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Algae problem
I live in Cambridgeshire in the UK and I have a 5m x 5m x 1m pond. The
water is perfectly clear and clean, and I have varied plants and oxygenating weed. The problem I am having is an excess of green slimy weed. It appears on a daily basis and gets everywhere. I have tried removing all of it but I can't keep up. The pond is stocked with mostly goldfish and koi and has two aquatic turtles. The pond has not full sunlight but is not shaded. Thanks for any help. -- Remove [dot] to reply Gamertag: Devil Ray UK Games: Flat Out, Worms, Links 04, RS3BA, Splinter Cell : CT, Top Spin, Halo 2, GR2, PGR 2, Doom 3, Rallisport 2, Forza, NBA Inside Drive, NFL Fever, Amped 2, Pariah, NHL Rivals |
Hi Kerplunk,
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. The best defense against algae is to have lots of plants, plants and more plants to compete for the nutrients, few fish, not overfeeding those fish, some shade and cleaning up debris. And since you have turtles they also add to the bioload. Can you reduce your goldfish population? I have four turtles in 3,000 US gallons and that will be my next step, cut down on the rampagingly reproducing goldfish! kathy :-) www.blogfromthebog.com this week ~ a snake story Pond 101 page for new pond keepers ~ http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html |
Message ,
by author KerplunKuK aka inspired me, I live in Cambridgeshire in the UK and I have a 5m x 5m x 1m pond. The water is perfectly clear and clean, and I have varied plants and oxygenating weed. The problem I am having is an excess of green slimy weed. It appears on a daily basis and gets everywhere. I have tried removing all of it but I can't keep up. The pond is stocked with mostly goldfish and koi and has two aquatic turtles. The pond has not full sunlight but is not shaded. Thanks for any help. 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. -- d:Johan; Certifiable me Newsgroups Are used to spread virusses. Did your newsreader post that virus? |
Message acit.net,
by author 2Rowdy aka inspired me, Refresh the pond, 10% each week, drain from the bottom if possible. Use an airbubble pump during filling of the fresh water. During a month. That should bring the excess of plantfood to an acceptable level. -- d:Johan; Certifiable me [18 lines] [Press ENTER to retrieve this message.] [Press M to mark this message for later retrieval.] |
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. 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? Thanks -- Remove [dot] to reply Gamertag: Devil Ray UK Games: Flat Out, Worms, Links 04, RS3BA, Splinter Cell : CT, Top Spin, Halo 2, GR2, PGR 2, Doom 3, Rallisport 2, Forza, NBA Inside Drive, NFL Fever, Amped 2, Pariah, NHL Rivals |
"KerplunKuK" wrote in message ... 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. 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? Thanks If you have a pump and are churning up the surface (a water fall will do this), you don't need an air pump. It will do nothing for your algae problem, and may actually make it worse. You need more plants, and I would also add a product like aquazyme. It contains bacteria and enzymes that help digest the nutrients in your water, and so compete directly with the algae for food. The bacteria is beneficial to the pond. It takes about a month for it to become firmly established, and even then, it doesn't hurt to continue to treat the water with this product to ensure that the bacgteria remain established in the pond. It will go a long way towards starving out the algae, and will digest it as it dies off. This product also helps to prevent buildup of black sludge and any leaves at the bottom of your pond, which is also a source of unwanted nutrients. Do note, however, that you will likely always has some amount of algae in your pond. This is not a bad thing, and if you cut back a little on feeding your goldfish, they will take to munching on it like mine do. |
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 |
"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. |
George scribbled :
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. Will do that tomorrow and post the results. Thanks for all the advoce so far. -- Remove [dot] to reply Gamertag: Devil Ray UK Games: Flat Out, Worms, Links 04, RS3BA, Splinter Cell : CT, Top Spin, Halo 2, GR2, PGR 2, Doom 3, Rallisport 2, Forza, NBA Inside Drive, NFL Fever, Amped 2, Pariah, NHL Rivals |
"KerplunKuK" wrote in message ... George scribbled : 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. Will do that tomorrow and post the results. Thanks for all the advoce so far. -- Remove [dot] to reply Gamertag: Devil Ray UK Games: Flat Out, Worms, Links 04, RS3BA, Splinter Cell : CT, Top Spin, Halo 2, GR2, PGR 2, Doom 3, Rallisport 2, Forza, NBA Inside Drive, NFL Fever, Amped 2, Pariah, NHL Rivals Glad to help. Got any pics of your pond? Don't post them here, but if you can post a link, we like pond pictures when we can get them. Also, as for using a bubbler, pH becomes a problem when it changes rapidly and as the water heats up in summer. Koi and goldfish do best at 7.5 (neutral) but will tolerate 0.75 plus or minus this as long as it is what they are used to. High pH (alkaline) conditions makes ammonia more toxic. The tendency of some koi shows to freely bubble their vats blows off CO2 and raises pH. At that point, even minor increases in ammonia levels can cause big problems with the fish. More of a problem, especially in bare liner ponds with high fish loads, is loss of alkalinity. On the other hand, warm summer waters hold less oxygen than cold winter water. Ironically, most people add a bubbler in the winter to keep a hole open in the ice, and remove the bubbler in the summer. I am of the opinion that as long as your pond is not overstocked, adequate circulation and breaking up the surface with a waterfall splash will provide adequate oxygen for your fish in the summer without adversely affecting the pH. I have limestone rock in my pond to act as a buffer, and as part of the waterfall. It helps keep the pH and alkalinity stable, and slowly leaches trace elements into the water (depending on the type of limestone). But, it is always wise to periodically check you water parameters, especially in summer, and especially pH, nitrates, and alkalinity. Here is a link to my pond with the filter set up (I have more plants in the pond than are shown in these pictures, which are a couple of years old): http://home.insightbb.com/~jryates/filter.htm |
