, their immune system is down and the "cooties" wake up before the fish's immune system does. The stress of them being moved out of the pond, or even just "chased" in the pond during this time will lay them open to disease. Here in zone 5 spring comes on March 21, but a typical unheated pond wont be over 55o until late April or early May. And by that time the fish will be spawning and stressed and eggs are very susceptible to bacterial infection while in the female. So it is best to wait until spawning season is over and the pond temp has been above 55oF for at least 10 days and the water that will fill the pond, coming out of the hose is the same or warmer than the water was on the pond. This is how my "pond pros" clean my two big ponds out at the dacha. They start by filling a big water tank (100-150 gallon rubbermaid, etc.) with water from the top of the pond. They drop in a big airstone to keep the water aerated. Then they use a couple really big pumps to drain the pond almost down to nothing, maybe 4-5 inches. They DO NOT stir up the much on the bottom of the pond. They now net and remove all the fish (and other wildlife) when it is easy to net without chasing the fish around. This is a good time to do a salt bath on the fish before they are placed in the holding tank. http://weloveteaching.com/puregold/d...tm#SALT%20DIPS use same temp water for the salt dip so there are no temp shocks. When the fish are safely in the holding tank and the tank is COVERED to prevent fish from jumping out, then they set about cleaning the pond. They use plastic snow shovels (which wont rip the epdm that lines the pond) to shovel out the muck in buckets. As they are shoveling out they use a regular broom to gently sweep the sides and broom the muck towards the low side. They use a bit of water but not much. Brooming removes the worst without removing the nice sweater algae on the sides. Once the muck is removed they begin refilling. When it is deep enough they move the fish back to the pond and dump the water in the stock tank, they DONT put it back in the pond. I follow up the cleaning with a dose of potassium permanganate http://weloveteaching.com/puregold/d....htm#POTASSIUM and the next day with some hydrogen peroxide and then add 0.05% salt. Ingrid On Sun, 17 May 2009 10:28:41 EDT, dunns2 wrote: Hi need some help if possible, I have an Oase Clear Filter 6000 pressurised unit and 6000 Oase pond pump, I have lived in my house for about 6 years and have never changed the water, you can see on he picture the water is very green. The fish are mating every year at least 30 -50 babies per year. I have 2 Koi as you can see in the picture otherwise the others are all gold fish I think ? I have set up a quarantine tank so I can start to remove some of the babies and smaller fish. What I really would like to know is should I be removing the water and cleaning out the pond from scratch? Bearing in mind this has never been cleaned for at least 10 years. Is there a good time to do this? I would appreciate any help Thanks, Steve Somewhere between zone 5 and 6 tucked along the shore of Lake Michigan on the council grounds of the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago |
#5
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Green water - help needed
I strongly support the suggestion that you look into a veggie filter.
If it has a good bottom drain, you can clean your pond by draining the veggie filter alone. Just cut it off from the flow. Phyllis and i do that with our berm ponds on an annual basis. Easy! In a decade and a half, we have never cleaned the main pond. The muck is stirred by fish swimming and settles in the veggie filter. The only thing we pull from the main pond is the sticks and long pone needles that settle in the bottom of the 'deep well' (old septic tank) which is the lowest point of the pond. If you can put one in, a veggie filter is the easiest of filters to care for. Good luck, whatever you do. Jim |
#6
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Green water - help needed
yes. I agree. INgrid
On Wed, 20 May 2009 09:56:56 EDT, Jim and Phyllis wrote: I strongly support the suggestion that you look into a veggie filter. Somewhere between zone 5 and 6 tucked along the shore of Lake Michigan on the council grounds of the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago |
#7
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hi am newbie here!
if you want to clean your pond i think you should put the fish first to another container for awhile and replace the water on your pond...because not only fishes would live on your pond mosquitoes too...mosquitoes lay eggs on water and your pond is really easy to lay eggs on their....if you want another option, seek help from profession... |
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