George scribbled :
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. The results from the testing are as follows; pH= 7.6 Ammonia= 0 - 0.125ppm Nitrite= 5ppm Nitrate= 0ppm Hardness= 201-300 mg/l Anything else needed? My next step is to introduce many more plants. Are there any that are especially good, or is any plant good? -- Remove [dot] to reply Gamertag: Devil Ray UK Games: Flat Out, Worms, Links 04, RS3BA, Splinter Cell : CT, Top Spin, Halo 2, GR2, PGR 2, Doom 3, Rallisport 2, Forza, NBA Inside Drive, NFL Fever, Amped 2, Pariah, NHL Rivals |
With a nitrite level of 5, your filter has not completely cycled. That high
a nitrite level is dangerous to the fish, without salt in the pond. Add about 1 pound per hundred gallons to get a salt level that will protect the fish. Once the nitrite levels come down to 0, then remove the salt through water changes. Plants, and particularly algae, like their nitrogen first from ammonia, then nitrites, and then nitrates. With an uncycled filter, you have some minimal ammonia left, and high nitrites, so the algae is thriving. Filters are marketed with a pond size in gallons, liters, etc. This is very poor, since the size of a filter should be based on the amount of waste, which is associated with number of fish, turtles, frogs, etc., size of each, number of feedings, water temperature, etc. Most filters are over rated by a factor of at least 2. I run filters that will supposedly handle about 4 times the volume of my ponds. I am assuming, by your pH, that the hardness value you stated, is the GH hardness, not the KH carbonate hardness. KH helps to stabilize the pH and helps the filter bacteria, which consume a certain amount of it. If you have not checked it, then please do. The level should be a minimum of 100, and can be as high as 300 without harm. To raise the KH, use regular old baking soda. -- RichToyBox http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html "KerplunKuK" wrote in message ... George scribbled : 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. The results from the testing are as follows; pH= 7.6 Ammonia= 0 - 0.125ppm Nitrite= 5ppm Nitrate= 0ppm Hardness= 201-300 mg/l Anything else needed? My next step is to introduce many more plants. Are there any that are especially good, or is any plant good? -- Remove [dot] to reply Gamertag: Devil Ray UK Games: Flat Out, Worms, Links 04, RS3BA, Splinter Cell : CT, Top Spin, Halo 2, GR2, PGR 2, Doom 3, Rallisport 2, Forza, NBA Inside Drive, NFL Fever, Amped 2, Pariah, NHL Rivals |
RichToyBox scribbled :
I am assuming, by your pH, that the hardness value you stated, is the GH hardness, not the KH carbonate hardness. KH helps to stabilize the pH and helps the filter bacteria, which consume a certain amount of it. That reading was taken from my local water authorities website at www.anglianwater.co.uk -- Remove [dot] to reply Gamertag: Devil Ray UK Games: Flat Out, Worms, Links 04, RS3BA, Splinter Cell : CT, Top Spin, Halo 2, GR2, PGR 2, Doom 3, Rallisport 2, Forza, NBA Inside Drive, NFL Fever, Amped 2, Pariah, NHL Rivals |
"KerplunKuK" wrote in message ... George scribbled : 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. The results from the testing are as follows; pH= 7.6 Ammonia= 0 - 0.125ppm Nitrite= 5ppm Nitrate= 0ppm Hardness= 201-300 mg/l Anything else needed? My next step is to introduce many more plants. Are there any that are especially good, or is any plant good? Hmmm. The pH is fine. However, those ammonia and nitrite levels would concern me, especially the nitrite, as it can be toxic to fish and invertebrates at that level. Ideally, the nitrite levels should be 0 ppm. The hardness is off the charts as well, and is even higher than what is recommended for salt water aqauriums. Normally, the acceptable general hardness for freshwater ponds and aquariums is about 80-100 ppm. But this is the lesser of my concerns. It can have a greater affect on the plants than the fish at that concentration. I would look into finding a more accurate kit for measuring your hardness. Are you using well water? What is the source of your water? You may need to do a partial water change to get these concentrations back down to acceptable levels. Having said that, you should test your water source first to make sure it isn't the source of these high concentrations. As for plants, water lillies are good, as are any number of other water plants. That really is up to you, as you know better than anyone else what space you have available for addition of plants, and what type of animals you have in the pond (i.e., Koi are notorious for eating/destroying certain plants). I would find a good local source for water plants, and talk to the owner/dealer. He would know what grows best in your area. |
"KerplunKuK" wrote in message ... RichToyBox scribbled : I am assuming, by your pH, that the hardness value you stated, is the GH hardness, not the KH carbonate hardness. KH helps to stabilize the pH and helps the filter bacteria, which consume a certain amount of it. That reading was taken from my local water authorities website at www.anglianwater.co.uk -- Remove [dot] to reply Gamertag: Devil Ray UK Games: Flat Out, Worms, Links 04, RS3BA, Splinter Cell : CT, Top Spin, Halo 2, GR2, PGR 2, Doom 3, Rallisport 2, Forza, NBA Inside Drive, NFL Fever, Amped 2, Pariah, NHL Rivals You are saying that the numbers you provided are in your drinking water? Hmmm. |
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